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The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world, and within the United States, the top 7 states with the highest incarceration rates are all Southern states.
Multimillion Dollar Settlement Reached by Worth County High School Students Subjected to Unconstitutional Mass Search
ATLANTA, GEORGIA -- A proposed multimillion dollar class settlement has been reached in K.A., et al. v. Jeff Hobby, et al., a federal civil rights lawsuit challenging a suspicionless mass search of approximately 850 public high school students by Worth County Sheriff’s deputies on April 14, 2017. In this lawsuit, Plaintiffs alleged that Sheriff Jeff Hobby and his deputies violated the United States and Georgia Constitutions by conducting intrusive searches of the bodies of hundreds of students without probable cause. The total settlement fund will be $3 million, which is the limit of the defendants’ insurance policy.On the morning of Friday, April 14, 2017, Sheriff Hobby and his deputies arrived at Worth County High School.  They placed the school on lockdown for four hours, ordered students into the hallways, and required them to line up with their hands against the wall and their legs spread.  The deputies intrusively searched students’ clothing and body parts in view of their classmates.  Deputies inserted fingers inside of and pulled up girls’ bras, touching and partially exposing their bare breasts; they touched girls’ underwear and genital areas by placing hands inside their waistbands or reaching up their dresses; and they cupped or groped boys’