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Michigan Senator Rick Jones Wants to Rip Your Clothes Off for Minor Infractions
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." --Fourth Amendment of the Constitution
The following article is on a recent bill introduced by a Republican State legislator that would make anybody being held in jail for a lesser offense ( i.e. a misdemeanor or even a civil infraction) to be strip searched at any time while being held, absent any sort of probable cause. Being detained in the pokey for public drunkenness, driving without a license, having a loose dog, civil contempt of court, etc. can now lead to some officers roughly disrobing you in the search for absolutely nothing other than their jollies or your humiliation.
The old law concerning civil infraction and misdemeanor inmates (MCL 764.25a) included the phrase "... if there is reasonable cause to believe that the person is concealing a weapon, a controlled substance, or evidence of a crime.", which is now stricken from the Senate Bill 958. Why take that language away and allow correction officers the ability to grope inmates in for low level infractions without any valid reason?
The Michigan ACLU has said: handed solution in search of a nonexistent problem. Allowing our jails to conduct blanket strip searches without suspicion is wrongheaded, degrading and unnecessary across the board, but doing this to people who simply neglected to pay a traffic ticket or are in court because they got caught fishing out of season is particularly egregious."
Encourage your own lawmakers to fight this further, unnecessary infringement to the Fourth Amendment rights we all have and defeat this bill. This is one more reason why Michigan legislators should be part-timers when they come up with this unconstitutional vitriol.
A bill introduced last week by Sen. Rick Jones, R-Grand Ledge, would allow anyone put in jail for a misdemeanor crime to be strip-searched, without probable cause
Lansing, Mich. (WILX) Getting arrested for a misdemeanor could get a lot more personal.
A bill introduced last week by Sen. Rick Jones, R-Grand Ledge, would allow anyone put in jail for a misdemeanor crime to be strip-searched, without probable cause.
Jones put it simply that the changes would mean safer jails for both inmates and officers.
"I want to emphasize, we're talking about the safety of other inmates and officers," he said.
Jones, who is a former sheriff and jail administrator, said the Michigan Sheriff's Association approached him about introducing the bill.
"You come into a jail, I don't think you have an expectation of privacy from anything," said Ingham Co. Sheriff Gene Wriggelsworth who said he applauded Jones' bill.
"You find some crazy things in some crazy places, so I think it's in order to protect our officers and the public as well as people being booked into a jail."
The bill would bring Michigan's jails in line with federal prisons where strip searches are allowed without probable cause, according to Jones.
But it's the exemption of probable cause that's raising some red flags with Okemos-based attorney Mark Bailey.
"We have a constitution that protects it's citizens from unreasonable searches and seizures," Bailey said.
"We're talking about a strip-search here and so when you're talking about rights I think we have to balance the rights of a police officer to be safe--which is important--versus the rights to privacy."
But for Wriggelsworth--who last week was showing off the Ingham Co. Jail's new full body scanner for inmates--safety of officers trumps all, misdemeanor or not, which is something he says opponents don't understand.
"They (opponents) don't have to deal with the practical aspects of dealing with criminals, and that's really what this boils down to," he said.
"You can have this flowery theory that we need to protect the rights of people, but if you're committing a crime, I don't care if it's a misdemeanor or not, it's a crime."
But Bailey argues he hasn't seen enough cited examples of people charged with misdemeanors trying to sneak weapons or contraband into prison to warrant the blanket changes.
"I think if people just step back and and say look--if my son or daughter was arrested for a relatively minor misdemeanor, would I want them strip-searched unless there was some probable cause to believe they were dangerous--I think most people if they look at it in that light would agree this is overreaching," he said.
"I am concerned about rights taken away, you never seem to get them back again."
The bill, SB 958, was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee and probably won't get a vote until the fall session, Jones said.
http://www.wilx.com/home/headlines/Bill-Would-Allow-Strip-Searches-...
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