CA Inmate’s Wife Awarded $5.6m for Unlawful Strip Search

Introduction

A California woman will receive a $5.6 million settlement after being sexually violated during a strip search while attempting to visit her incarcerated husband in 2019.

The incident occurred at a correctional facility in Tehachapi, California, where the woman had traveled four hours to see her husband. According to her attorneys, prison officials subjected her to multiple invasive searches, drug and pregnancy tests, X-rays, CT scans, and a second strip search by a male doctor, during which she was sexually violated. Despite no contraband being found, she was denied her visit.

The settlement will be paid by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), which will cover $3.6 million, with the remaining amount coming from other defendants, including two correctional officers, a doctor, and the Adventist Health Tehachapi Valley hospital.

The searches were conducted based on a warrant that allowed a strip search only if foreign objects were found in her body during X-ray or CT scans. However, no such evidence was discovered, and the search continued in violation of the warrant's terms. During the ordeal, she was handcuffed, forced to endure a "humiliating perp walk" to and from the hospital, and denied basic needs such as water and bathroom access. To add to the trauma, she received medical bills totaling over $5,000 for the unwanted procedures.

One prison official reportedly told her, "Why do you visit? You don’t have to visit. It’s a choice, and this is part of visiting." Her attorney called this a form of intimidation aimed at discouraging her from exercising her right to visit her husband.

This was not her first troubling encounter with correctional officers. She had previously been strip-searched when she visited to marry her husband and continued to face difficulties during her visits, though none as severe as the September 2019 incident.

In addition to the financial compensation, the settlement requires the CDCR to implement policy changes aimed at protecting the rights of visitors subjected to strip searches. These changes include ensuring that visitors are fully informed about the terms of the search warrant, receive a copy of it, and that the scope of the warrant is strictly followed by all involved.

The woman's attorneys highlighted that she is not alone in experiencing mistreatment at the hands of correctional officers, and they hope this case will lead to better protections for family members and spouses visiting loved ones in prison.

The case also sheds light on broader issues of sexual abuse within California's prison system. The U.S. Department of Justice has launched an investigation into allegations of systemic sexual abuse of incarcerated women at two state-run prisons. Earlier in 2024, the federal Bureau of Prisons announced the closure of a Northern California women’s prison, nicknamed the “rape club,” following an Associated Press investigation that exposed widespread sexual misconduct by correctional officers.

The woman expressed her motivation for pursuing the lawsuit as a desire to prevent others from enduring the same traumatic experiences, while her attorneys emphasized that the settlement brings much-needed awareness to the ongoing problem of sexual abuse in correctional facilities.

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