Eight people who worked at the Maryland Correctional Training Center in Hagerstown have filed a $40 million lawsuit against nine colleagues, alleging that their constitutional rights were violated through "sexually intrusive, humiliating" and unjustified strip-searches performed during a poorly executed drug sweep in 2008.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in Washington County Circuit Court, says the plaintiffs were told to strip naked by fellow employees based on readings from drug scanning equipment, then directed to "squat and cough" to see if they were hiding controlled substances in their body cavities. The searchers, who found nothing, later ridiculed the victims' underwear and physical appearance, court papers allege.
An internal investigation by the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services confirms most of the lawsuit's assertions and shows that policies were ignored or in some cases did not exist. There was a policy draft for strip-searching prison staff members, but nothing official, according to the report obtained by The Baltimore Sun. The report also suggests that the drug scanner was either faulty or misused.
DPSCS Secretary Gary D. Maynard, in a letter published last year in the Hagerstown Herald-Mail, acknowledged that the "hastily organized" operation "fell short" and "caused stress and embarrassment to some very fine employees." He promised "appropriate" disciplinary action and policy review and gave an assurance that "it won't happen again," though it did at another facility less than two months later, according to a department news release.
Yet nearly a year after the Aug. 12 incident, "nothing meaningful" has been done, said Robert Schulte, a Baltimore lawyer representing the plaintiffs, most of whom still work at the Hagerstown prison. His clients' cars were searched that day, and each person later submitted to urinalysis.
"This was just very ugly from beginning to end. I just think [the defendants] should be ashamed," Schulte said.
A spokesman for the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services said laws prevent him from confirming or characterizing punitive actions taken against personnel, though he did verify that the strip-search policy had been changed as a result of the incidents. As of March, it incorporates guidelines for strip-searching staff and says that only the Division of Corrections commissioner can order such searches, where wardens could do so previously; the policy is expected to change again before the end of the year, requiring the department secretary's approval.
