Whitehead: Corrections, 3rd Edition

Case Studies

Chapter 03: Corrections and the Courts

Correctional administrators receive a tip from an inmate-informant that inmate David Smith is selling his prescribed pain medication to inmates in his cellblock. The inmate-informant tells officers that they can locate the drugs in Smith’s cell inside the air conditioning vent. Based on this information the officers decide to search Smith’s cell. During the search of Smith’s cell, officers recover several pills wrapped inside a napkin that were located in the air conditioning vent. At the time of the search, Smith is at a contact visit with his family.

After Smith’s visit, officers advise Smith of their discovery. They conduct a strip search of Smith, which is routinely conducted after all contact visits. During the strip search, the officers recover several additional pills that fell out of Smith’s anal cavity when he was asked to separate his butt cheeks and cough. They send all of the pills out for analysis. The report indicates that the pills recovered from the cell are Codeine (which Smith was prescribed by the prison physician) and the pills recovered at visitation are Percocet.

The officers write Smith up for the pills recovered in his cell, and the disciplinary hearing board sentences him to six months in administrative segregation. The officers charge Smith criminally with the “Introduction of a Control Substance into a Correctional Facility,” which is a Class C felony that could result in a maximum sentence of three years. Smith files a grievance and claims that the searches are a violation of his Fourth Amendment rights.

Questions

Define the Fourth Amendment.
Your Answer

Correct Answer

The Fourth Amendment states that “the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
Which Supreme Court decision governs the searches of cells? What did the Supreme Court rule in this particular case?
Your Answer

Correct Answer

In 1984, the Supreme Court examined this issue in Hudson v. Palmer (468 U.S. 517, 1984), a Virginia case in which an inmate sued a correctional officer for violating his Fourth Amendment rights by conducting what the inmate saw as an unreasonable search of his cell. Disagreeing with a lower court’s assertion that an inmate has a limited right to privacy in his or her cell, the Supreme Court declared that because prison officials must look for contraband and maintain sanitary conditions, the Fourth Amendment has no applicability to a prison cell. The Court called the Fourth Amendment “fundamentally incompatible” with prison security and order.
What case governs strip searches of inmates? What did the Supreme Court rule in this case?
Your Answer

Correct Answer

In Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. 520 (1979), the Supreme Court addressed the issue of strip searches wherein inmates are required to remove their clothing and submit to bodily searches (including inspection of body cavities). As part of contraband control efforts, institutions routinely conduct strip searches after events like contact visits, work release, and furloughs; pat-down searches of outer garments are conducted even more frequently. Wolfish dealt specifically with searches of body cavities following contact visits. The Court ruled that such searches are reasonable for purposes of contraband control and do not require probable cause to believe an inmate is concealing contraband.
Was the search of Smith’s cell constitutional? Was the strip search of Smith constitutional?
Your Answer

Correct Answer

Yes, the cell search was constitutional because it is clearly within the bounds of Hudson v. Palmer in that the search furthers a legitimate penological goal of the safety and security of the correctional facility.
Yes, the strip search of Smith was constitutional. Correctional facilities routinely strip search inmates after contact visits in an effort to reduce the entrance of contraband into the facility. Correctional officers do not need probable cause to conduct a strip search of an inmate because the control of contraband is paramount.