Strip Search

Authorities in most U.S. prison systems force inmates to submit to strip searches when they arrive at correctional facilities and when they return from contact visits, or from being transported to or from court. Some even insist on this procedure when prisoners move from one section of a penal institution to another. Most institutions also require inmates to strip for full body searches when officials “shake down” their cells for contraband. During such searches, inmates are made to remove their clothing, bend over, spread their buttocks, and expose their genitals. Officers may also look into their ears, mouth, hair, and underarms. Officers, wearing plastic gloves, may inspect any body cavity when suspecting the concealment of contraband. Uncircumcised inmates may also be asked to peel back the foreskins on their penises for inspection.

For obvious reasons, strip searches can be used for purely vindictive or punitive reasons, and correction officials around the country have been accused of using them to humiliate, demean, or violate the personal privacy and modesty of inmates. Recent research suggests that strip searches are overutilized in many prisons and jails and that their use makes little difference to the levels of contraband that end up inside correctional facilities. Despite this evidence and adverse legal judgments, corrections administrators persist in requiring strip searches on a general and systematic scale.