NEW ALBANY, Ind. - More than 600 people have filed claims to share in the settlement of a federal lawsuit over the Floyd County Jail's practice of strip searching those being held on minor offenses.

        The $1.3 million the county is expected to have to pay, however, will be about half of the agreed maximum since fewer inmates than expected came forward.

        The lawsuit was filed in 1999, claiming the jail had violated the civil rights of 11 people by requiring them to strip for a visual search by guards of the same sex as the inmates. It was later made a class-action lawsuit, and federal Judge Sarah Evans Barker ruled that such a blanket strip search policy was unconstitutional.

        Bart Betteau, the attorney who filed the lawsuit, said he was disappointed that only 618 former inmates responded by the Sept. 1 deadline to become eligible for the $1,000-a-person payments.

        More than 2,700 former inmates had been ruled eligible for the settlement.

        Colleen Durbin of New Albany, who was strip searched after an arrest for drunken driving, said she has spoken with several of the people who were eligible but did not respond in time to Mr. Betteau's letters.

        “Some people were afraid,” she said, and they told her they did not fill out the settlement documents because they feared repercussions from the local judicial system.

        Ms. Durbin said $1,000 was not adequate compensation for the embarrassment and humiliation she endured, but that she was glad the jail changed its strip-search policy.

        Floyd County Sheriff Randy Hubbard in 1999 changed the jail policy to allow strip searches only if an inmate was suspected of having weapons or other contraband.

        The settlement agreement calls for Floyd County to pay a maximum of $2.5 million to settle all claims in the suit. The inmates who filed claims will be paid about $600,000, while the attorneys who handled the suit will receive $700,000.

        Insurance will cover most of the settlement, county officials said.

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