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Cleveland Ordered To Use Partitions For Group Strip Searches
By: Associated Press
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CLEVELAND (AP) – A federal judge says Cleveland must stop conducting group strip searches of inmates unless it uses partitions that provide privacy.
The order issued last week by U.S. District Judge Benita Pearson also says guards at the Cleveland House of Correction can no longer conduct mandatory delousing of all inmates using an aerosol spray. That practice already was discontinued. Inmates suspected of having lice now go to a medical unit for treatment.
The order stems from a 2009 lawsuit against the city by Tynisa Williams after she was strip searched and sprayed for lice in front of two other women. Williams was jailed over an unpaid traffic ticket and was released the same day.
Pearson initially dismissed the lawsuit. The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals overturned that decision in 2014.