By BILL RANKIN
The Atlanta Journal Constitution
Also in the news: Former Fla. inmate sues over strip search abuse
ATLANTA, Ga. — There was little dispute Tuesday before the federal appeals court in Atlanta that strip searches are needed for inmates entering the general population of the Fulton County Jail. The searches keep weapons and contraband out of the jail, lawyers and judges agreed.
But a lawyer representing detainees said it is unconstitutionally intrusive to require all people under arrest to be put in the general population and be strip searched. Some detainees are about to make their first court appearance, where they might be released from custody, Los Angeles lawyer Barrett Litt said.
Litt represents inmates who filed a lawsuit in 2004 that contends the blanket strip search policy is unconstitutional. Before being put into the jail’s general population, the suit said, all inmates are told to strip naked en masse, take a group shower and then be inspected, front and back, by a jailer.
One plaintiff had been arrested for failing to pay a traffic ticket, Litt noted.
But Atlanta lawyer Leighton Moore, a lawyer representing the defendants, told the court on Tuesday that the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld far more intrusive searches of inmates. For safety reasons, inmates need to be searched to ensure weapons, illegal drugs or contraband does not get into the jail, he said.
“This is the bottleneck where the jail can control the flow of contraband,” Moore said of the time the inmates are searched.
Judge Stan Birch quipped that perhaps the most effective youth crime prevention initiative “is to tell all the kids they’re going to be strip searched” at the jail if they’re arrested.
Judge Ed Carnes, conducting a withering line of questioning, got Litt to concede that in most instances, strip searches are reasonable.
The entire 12-member 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals chose to hear the case to decide whether blanket strip searches, absent some reasonable suspicion that weapons or contraband are being concealed, violate the detainees’ rights. The court is expected to issue a ruling by the end of the year.
Copyright 2008 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution