Cell Searches

Any area you have access to in prison can be searched. This includes your cell.

Prison Service Instruction 09/2016 Cell, Area and Vehicle Searching says that the searching of cells must be carried out professionally and in a way which makes sure that prisoners receive fair treatment. It also says that it is important that prisoners’ “individual circumstances are taken into account, and reasonable adjustments are made.”

How regular searches are done depends on the prison you are in. Prisons in the High Security Estate must have a programme of routine searches in place. Other prisons must put in place a suitable programme of searching depending on what they think the risks and security needs of the prison are. However, all prisons must carry out a search if they get any information that there might be an unauthorised item in a cell.

There are two basic types of cell searches—a Routine Cell Search and a Routine-Plus Cell Search. A Routine search is a rub down search and a cell search, with no property record check. A Routine-Plus search is a full body search and may also involve a property record check, in addition to a cell search.

Routine-Plus searches must be done regularly in the High Security Estate. Outside the High Security Estate, they should be done according to local needs. Generally, Routine-Plus searches are carried out in any intelligence-led search.

In the female estate full body searches should only be carried out if there is a specific security concern. There is more information about rub downs and full body searches in PSI 07/2016 Searching of the Person.

Before the search takes place, you should be told that it is about to take place and what type of body search will be done. Officers can only search your cell without you there if they have information about unauthorised articles in your cell, or if there is an operational emergency in the prison. This is called an intelligence-led search.

When carrying out the search, prison staff must think about whether items in your cell could be made into something that might be harmful, either to yourself or someone else. If there is any doubt as to whether an item in the cell belongs to you or not, officers must check it against your Property Card. When the search is finished, officers should leave the cell as tidy as possible.

Before the search, you should be asked if you have any legal documents. If you do, officers can check to make sure that they are in fact legal documents and that there are no unauthorised items among your legal papers. They should try to do this without reading the papers. You should then be given a choice about whether you want to leave the documents in your cell in a sealed plastic pouch, or take them with you while the search takes place.

Under certain circumstances however, officers can search your legal papers without you present. They can do this for example, if the prison has an operational emergency or if they have information about a specific security threat. Officers doing the search must obtain permission from a senior manager first.

You should be asked at the beginning of the search whether you have any religious items. If you say yes, these items can then be searched by the officers, instead of by search dogs. After such items are searched, you should be offered a plastic pouch to put the items in – doing this means that the items will therefore not come into contact with any search dogs that might be used during the search. In some cases, you should be offered a change of bedding if the dogs have inspected your bedding and you feel that this contact has made the bedding unclean.

If an unauthorised item is found, this must be properly recorded in a Security Incident Report (SIR) and sent to Security. You may then have a charge laid against you. If the officers have found several items that they think may be unauthorised, they may lay a separate charge for each unauthorised item. Note that an item does not have to be in your possession for a charge to be laid, it can be in an area of the prison to which you have access. The charge will be quashed or dismissed if a review shows that you are allowed to have the item. Prison Service Instruction 47/2011 Prisoner Discipline Procedures explain this in more detail.

Please note, the above article focusses on prisons in England and Wales and may not apply elsewhere.