Perfectly Legal

Although this particular agency has suspended the practice in the face of publicity, there is neither law nor constitution to prevent any jurisdiction - including your friendly neighborhood jail - from using it any time it likes.

Digby:

When the Supreme Court ruled that police strip searches are legal and that all Americans who are taken into police custody should be prepared to submit to "visual inspection" I wonder if this is what they had in mind for women? From Kevin Gosztgola:

In the prison that operates under the umbrella of the Michigan Department of Corrections, women are forced to remove their clothing and spread the lips of their vaginas so that a guard can peer inside. Female prisoners are forced to do this after they meet with family members, religious workers, their lawyers, or anyone else who may visit them in prison.

Women who have been subjected to this depraved procedure have given voice in a letter submitted to the state’s Corrections Department. Rather than outline what guards in the facility do, here are a few descriptions from victims:

They place you in a chair. You are completely naked. I had the officer then tell me, “spread your pussy lips.” Then I had one tell me to put my heels on the chair and use my hands to open my lips. … I feel like I’m being prostituted by these officers … I am an abused woman, and every time this happens I feel completely lost again.

SNIP

That Michigan practice is appalling. But I'd guess it doesn't fall outside the boundaries the Supreme Court set for strip searches. So ladies, even if you aren't a prisoner, if you find yourself in police custody, don't be surprised if they do this to you too. These things are all about humiliation and domination --- breaking your spirit. If they are allowed to do it, and I suspect they are under Florence, they very likely will.

The ACLU says this is sexual assault by the state. But I'm pretty sure the Supreme Court just said that was ok. After all, they said that anyone, even someone who had committed no crime and was in police custody on a trivial charge such as running a red light or failing to pay a warrant for parking tickets --- or civil disobedience --- could be subject to stripping naked and undergoing the above described procedure.

While I agree that this sounds like sexual assault by the state, it's probably perfect legal.

Gosztola updates:

It should be made extremely clear. What was happening to these women was a human rights violation that the US government opposes when it is done to Afghan women. Yet, under the guise of public safety, the Michigan Department of Corrections was routinely committing human rights violations at the Huron Valley Correctional Facility. Someone should be held accountable and be fired or, perhaps, even face prosecution; but there is a culture of impunity for government officials that develop and enforce policies which result in the cruel or inhumane punishment of human beings. Justice for female prisoners who were traumatized is unlikely.

Still legal, still constitutional, still going on everywhere.