§ 5.11.8 Prison Searches and Strip Searches
See also § 3.1.4, “Expectation of Privacy - Jails.” See Hudson v. Palmer, 468 U.S. 517 (1984).
In Florence v. Board of Chosen Freeholders of County of Burlington, 132 S. Ct. 1510 (2012), the Supreme Court held that the Fourth Amendment permits jail officials to conduct strip searches of all arrestees who are to be placed in the general prison population. Florence was arrested based on an outstanding warrant that turned out to be invalid and subjected to strip searches that included visual inspection of “the most private areas” of his body, but not touching by the inspecting officer. The Court rejected Florence’s argument that jail officials should be allowed to strip search a person who is arrested for a minor offense not involving a weapon or drugs only if they have a particular reason to suspect the arrestee of...
