Fonder v. Kankakee County

by
The Kankakee County Sheriff has a written policy requiring a strip search of every arrestee before that person enters the detention center’s general population. The policy permits manual body-cavity inspections of some arrestees. Arrestees filed suit to contest the policy as applied to persons whose custody has not yet been approved by a judge. The district judge certified a class: “All persons held in the custody of the Sheriff of Kankakee County from April 20, 2010 to the date of entry of judgment who, following a warrantless arrest, were strip searched in advance of a judicial determination of probable cause,” but later dismissed, finding the policy valid as applied to the class, relying on the Supreme Court’s 2012 decision, Florence v. Burlington County. The Seventh Circuit vacated, reasoning that the written policy may be valid, while its application is not. The district judge implied that the class had forfeited its opportunity to contest how the policy works in practice, but when the suit began, and the definition was proposed, class counsel had no reason to think that the jail’s staff was doing something other than what the written policy required. Two members of the class contend that they were arrested, strip searched, and then immediately released. View "Fonder v. Kankakee County" on Justia Law