Two lawsuits over treatment of females in jail

CENTREVILLE (NEWSCHANNEL 3) - It is an up-close, sometimes disturbing look into the the way suicidal inmates are treated in West Michigan jails.

Two women are the centerpieces of two federal lawsuits.

The attorney for both inmates says her clients deny they were suicidal when they were brought to the St. Joseph County Jail. But, for various reasons, officers believed otherwise, setting in motion a string of events, leading to these federal lawsuits.

It's been more than three years, but the memories still haunt Debra Mead.

"I begged them. I said please, I don't want to. I said please," said Mead.

It began with a drunk driving arrest. The mother of six eventually ended up at the St. Joseph County Jail where male officers told Mead she's being placed on suicide watch.

The means she'd need to remove her clothes, and change into a suicide gown.

"I said I've been a sexual assault survivor and I just don't want to. I said, especially with you men," said Mead.

According to court records, the officers say Mead was offered the chance to change in private, but Mead says otherwise.

"They had told me that if I didn't take my clothes off and get into the suicide gown, they would take them off for me," said Mead.

It was a threat, that a jail incident report says, jailors made good on. They ended up holding Mead's hands behind her, as first her clothes and then her bra were removed.

It all happened in front of four male officers.

"It made me remember the triggers as a child, being held down, and being told that it was like being told, don't say a word or else," said Mead.

Newschannel 3 has learned this isn't the only case of a female inmate with a history of sexual abuse, being forced to strip in the name of suicide prevention at the jail.

Angela Church was arrested on March 9th 2005 for kidnapping.

Shortly after being booked, jailhouse video obtained by Newschannel 3, shows Church poking her arm with a plastic spork during lunch.

She's led out of her cell and, according to jail records, taken into the shower room.

According to officers, Church began yelling and pounding on the door, after being asked to remove her clothing and change into a suicide gown.

According to jail records, one of two officers in the room, was male.

"For those who have a history of sexual victimization, which she does have, it becomes a trigger for their memories, and adverse feelings about the imminence of being sexually victimized if this occurs," said attorney Elizabeth Warner.

Church is then placed into a restraint chair, and wheeled into a glass-walled cell for observation.

Finally, after more than two hours, Church agrees to change into the gown in plain view, her attorney says, of male inmates and officers walking past. "At 2:48 as they're taking her clothes off, there's another one there," said Warner while watching the tape from the jail.

At first, Church is seen huddled in the corner, but after five hours, she takes off her gown. Then her underwear and begins several hours of walking around naked, even masturbating, while in the glass-walled cell.

Her attorney calls it an obvious signs of a mental breakdown.

"When sometimes she is in a sexually charged situation, like this was, and a demeaning, and humiliating situation, her mind goes someplace else, and she's not herself anymore," said Warner.

According to the tape, Church is allowed to remain naked, only at times wrapping herself in a blanket through the night.

"Somebody in that condition I think one would normally feel they've lost their mind and so she should have gotten medical attention," said Warner.

According to her lawsuit, seeking two million dollars in damages, this tape was then used as evidence to take Chuch's three children away from their mother.

Today, Church remains haunted by what happened that day and is currently undergoing psychiatric care.

But could these cases have been prevented?

Warner, who represents both women, says yes. By changing the way suicidal inmates are handled in jails statewide. "You're not preventing a suicide risk by taking people's clothes off of them in jail. They're either going to get more suicidal in jail, or they're going to get suicidal and depressed after they leave," said Warner.

It's exactly what happened to Mead. She ended up in a psychiatric hospital herself after being jailed. "It was so humiliating and I have to live in this community and see these officers and stuff," said Mead.

Repeated phone calls to the Lansing based attorney representing the county were not returned.

Newschannel 3 has obtained a copy of the jail's suicide policy as it was submitted to the court. It outlines procedures once an inmate is identified as a suicide risk. It calls for officers to notify superiors, isolate the inmate, remove articles that could be used to commit suicide and call mental health.

But, as the judge points out in a pretrial opinion, the county's written suicide policy says nothing about the necessity of completely undressing a detainee, nor does it require a suicidal inmate be placed in a suicide gown.

We contacted St. Joseph County Sheriff Matthew Lori about the cases. He confirms no officers were disciplined, and no policy changes have come about because of these cases.

Asked about the lawsuits, Lori says quote, "I don't believe either one has any substance to the complaint."

"Yeah, (shakes her head). Well, he's wrong. He's wrong," said Mead.

Mead's hope, more than the half-million dollars she's seeking, is that her case will lead to changes to keep others from being stripped of their dignity.

"Whether I was in, out of trouble, or in trouble or whatever, it doesn't justify anything. A woman should never have to deal with that," said Mead.

It's not just in St. Joseph County. The women's attorney points to similar lawsuits concerning the stripping of inmates in at least four other Michigan counties.

Meanwhile, Debra Mead's case, is the first against the jail here, set for trial. It's scheduled to begin next month.