On August 19, 1994, a group of prison visitors (the teenage children of a female inmate) filed a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 class action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for Maine, challenging the strip-search policies of the Maine Correctional Center as they related to prison visitors. Plaintiffs claimed that they were subjected to unconstitutional strip searches by prison officials when they attempted to visit their incarcerated relatives. Plaintiffs sought damages, declaratory and injunctive relief and certification on behalf of a statewide class of individuals affected by the visitor strip-search policies of the Maine Correctional Center.

Prison officials denied the allegations and maintained that the searches were lawful in that they had received a tip that Plaintiffs were attempting to smuggle drugs into the prison.

The parties filed cross-motions for summary judgment and Plaintiffs moved for class certification and leave to file a second amended complaint. The District Court (Judge D. Brock Hornby) entered summary judgment in favor of the prison officials, finding that they were entitled to qualified immunity. Plaintiffs appealed.

On July 22, 1996, the First Circuit Court of Appeals (Circuit Judge Lynch) affirmed the District Court, holding that the constitutionality of prison-visitor strip searches was governed by the standard of "reasonable suspicion" and that the officials were entitled to qualified immunity because they could reasonably have believed that there was reasonable suspicion that Plaintiffs would bring drugs into the prison. Wood v. Clemons, 89 F.3d 922 (1st Cir. 1996). The case was therefore terminated on the merits and no further proceedings were held.

Dan Dalton - 02/18/2008


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