No, I wasn't proposing an alternate procedure. I was pointing out the
slippery slope based on precedent.

First, Supreme Court says in 1978 that you can strip search inmates
after visits from outsiders because they could be smuggling in drugs
or weapons. But they placed careful limits on when people could be
strip searched. Fast forward years later and courts start allowing
more and more instances of strip searches. Now we have a ruling that
says it can be done in any instance if the person is in the general
prison population. At least one judge didn't even believe that it had
to be the general prison population but could, presumably, be any part
of the system.

All in the name of furthering safety and order. So look at the arc of
the use of strip searches. Where does it stop? Do we start putting
everyone in solitary confinement because of safety? What else are we
willing to do in the name of safety?

No one seems to be drawing lines around personal liberty and saying
"this is the line". It keeps eroding and eroding. That's my problem
and what I'm trying to point out with this ruling. It doesn't seem to
bother other folks here as much, so I guess I'm in the minority. That
bothers me, but such is life.

Cheers,
Judah

On Mon, Apr 2, 2012 at 3:25 PM, Dana <dana.tier...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I'm saying that if I understand you, your proposed alternate procedure
> would be to keep someone like this out of the general population, in a cell
> by himself. And that that's great, and would in fact be a good idea if
> there were clear-cut criteria for doing so, except for one thing. As a
> rule, jails are over-crowded and there may not be enough individual cells
> available. SO what might work ok for 3-4 hours while someone arranges for
> bail would not be practical in cases like this whether the man was held for
> a week. I agree that from what I know about this he should not have been
> held for a week. But the point is, past 24 hours or so, you're starting to
> look like you'll be there a while.
>
> On Mon, Apr 2, 2012 at 3:20 PM, Judah McAuley <ju...@wiredotter.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> I'm not sure what you're saying, Dana.
>>
>> Judah
>>
>> On Mon, Apr 2, 2012 at 3:19 PM, Dana <dana.tier...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> >
>> > ok, but you're arguing for keeping people in individual cells, which is
>> > fine for a few hours maybe, but impractical for the week this man was
>> > incarcerated, not to mention that it would itself draw complaints of
>> > inhumane treatment.
>> >
>> > On Mon, Apr 2, 2012 at 3:16 PM, Judah McAuley <ju...@wiredotter.com>
>> wrote:
>> >
>> >>
>> >> I'll let the lead author of the dissent, Justice Breyer, in this case
>> >> take out your argument:
>> >>
>> >> ****
>> >> The New York Federal District Court, to which I have referred,
>> >> conducted a study of 23,000 persons admitted to the Orange County
>> >> correctional facility between 1999 and 2003.These 23,000 persons
>> >> underwent a strip search of the kind described. Of these 23,000
>> >> persons, the court wrote, “the County encountered three incidents of
>> >> drugs recovered from an inmate’s anal cavity and two incidents of
>> >> drugs falling from an inmate’s underwear during the course of a strip
>> >> search.” The court added that in four of these five instances there
>> >> may have been “reasonable suspicion” to search, leaving only one
>> >> instance in 23,000 in which the strip search policy “arguably”
>> >> detected additional contraband.
>> >>
>> >> [...] After all, those arrested for minor offenses are often stopped
>> >> and arrested unexpectedly. And they consequently will have had little
>> >> opportunity to hide things in their body cavities.
>> >>
>> >> ****
>> >>
>> >> 1 incident out of 23,000 that might have uncovered something illicit
>> >> with a strip search that was not based on reasonable suspicion. And no
>> >> incidents that found any weapons.
>> >>
>> >> Now, about these hypotheticals y'all keep saying aren't hypothetical...
>> >>
>> >>
>> >
>> >
>>
>>
>
> 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|
Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now!
http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion
Archive: 
http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:349414
Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm
Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm

Reply via email to