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CHICOPEE - Former inmates at the women's jail reached a $675,000 settlement in a class action suit over strip searching procedures.

(The Republican file)

SPRINGFIELD - More than 170 former inmates of the Western Massachusetts Regional Women's Correctional Center have reached a preliminary settlement in a class action lawsuit against the Hampden County Sheriff's Department over strip search procedures at the Chicopee jail.

The plaintiffs settled for $675,000 with $500,000 going to attorney's fees and expenses. Of the balance, $20,000 will go to lead plaintiff Debra Baggett, four additional plaintiffs who were deposed in the case will receive $2,000 each and the rest of the class members will receive around $850 apiece, according to the settlement.

Lawyers and two of the plaintiffs, including Baggett, appeared in U.S. District Court on Thursday for a hearing during which attorneys from both sides asked Judge Michael A. Ponsor to approve the preliminary settlement.

Class members objected to male corrections officers holding cameras to photograph strip searches, although they had been instructed to film the process without looking, according to lawyers for Hampden County Sheriff Michael J. Ashe Jr.

The plaintiffs argued the strip search video process was nonetheless degrading and unnecessary and violated their constitutional rights.

"This is a good day but I know there are better days on the horizon," Baggett said after the court hearing. "These ladies are coming out of prison traumatized and belittled ... In the meantime pompous blowhards get to have clambakes and tell everyone what great fellows they are."

Baggett was referring to Ashe's annual clambake, which historically has drawn politicians all the way up to sitting governors and every candidate and incumbent in between.

However, Ponsor recognized Ashe as a "progressive and compassionate sheriff" during the hearing.

Afterward, Theresa Finnegan, an attorney for Ashe, said the case has never been about male staff leering at women during strip searches, in the jail's estimation.

"There was never any credible evidence that any male broke policy and training and observed any portion of a strip search," Finnegan said. "This included thousands of pages of paperwork, several depositions, interviews with prior inmates and staff. There were no written grievances that it happened by any inmate."

Finnegan also said that the jail began revamping its policies around strip searches by shuffling staff in 2010, and that no male staffed had manned cameras in that context since 2013.

The plaintiffs were represented by Howard Friedman and David Milton of Boston.

Baggett called them "Neiman Marcus attorneys that ended up accepting a WalMart price."

The lawsuit was filed in 2011.