Abstract
Prison litigation concerning the issues of cross-gender searches and visual observation of nude inmates in prisons and jails by opposite-sex officers involves alleged violations of several constitutional rights. Additionally, claims of two competing interest groups, prison employees and inmates, are in conflict. In 1987, the U.S. Supreme Court in Turner v. Safley established standards for reviewing alleged violations of inmates' constitutional rights, a ruling that clarified issues somewhat. However, the recent Ninth Circuit case of Jordan v. Gardner (1993) rejected Turner standards and inserted a twist in the direction courts were taking. The Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 may further complicate the three issues of incidental observation of unclothed inmates by opposite-sex officers, cross-gender routine strip searches/body cavity searches, and cross-gender pat searches/clothed body searches.
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