Chapter 5 – Adult Custody and Security Operations

52050.17 Clothed Body Search of Visitors

• Any person coming onto the grounds of any Department facility or camp or any Department contracted facility, is subject to having their person, vehicle, and articles of property in their possession searched. Visitors to such a facility are subject to a routine inspection of their persons, vehicles, and any personal property in their possession. Such inspections shall be made to the degree consistent with the facility’s security needs.

• When peace officer staff determine that there is reasonable suspicion that the visitor is engaged in criminal activity including, but not limited to, the smuggling of unauthorized items or substances in or out of the institution, the visitor may be subjected to a thorough clothed body search.

  • Each correctional facility shall provide for the posting of a warning sign, in English and Spanish, at the entrance onto the property stating: “Entrance constitutes consent of search of visitor’s person, property, or vehicles.”

  • For detail information for searching inmate visitors, refer to DOMDepartment Operations Manual 54020.

  • Contraband that has been seized as evidence in a search of a person, other than an inmate, shall be turned over to the responding law enforcement agency.

  • A visitor may refuse to submit to an inspection or search. A refusal shall result in the visitor being denied entrance to the facility.

• If there is reasonable suspicion that the person is engaged in felonious activity and that evidence of such crime may be destroyed or disposed of if a search is not immediately conducted, the peace officer, with the concurrence of the watch commander, may detain the person and the property or vehicle to be searched until such time as a search warrant can be obtained. In all such cases the Warden or their designee will be immediately advised of the circumstances and a decision made about the course of action to be pursued.