Politics

Illinois taxpayers will bear the brunt of a settlement approved by Cook County Board Commissioners resulting from a lawsuit over the rough treatment of incoming male inmates by jail guards. The lawsuit targeted the regular procedure by guards of subjecting inmates to strip searches while demeaning and verbally abusing them. The lawsuit covered the period from Jan. 30, 2004 through March 19, 2009. Plaintiffs' lawyers said that incoming inmates were regularly lined up, shoulder to shoulder, in groups as large as 100 and forced to strip while guards bombarded them with "sexually derogative epithets." Even those detained for minor traffic violations were subject to the abuse. During the period, as many as 250,000 men were put through the procedure, which the lawyers compared to brutal form of hazing. Besides attempting to locate contraband, the practice was intended to "put the inmates in their place", according to Mike Kanovitz, the lead attorney on the case. Cook ...