DETROIT (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union says it's confirmed the Michigan Department of Corrections has halted routine body cavity searches for female prisoners.
The ACLU and other groups wrote Corrections Director Daniel Heyns expressing concerns about the procedure.
The ACLU says more than 60 female prisoners complained that they were forced to strip and spread their sexual organs with their hands as a guard watched, in sight of other prisoners.
The ACLU says the searches happened every time prisoners got visitors.
Corrections spokesman Russ Marlan says the warden at the Women's Huron Valley Correctional Facility in Washtenaw County ended the searches in December, concluding they weren't finding contraband. It's Michigan's only women's prison.
ACLU lawyer Mie Lewis said Thursday that the new policy "eliminates the worst aspects of the body search."
___
Information from: Detroit Free Press, http://www.freep.com
