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CA8: No carte blanche for random search of prison employee's cars on the unit parking lot

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Random searches of prison employees’ vehicles in prison parking lots because of community custody inmates allegedly having access to cars is was not subject to summary judgment for the state in an employee’s Fourth Amendment claim. There are fact disputes on the reasonableness of the search. True v. Nebraska, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 14007 (8th Cir. July 9, 2010): The location of a parking lot and the circumstances of inmate access are relevant to the "interests of the correctional institution in maintaining security"; a lot outside the confines of the prison has greater potential to be a source of contraband when prisoners have unsupervised access to it. Randomly searching such a lot may be an efficient means of preventing the smuggling of contraband...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on July 11, 2010 (boomark / email).