A group of female inmates in San Francisco claim sheriff’s deputies filmed them during a mass jail strip-search with male officers watching.
Nineteen women have accused San Francisco sheriff’s deputies of forcing them to strip naked in the county jail on May 22.
There were at least 15 male deputies present, several body cameras rolling, according to a complaint from the San Francisco Public Defender’s office obtained by ABC 7.
The deputies allegedly kept filming the ordeal even after one deputy urged them to turn off the cameras.
San Francisco Public Defender Manohar Raju blasted the alleged humiliation in a press conference outside the jailhouse on Monday.
“What these women endured in this mass strip search and the harassment that continued afterwards is unacceptable and unjust,” KRON 4 reported Raju as saying.
San Francisco Assistant Sheriff Tanzanika Carter acknowledged that a mass strip search had taken place, but said those searches were conducted individually in private spaces.
Carter didn’t confirm the humiliating details described by the women, but she said “personnel action” had been taken in response to the complaint.
Prisoners described a mob of armed deputies in “assault” charging into their unit and screaming at them to get out of their bunks, according to inmates and attorneys interviewed by Mission Local.
Deputies allegedly dragged the women in cuffs to various sections of the cellblock, some of which were in open view of the guards and other inmates, and forced them to strip down, Mission Local reported.
“They lifted our arms, under our breasts,” said one woman Mission Local interviewed, who recalled the deputies “giggling and laughing.” “It was out there in the open, and it was just very uncomfortable…There were several of us taking off our clothes at the same time,” said another, who claimed to have been taken to a shower room.
San Francisco Sheriff’s Office states that strip searches must be conducted outside the view of anyone not involved and that no male staff are present when women are searched.
The private attorney representing the women said the city has 45 days to respond to the complaint, according to ABC 7.
Read the full article here
