Prison Litigation

Types of Cases

• Unlawful strip searches
• Overdetention
• Unlawful conditions

Sample cases

• Williams v. Block - $27 Million settlement against L.A. County (largest settlement in County’s history); including a complete revamp of jail procedures in a series of county jail overdetention and strip search class action cases (2002);
• Johnson v. District of Columbia - Expected eight figure settlement in pending class action against the District of Columbia and United States Marshals for strip searches of arrestees without reasonable suspicion and not involved in drug or violent activity;
• Wisely v. State of California - Certified class action regarding the policy and practice of the State Department of Corrections to randomly subject visitors to the prisons to intrusive X-ray body scans, and to subject those who “failed” the scan to a visual body search. This case was tried in September 2005;
• Bynum v. District of Columbia - Certified class action against the District of Columbia for overdetentions and strip searches of persons ordered released from custody.