Knox County, TN

Portland, ME: (Apr-24-07) A class action lawsuit brought against Knox County Jail for illegal strip search practices at the facility saw settlement after a four and a half year legal battle. The settlement approved by Judge Gene Carter ordered a payout of $3 million to be shared by 350 people who were strip-searched illegally at the Knox County Jail over an eight-year period. The settlement order will include a permanent injunction barring personnel at the jail in Rockland from strip-searching people without a reasonable suspicion that they have weapons, illegal drugs or other contraband. Each of the claimants stand to receive payouts of about $5,000 each, about three times the amount given to members in a similar class action suit against the York County Jail that was settled in 2005. In that case, each plaintiff was paid just under $1,700 each. [WMTW NEWS: STRIP SEARCH SETTLEMENT]