Call this New York math:
45,900 divided by 145,587 equals 33,000,000
EVENTUALLY, records showed that the city had bought 45,900 disposable gowns for the jails from July 2002 to August 2007, but many of them never left a central warehouse, said Elizabeth S. Saylor of Mr. Emery’s firm. During that time, 145,587 searches were done on people being held on misdemeanor charges. The city didn’t come close to having gowns for each and every one, as the jail officials had sworn. Shortly after turning over these records, the city conceded that there had been a “pattern and practice of strip-searches.”
Naturally, the jail wankers claimed that they gave everybody a disposable gown so that they could be cavity searched with dignity, as if that wasn’t a contradiction in terms to begin with. But that’s what they claimed, following the 2002 settlement based on the public group cavity searches that were regularly conducted on heinous misdemeanants.
Faced with a new lawsuit in summer 2002, officials in the administration of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg settled that case for $5 million and promised that things would change. No longer would people sent to Rikers Island on charges like fare beating, pot smoking or shoplifting be automatically subject to public inspection of their rectums and vaginas.
You can never be too sure what those fare beaters are hiding in their vaginas, you know. And when the jail wankers says so, what federal judge would doubt their sincerity?
“Perhaps naïvely,” the judge, Gerard E. Lynch, wrote five years later, “the court accepted D.O.C.’s representations that, whatever its past derelictions, there would be no future violations.”
Judge Lynch is way too hard on himself. After all, every Department of Corrections official swore that they would never subject people to the indignity of a needless public cavity search.
“Practically every single person we deposed from the Department of Correction swore that they never have seen a strip-search,” said Richard Emery, whose firm, Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady, brought the lawsuit. “They all said, ‘We give everyone gowns, they go into cubicles, and we search them like the Queen of England.’
Apparently, the Queen of England doesn’t have it as good as she used to, as it turns out that this was all baloney, and cavity searches went on (and in) as before. The City settled for $33 million, but what of the New York City Department of Corrections honchos who lied through their teeth, subjected misdemeanants to improper searches and cost the City $33 million at a time when it’s forcing subway riders to push their own trains through the tunnel to save money?
Why did they continue when the Bloomberg administration promised that they would end? Has anyone in government been held accountable for not complying with the 2002 promises, or for denying under oath the plain truth of what was going on?They would never lie a second time. That would be wrong.
So far, there have been no answers to those questions — but the Law Department says the city really is doing much better now.
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Just about the smartest judge in my acquaintance, may his sarcastic soul rest in peace, I miss him, would say, “Don’t tell me what you’re gonna do. Tell me what you’ve already done.”
Well I have contacted ALL my Reps about these type abuses before, including my then senator Obama.
They treated it like a hot potato, I couldn’t get ANY satisfactory response from ANY of them.
I retired from NYC Corrections 6 months ago after serving 22 years.
The practice of strip searching inmates regardless of their classification continues on today. When someone commits a crime is it ever done in a “dignified” manner?
Searching inmates is a safety precaution not only for the department’s employees but also for its inmate population.
FYI: Over 80% of inmates charged with a misdeamenor crime have prior felony convictions. Just because they are going thru the system on a misd. case doesnt mean they arent capable of violent behavior. They should all be searched accordingly.
All you liberals who have never been the victim of a crime need to get your head out of your asses and think….
Those misdemeanants are your mother, your wife, your daughter, but until it happens to you, they’re just part of the animal population that needs to be cavity searched en masse, because “you never know.” You had gowns. You didn’t use them. Your bosses swore to Judge Lynch they weren’t doing it and they lied. Perjury is a class A Misdemeanor. Did you ask warden to spread ’em?
Liberals? We’re people who believe in the Constitution, and who don’t believe that we serve you and should bend over just because it makes your 20 and out job a little easier. How’s Bernie Kerik doing?
I have a proposal that would cut down on the need for strip searches, with a guarantee of no additional risk for prison guards whatsover: Put fewer people in prison. This will also help balance the budget. It’s win-win-win.
By the way, since a lot of contraband is brought into prisons by corrupt guards, doesn’t the exact same logic imply that prison guards should themselves be subject to random cavity searches?
Ah, naive boy. You failed the math quiz.
Fewer Prisoners = Fewer Guards
You’ve also forgotten about the good guy/bad guy barrier. When inmates bring contraband into a jail, it’s because they are all evil animals. When guards bring contraband into jails, it’s one bad apple.
I didn’t so much forget that formula as block it out of my mind, because the thought of people so indifferent to suffering as to throw others in cages so that they may be paid to guard them makes me cry out in pain for humanity’s lost soul. Really, it does.
There are a lot of things I block for the same reason.
I wonder how many people interviewed for the job and declined the position before Steve related that he had no problem with searching every man’s butt for “contraband?” 1? 1000?
Things that make you wonder.
QUOTE “When someone commits a crime is it ever done in a “dignified” manner?”
So ALL of these people have already been convicted of a crime??
And WHAT crime? EVERY crime deserves the same treatment? (jaywalkers/murderers)
And then we get the same old ‘safety’ speech, even though jails report no weapons found in strip searches in YEARS. (Like since metal detectors were invented?!?!)
(I said jails, not prisons.)
Even honest CO’s say this is a BS excuse to punish an inmate.