'Perverse': Department of Corrections sued in $500M lawsuit for female inmates' treatment

DETROIT (FOX 2) - Attorney Todd Flood is taking on the Michigan Department of Corrections - representing hundreds of women imprisoned at the Huron Valley Correctional Facility.

"It's perverse - it's a perverse case," he said.

The backstory:

The suit alleges they were recorded naked during strip searches, showers and bathroom breaks - via the body cameras worn by prison guards.

"They knew it was against the law - it's against the law to videotape someone, either in pictures or video tape naked - unless you're a police officer," Flood said. "The Department of Corrections, they're not police officers."

Flood has filed a $500 million lawsuit against the Michigan Department of Corrections, the governor, and the Huron Valley Correctional Facility.

"This had to go through the legislature," he said. "They got more money for these bodycams - they should have said from jump-street, this has to be turned off, when you're doing a strip search."

Instead, Flood says that inmates were subjected to the recorded strip searches each time they returned to their cells from in-person visits with their parents, siblings, and children.

"I can't imagine what trauma they have to go through," he said.

So much so, that he claims many of the inmates stopped seeing visitors altogether.

"The great majority of women have either been raped, have gone through domestic violence, have had some sort of sexual assault," he said.

Flood adds that some guards in the shakedown room made lewd and cruel comments.

"(Talking about) your breasts and your buttocks and just saying some of the most disgusting things," he said.

The attorney says they're representing more than 500 women and that number is steadily climbing - but they're not just hearing from prisoners.

"We're getting phone calls now from prison guards that say - we didn't want to do this - we were just following orders," he said. "Some of them were repulsed by the fact that they have to do it."

Flood says they've convinced the MDOC to stop recording strip searches - but it's still happening in bathrooms and showers.

He says the same was not done to inmates at the men's prisons.

"Definitely, the women were treated differently," he said. "This one - to me - is one that you shake your head at because, where is the humanity here?"