Opinion ID: 449695
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Contraband Justification

Text: 14 The Commonwealth contends that Directive 807 is a reasonable response to prison officials' security concerns because restriction of hair length prevents inmates from concealing contraband, such as weapons or controlled substances, in their hair. It offered evidence through its experts that inmates with long hair will better be able to conceal contraband introduced into the prison by visitors and transferred to the prisoner during the contact visits allowed between inmates and visitors at Huntingdon. 15 The district court conceded the legitimacy of the Superintendent's concern about contraband, but concluded that the additional opportunity for inmates with long hair to receive contraband was minimal and, in light of existing procedures for the detection of contraband, unlikely to pose any significant risk to institutional security. 588 F.Supp. at 777. The court also noted that, in accordance with the provisions of Administrative Directive 203, inmates are strip-searched subsequent to contact visits; that, in order to detect contraband concealed in an inmate's hair, a guard may run his finger or a comb through the inmate's hair; and that Fulcomer did not present any evidence that it would be substantially more burdensome to search an inmate with long hair than to search an inmate with short hair. Consequently the court concluded that enforcement of Administrative Directive 807 against Cole is an exaggerated response to the defendants' concern with preventing concealment of contraband. 16 The Commonwealth argues on appeal that the district court took too narrow a view of the issue. According to the Commonwealth's witnesses, searching hair as part of a strip-search is dangerous since the inmates, because they are naked, may act out or assault a guard when touched by the guard about the head and hair. They asserted that guards have been assaulted while trying to search hair. Therefore, the prison officials stated, one objective during strip-searching is to minimize the need for the guard to touch the inmate. Long hair, especially if it is in a ponytail or is braided, increases the time and contact needed for a thorough search. Finally, the Commonwealth contends that, as its experts testified, since contraband is a problem inside the prison, separate and apart from the visiting room, long hair would have to be checked periodically, and there are not enough guards to do this.