Since that night, a federal judge has ruled that what happened to Lind should have never happened - that the strip search she endured was a violation of both federal case law and New Jersey state law.
The state law against strip searches for minor offenses, passed in 1985, was prompted by several celebrated strip-search cases. Since then, reports of illegal strip searches across the state have diminished, said Karen Spinner, director of New Jersey's Association of Corrections.
"It's fairly clear now that it's not supposed to be done."
Inmate Advocate Gary Mitchell disagreed: "Despite a state statute and despite the fact that this is now the law in New Jersey, we have situations in which strip-searching incidents are all too prevalent."
Wardens of jails in Camden and Gloucester County defend strip searches of all incoming inmates as essential to jail security, and say they've changed their policies to comply with the law. But the change, attorneys who have filed illegal strip-search suits say, is a matter of semantics designed to cloak the continuation of an illegal practice.
Gloucester County was still operating by its old procedures the night Carol Lind wound up behind its bars.
That night, Lind and a girlfriend went to Gallagher's, a tavern in Woodbury Heights now known as The Continental. Lind's ex-boyfriend stopped by to talk. The talk became an argument and the argument turned nasty.
Woodbury Heights police took her to the prison, where she spent the night. In the morning, a disorderly persons complaint was signed against her. But the charge was later dismissed.
"Given the circumstances," U.S. District Judge Stanley S. Brotman wrote, the strip search was not only unconstitutional. It was senseless.
