Detainees allege jail strip search
The Suffolk County House of Correction and federal immigration authorities are investigating allegations that two guards forced three men facing possible deportation to strip in front of one another during a search for contraband as other detainees walked by, a spokesman for the jail and federal authorities said yesterday.
The jail spokesman, Steve Tompkins, said Superintendent Gerard Horgan started the investigation June 12, the day after one of the detainees complained about the alleged episode as Horgan toured the jail. The strip search allegedly happened in Building 8, which is reserved for 150 to 200 people accused of violating federal immigration laws.
Tompkins confirmed that two officers searched a cell for contraband on June 1, but said officials at the jail reviewed a videotape of the area and found no evidence the detainees had been forced to undress. The officers have denied conducting a strip search.
"The investigation is still ongoing, but all of these units are monitored by video," said Tompkins, who added that each cell can hold as many as six detainees.
Paula Grenier, a spokeswoman for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Boston, said her agency was also investigating the allegations but declined to say more.
"ICE takes the care and custody of all detainees very seriously and has a strict set of detention standards for the custody of our detainees," she said.
Officials from the jail and federal agency would not identify the detainees or the charges against them.
Laura Rotolo, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, complained about the episode to Horgan in a letter dated June 11 and forwarded a letter signed by four detainees who identified themselves as victims.
The four detainees said two guards ordered them to strip as other detainees passed in the hallway after the guards found a fifth detainee with a pen and marker that were prohibited inside the jail. The complaining detainees characterized the search as degrading and "Abu Ghraib-like."
Rotolo said the alleged strip search violated federal constitutional protections and may also have run afoul of federal guidelines for holding people charged with violating immigration law.
"The Constitution says some rights don't apply to [illegal] immigrants, but these do," Rotolo said. "Under the Constitution, everyone has a Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures."
Jonathan Saltzman can be reached at jsaltzman@globe.com.
