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Probable Cause Required for Visitor Body Cavity Search
Loaded on Aug. 15, 1998
published in Prison Legal News
August, 1998, page 30
A federal district court in Utah held that prison officials must have probable cause and a valid search warrant before subjecting a prison visitor to a body cavity search. Stana Laughter is married to a Utah state prisoner. Laughter visited her husband in prison on a regular basis, often accompanied …
Filed under:
Strip Searches,
Visitor Searches,
Body Cavity Searches,
Attorney Fee Awards,
Damages,
Settlements,
Qualified Immunity,
Juveniles.
Location:
Utah.
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More from this issue:
- Through the Civil Commitment Looking Glass, by Tamara Menteer
- A Zoo Within a Prison
- CCA Sells Self; Wackenhut Creates REIT
- From the Editor, by Dan Pens
- NJ Prisoners Refuse to Swallow PINs
- Idaho Law Libraries Closed, Pillaged, by M.M.
- STGMU-tized in New Jersey, by T.R.
- Notes from the Unrepenitentiary, by Laura Whitehorn
- MCI Refund to Florida Prisoner Families
- Los Angeles Jail Death Ruled Homicide
- The Tough-On-Crime Myth: Real Solutions to Cut Crime, by Daniel Burton-Rose
- The Real War on Crime: The Report of the National Criminal Justice Commission (Book Review), by Daniel Burton-Rose
- The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison: Ideology, Class and Criminal Justice, by Daniel Burton-Rose
- Union County, NJ, Jail Guards Convicted
- PLRA Finding Required for Injunctive Relief
- Plaintiffs Must Be Allowed to Present Evidence in PLRA Motions to Terminate Prospective Relief
- TDCJ PLRA Forms Okay
- CA Tort Claim Not Required for Administrative Exhaustion
- Consent Decree Termination Upheld
- Dismissal for Lying About Poverty Affirmed
- PLRA Filing fees Don't Apply to Civil Commitments
- PLRA Fees Don't Apply to Mandamus
- $22,500 to Seattle WA Jail Brutality Suit
- Proof of Administrative Exhaustion Required
- Mock Prison Riot Staged
- Racism in the Ranks, by Willie Wisely
- WA Prison Telemarketing Elicits Controversy - Again, by Paul Wright
- CBCC Warden Fired in Telemarketing Hoopla
- Bureau of Prisons Estopped from Denying Sentence Reduction
- Sentence Runs During Wrongful Release
- U.S. Supreme Court Clarifies § 1983 Claims, by David C Fathi
- Jericho: Thoughts From Political Prisoners in Leavenworth, by Jaan Laaman
- Jericho '98 March and Rally
- Convict Mine Labor in the Information Age, by Dan Pens
- Cheaper to Exile Prisoners?, by Dan Pens
- Prisons Promoting Tourism, by Alex Friedmann
- Jailers Charged in Bribery, Kickback Schemes
- WI Predator-Law Poster Boy Gets Released
- WI Guard Settles Discrimination Suit for $105,000
- News in Brief
- Mailbox Rule Applied to Habeas Petitions
- WA DOC Investigators Can't Detain Visitors: Drugs Suppressed
- Oregon Guard Pleads Guilty to Perjury
- Risk of Serious Harm States Claim
- Disciplinary Hearing Violations Enjoined
- Probable Cause Required for Visitor Body Cavity Search
More from these topics:
- ACLU Threatens New Lawsuit After Indiana County’s Repeated Failures to Abide by 17-Year-Old Settlement Agreement, May 1, 2026. Overcrowding, Exercise, Sanitation, Bedding, Settlements.
- Fourth Circuit Revives North Carolina Prisoner’s Suit Blaming Lazy Guards for Assault by Detainee, May 1, 2026. Failure to Protect (General), Qualified Immunity, 42 U.S. Code § 1983, civil action for deprivation of rights, Cruel and Unusual Punishment, Deliberate Indifference.
- Seventh Circuit Upholds Liability but Reverses Damages in Lawsuit Over Illinois Warden and Investigator Using Prisoner as Bait to Catch Staff Member Raping Her, May 1, 2026. Staff-Prisoner Assault, Failure to Protect (General), Damages, Evidentiary Ruling, Cruel and Unusual Punishment.
- Massachusetts Settles Lawsuit with Promise to Release Jail Voting Data, April 1, 2026. Voting, Advocacy, Settlements, Voting Rights, Felon Disenfranchisement Statute.
- $2.75 Million Paid by Washington County and NaphCare for Jail Detainee’s Suicide, April 1, 2026. Naphcare, Qualified Immunity, Medical Neglect/Malpractice, Suicides, Deliberate Indifference.
- Virginia Jail Suicide Results in $950,000 Settlement, Claims Against Wellpath still Pending, April 1, 2026. Private Contractors, Medical Records, Settlements, Failure to Protect (Wrongful Death), Suicides.
- $10.3 Million Paid for Teen’s Death at Kansas Juvenile Detention Facility, April 1, 2026. Restraints, Qualified Immunity, Excessive Force (Wrongful Death), 42 U.S. Code § 1983, civil action for deprivation of rights, Wrongful Use of Force.
- Ohio Supreme Court Awards Prisoner $1,000 for Denied Records Request, April 1, 2026. Administrative Exhaustion (PLRA), Damages, Public Records, Public Records Act.
- Eighth Circuit Revives Case Against Guards Who Failed to Intervene As Chaplain Sexually Assaulted Arkansas Prisoner, March 1, 2026. Staff-Prisoner Assault, Failure to Protect (General), Prison Rape Elimination Act, Qualified Immunity, Failure to Train/Supervise.
- $300,000 Class-Action Settlement at California Jail Includes Policy Changes; Agreements with Aramark and Wellpath Reached Confidentially, March 1, 2026. Food, Sanitation, Settlements, Class Certification, Monell Liability.

