Judge rules prison policy is unconstitutional in our class action challenging male guards’ videotaping strip searches of female prisoners

As this article explains, the policy at the women’s prison in Chicopee under which male correctional officers routinely videotaped female prisoners’ naked bodies while the women were being strip searched was found to be unconstitutional by a federal judge on August 26, 2014. The judge agreed with us and our clients that the policy violates basic human dignity and serves no legitimate purpose. Read his decision here.

Although female officers now hold the video camera, the prison has not yet changed the policy that allows male officers to do so. From September 15, 2008 to May 20, 2010, males held the camera for about 70% of the strip searches. The Hampden County sheriff’s office could not name any other prison or jail with a policy permitting male officers to tape women during a strip search. This indicates this degrading policy is unnecessary.