Cook Co. to pay $55.3M over jail strip searches

The Cook County Board today approved a $55.3 million settlement in a class-action civil lawsuit alleging that thousands of inmates at the county jail were improperly strip searched.

The 14-1 vote came after the county lost a series of federal court rulings based on legal challenges that date to 2006. The courts had already determined the strip search procedures improper and the county has changed them.

Had the board rejected the settlement and continued to litigate the case, the county could have ended up paying far more in damages, said Asst. State's Atty. Patrick Driscoll, the county's top civil attorney.

Read the rest in Clout Street

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