By Lisa Donovan
The Chicago Sun-Times
CHICAGO — Taxpayers will pay the bulk of a $55 million settlement with Cook County Jail inmates who won a federal lawsuit over illegal strip-searching practices.
Cook County commissioners approved the settlement Tuesday. It includes $45 million from the county’s coffers and another $10 million covered by the county’s insurance.
According to county records, as many as 400,000 inmates could step forward to claim a piece of the settlement. County officials said payouts for each individual could hover around the $1,000 mark.
While the $55 million is expected to be approved by a federal court judge, a hearing is expected to determine the fairness of the settlement -- standard procedure in such cases, according to Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Pat Driscoll.
In August 2009, a federal jury ruled that Cook County Jail employees broke the law in the way they conducted strip-searches of inmates between 2004 and 2009.
The jury found that the strip-searches were unconstitutional because they were discriminatory against men, that the strip-searches were used as a form of sexual degradation and that they constituted an unreasonable search.
That includes the discontinued practice of strip-searching men side by side in groups.
“This settlement puts an end to the cruel and shameful hazing that the Sheriff’s Department allowed in that jail every night,’' said Michael Kanovitz, a lawyer for the inmates who sued.
Body-scanning machines are now at the jail, which houses 10,000 inmates.
Strip-searches are now used only when there’s “significant probable cause’’ that contraband was found, a sheriff’s spokesman said.
Kanovitz said trial testimony raised questions over whether the old practices have truly been eradicated.
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