The San Francisco jails have been ordered to pay more than $450,000 to settle a 10-year old lawsuit.  The suit was initially filed by Mary Bull after she was subject to what she feels was cruel and unusual punishment for consistently failing to sign a consent form agreeing to allow officers conduct a strip search.   Bull was taken into custody alongside other anti-war demonstrators in late 2002 and booked into the Bryant Street jail.  Records indicated she was charged with vandalism.  Bail information for her crime was not immediately available.

Bull's complaint alleged that after she failed to agree to a visible body cavity search she was left alone in a cold room without clothes for more than 24 hours.  Jail records indicate the county's then-Sheriff reportedly ordered all arrestees be subject to strip searching.  That policy, he said, was aimed at reducing the amount of contraband being smuggled into the jails.  After the lawsuit was filed the policy was reversed. At current deputies are only required to strip-search persons who are suspected to be smuggling banned substances.

The Supreme Court has ruled that jails are permitted to conduct these types of searches on newly arrested inmates.  At the same time, that has not stopped privacy rights advocates from filing lawsuits.  A nearly $60 million settlement was reached in Chicago in 2010 when plaintiffs filed a strip search complaint against the county jail.

The San Francisco County Board of Supervisors will need to approve the settlement before it is paid.   It is unclear when that vote will take place.