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According to the November 30th usatoday.com article, “Report: Strippers pose as legal aides at detention center”, strippers, as well as South American pole dancers have been posing as paralegals so as to visit rich drug lords at the maximum Federal Detention Center in Miami. The report comes from a Miami newspaper, which quotes “multiple attorneys.”
According to the article, Miami New Times said that attorneys who were hired by accused drug kingpins are able to sign a form, which gives them the ability to designate anyone as a legal assistant. And that includes strippers.
According to the article, veteran defense attorney Hugo Rodriguez was quoted as having said to the Miami New Times: “They take off their tops and let the guys touch them. Any lawyer can sign a form and designate a legal assistant. There is no way of verifying it. The process is being abused.”
Per Michael E. Miller, in the Miami New Times’ blog Riptide, said that officials at the detention center refused to comment on the situation, as well, they refused requests for incident reports on fake paralegals being taken from the facility.
The Miami New Times also said the so called “legal assistants” have brought money and Playboy magazines in for inmates.
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According to the December 1st miaminewtimes.com article, “Miami’s Federal Detention Center Barely Paralegal”, a “discovery room” usually used for discussion of strategy for trials was closed a short time ago, when guards found an inmate and a paralegal, “ ‘discovering’ more than legal documents.”
Per the article, an unnamed private investigator was quoted as saying: “Everyone knows about it. We call them the ‘little hoochie mamas’… They are making a mockery out of the prison system here.”
In addition, a female attorney who wished to remain anonymous was quoted as saying: “I find it offensive. This is still kind of a male-dominated profession. We try to be taken seriously, but these women aren’t helping.”
According to information at Wikipedia.com, the Federal Detention Center, Miami (FDC Miami) is a prison operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons. The administrative facility employed 311 staff as of 2002 and housed 1,512 male and female inmates as of July 15, 2010. Built in 1995, the detention center was designed for a capacity of 1,259 inmates. FDC Miami mostly houses prisoners of the U.S. Marshals Service, both male and female. Its mission is to provide a safe and humane confinement of inmates and detainees, many of whom are involved in federal court proceedings in the Southern District of Florida.
Interestingly, in June of last year, the facility’s security procedures prevented a female attorney from meeting a client when her underwire bra set off a metal detector. After removing the item in a bathroom, and trying once again to pass through security, she was again turned away because of the detention center’s dress code. Apparently, the ‘dress code’ regulations have been relaxed since then.
