Local media is reporting that two inmates in the Whitfield County Jail have filed a lawsuit against the Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office in federal court in Rome.  The $5 million lawsuit claims that the civil rights of the inmates were violated when officers forced inmates to remain in their cells totally nude for 12 hours.  The inmates say that they were forced to apply an unidentified cream on their bodies – because there had been an outbreak of body lice in the jail.

David Bennett and Jesus Gallardo filed the suit in U.S. District Court in Rome. The Whitfield County Sheriff’s Department issued the following statement:

 “This action was taken to prevent an outbreak of contagious vermin in the facility. If it was wrong, it was an action taken based on medical advice and was not ‘sadistic or malicious,’ and neither was it deliberately indifferent to the medical needs of the inmates. We maintain that this civil action is being taken, based on the inmate’s own written statement, to bully this office into interfering with his criminal prosecution. We will not be coerced to act to obstruct justice in this fashion.

“In any case, we do not believe this action to rise to the level of a constitutional violation. The Constitution does not require officers in these situations to be perfect and neither does it require a system to be mistake-proof as no system such as this exists. In addition, inmates’ rights to privacy in general population are severely limited by law, especially when a valid penological interest in health, safety or security is maintained.

“If these officers made a judgment error, they did so in the performance of their duties and in an attempt to keep the jail population, officers and staff healthy. We should recognize that individuals will make errors in the performance of any job, including law enforcement. We should also appreciate that, if an error was made, at least it was made in a valid attempt to do the right thing.”

Read more: RN-T.com – Whitfield inmates file 5 million lawsuit against sheriff’s office