Case: Price v. Jefferson County

Inmates at the Jefferson County Corrections Department, represented by private attorneys, filed suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 on March 7, 1991, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky, alleging that they were strip-searched by county corrections officials in violation of the Fourth, Fifth, Eighth, Ninth, and Fourteenth Amendments. Plaintiffs alleged that the Department of Corrections maintained an unconstitutional blanket policy to strip-search all arrestees regardless of individual suspicion. Plaintiffs further alleged that they were required to remove their socks, shoes and belts, lift their shirts, drop their pants and open the waistbands of their underpants for inspection of their genital areas. In the first half of 1991, about two dozen individuals sued Jefferson County alleging their right to be free of strip-searches after arrest. By the middle of 1992, several other plaintiffs filed similar claims. These cases were subsequently consolidated. Until the end of 1992, the parties were engaged in settlement discussions. In June 1993, Plaintiffs filed a motion to amend their complaints and to certify the case as a class action. The motion was granted in September 1993. The District Court (Judge Edward H. Johnstone) granted class certification on August 11, 1994. The Defendants filed an interlocutory appeal, which was granted in Eddleman v. Jefferson County, 96 F.3d 1448 (6th Cir. 1996) (Judge Gilbert S. Merritt). The 6th Circuit held that the District Court did not err by allowing Plaintiffs to amend their complaint. It also did not err in allowing the class certification.

The parties subsequently entered into settlement negotiations, and the District Court (Judge Johnstone) approved the settlement on May 24, 1999. All remaining class members who had not made a timely request to be excluded from the class had their claims dismissed with prejudice.

The settlement fund totaled $11.5 million settlement for a class of about 50,000 people. Approximately 6,000 claims were allowed -- a participation rate of 12%. Settlement distribution was based on a point system where women received twice the amount of award that men received and where class members with multiple strip searches were paid for up to three searches. Settlement funds were distributed based on a point system where the "partial" strip search of a male warranted 4 points and a "full" strip search of a male was 8 points. For females, the points were 8 for "partial" and 16 for "full" strip searches. A second strip search was worth one-half the points of a first search and the third search was one-quarter of a first search. The average award was between $1,000 and $2,000 per class member. The court awarded one-third of the settlement fund for attorney's fees, litigation costs and claims administration expenses. The court also awarded incentive bonuses of $5,000, $10,000 and $15,000 to the three class representatives.