Jail suit expected to cost Cook County millions¶
By Rob Olmstead
rolmstead@dailyherald.com
Posted Wednesday, July 04, 2007
Cook County taxpayers will shell out up to $3.2 million to settle a class-action lawsuit by prisoners at the county jail if a proposed settlement is approved July 10 by the county board.
The suit covers every male inmate admitted to the jail since January 2004 who underwent a urethral swab to test for sexually transmitted diseases.
Kenneth N. Flaxman, the attorney for the inmates, maintained that men admitted to the jail were forced to undergo a medical screening that included the insertion of a swab two to four centimeters into the urethra to extract biological fluids to test for sexually transmitted disease, or STDs.
His clients also claimed that, even though many of them signed consent forms agreeing to STD testing, they were often physically coerced into submitting to the tests or made to sign the forms after they were tested.
In a previous, individually filed lawsuit against the county, a technician who administered the procedure testified it was done in an assembly line fashion for dozens of men with no changing of medical gloves between exams.
Jail administrators argued that the testing was done to protect inmates at the jail from contracting STDs while incarcerated and to protect the general population once the inmates were released. The swabs were legal just as blood tests at jails have been ruled constitutional, they argued.
“Defendants maintain that the test was performed in the furtherance of a ‘valid penological interest’ but speak in generalities when asked to explain that interest,” wrote U.S. District Judge David H. Coar when he declined to throw the case out in March. Penological means related to running a jail.
The testing program was subsequently cut earlier this year due to budget problems.
Cook County Commissioner Peter Silvestri, chairman of the county’ boards legal subcommittee said while he believed the program served a valuable purpose and didn’t violate inmates’ rights, the legal liability was too high to fight on.
Approving a settlement, he said, while expensive, is a good deal because it covers everyone subjected to the testing, he said.
“It defines the class and it limits the liability and, quite frankly, it involves extinguishing the liability to the county,” Silvestri said.
A representative for Flaxman declined to comment Tuesday.
Patrick Driscoll, the head of the Cook County state’s attorney’s civil division, said the plaintiffs who were initially listed as named parties in the suit will receive around $50,000 each while those who file claims now will receive $100 to $200.
Their lawyers can receive up to $1 million in fees plus costs, Driscoll said. If not enough claims are made to deplete the entire $3.2 million, the excess money will remain with the county, he said.
