Frisking Lawsuit

Female inmates are suing male guards for frisking. Six female inmates seeking to stop male guards from frisking women prisoners have filed a lawsuit calling the pat searches "a form of legalized sexual molestation." The lawsuit in U-S District Court in Manhattan Monday says "pat frisking" of clothed women by male corrections officers was degrading and constituted cruel and unusual punishment. Male officers are not allowed to conduct strip searches of female prisoners, but prison officials say there's nothing wrong with them doing pat searches of clothed women. Five of the six plaintiffs said they had been physically and sexually abused in the past by parents, husbands or boyfriends. About 17-hundred-60 of the state's 19-thousand-950 corrections officers are women, and most work in prisons for men.