Jordan v. Gardner

The State of Washington operated an all-female prison. At least 85 percent of the prisoners had histories of serious abuse, mostly at the hands of men, with many suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder. The abuse included rapes by family members, spouses, and strangers, sometimes requiring medical treatment. Other abuse included being prostituted, enslaved, severely beaten, denied food, and intentionally run over by a vehicle. For security, the prison conducted random, nonemergency pat searches of clothed prisoners. These searches were intended to be thorough and required significant contact, such as flat-hand contact on the breasts and genital area and “squeezing and kneading” pant seams in the crotch and leg areas. For years, only female guards performed these searches. The prison’s supervisor (defendant) changed the policy to allow male guards to also conduct nonemergency, suspicionless pat searches. One of the first prisoners searched by a male guard under the new policy had a history of repeated sexual and physical abuse by boyfriends, husbands, and strangers. This prisoner had a severe, negative reaction, and the supervisor received requests from multiple sources to change the opposite-sex-search policy. However, the policy continued. Nina Jordan and other prisoners (collectively, the named prisoners) (plaintiffs) then sued prison officials (defendants) in federal district court. The named prisoners presented extensive expert testimony that, given the abuse histories of most of the population, being touched and searched by male guards would definitely inflict significant trauma on at least some female prisoners and would likely inflict moderate to significant psychological trauma on many of the female prisoners. The district court ruled that having male guards conduct these nonemergency searches violated the female prisoners’ First, Fourth, and Eighth Amendment rights. The court issued an injunction preventing the prison from using male guards for these searches. The officials appealed. The appeal was pending for three years. During that time, the prison followed the district court’s order and used only female guards for the random pat searches. This use of only same-sex searches caused no reported issues with prison security or the male guards’ employment opportunities.