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| Female corrections worker strip searched |
| By mcalesternews.com |
| Published: 05/11/2009 |
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OPEA: Female OSP corrections worker strip searched By TIM TALLEY - Associated Press OKLAHOMA CITY — A state workers union is calling for an investigation into what it says were strip searches of two female Department of Corrections officers by investigators who were looking for gang-related tattoos. Scott Barger, deputy director of the Oklahoma Public Employees Association, said Thursday that the state workers group believes the incidents violated the agency’s policy regarding strip searches of correctional workers. “The employee was never given the right to refuse,” Barger said. “That is a very degrading event. There needs to be some accountability.” A letter written Wednesday to corrections Director Justin Jones by OPEA Executive Director Sterling Zearley says a female employee at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester was strip searched on April 2 by a female investigator who was looking for a tattoo of the Indian Brotherhood, an American Indian prison gang. The employee, a correctional officer, acknowledged having tattoos but denied having one of the Indian Brotherhood, according to the letter. The investigator asked her to display the tattoos, and the worker complied. “The employee was asked to lift her dress and expose her calf, then lift the dress to her hips, and finally raise the dress above her head,” the letter states. It says the agency should “take steps to correct the needless humiliation this employee has suffered.” In a second incident, a female corrections officer had to remove her jeans for an investigator who was also looking for an Indian Brotherhood tattoo, Barger said. No Indian Brotherhood tattoo was found during the incident, which occurred at the Corrections Department’s training academy in Wilburton, he said. “We don’t feel like the policy was followed,” Barger said. “We want them to examine their policy to make sure the internal affairs officer was following the policy.” Jerry Massie, spokesman for DOC, said the agency had performed a preliminary inquiry and found “no indication of a strip search” because the workers had volunteered to expose themselves. “It was appropriate,” Massie said. He said no further investigation is planned. Massie said the prison system is sensitive to employees who may have gang-related tattoos because of the prevalence of gangs and gang violence in state prisons. Barger said that in similar cases courts have held that something less than nudity can be a strip search and that “having a person remove or arrange some or all of their clothing so as to permit a visual inspection of the undergarments or flesh” can qualify. Barger said that in at least one case, investigators were looking for an Indian Brotherhood tattoo after an inmate reported a female employee had one. “To me, that is not a credible source,” he said. Zearley’s letter to Jones states departmental policy requires that workers are subject to strip search “only if the facility head or designee determines that reasonable suspicion or probable cause exists and authorizes the search.” The policy also requires that two trained employees of the same gender be present during the strip search and that the employee be given an opportunity to refuse.Read more. If link has expired, check the website of the article's original news source. |
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