Opinion ID: 356030
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Defendant Lilly.

Text: 17 On Friday, January 21, 1977, defendant Lilly left the F.C.I. on a voluntary weekend furlough. While the defendant was on furlough, two or three persons within the prison told a prison correctional supervisor that defendant Lilly had bragged that she had smuggled marijuana into the prison after her last furlough. On the basis of this information, the correctional supervisor sought, and received, authorization from the warden to conduct a body cavity search on the defendant when she returned to the prison. 18 When the defendant returned to the prison, she was initially strip searched. When this search did not uncover any contraband, a female medical officer conducted a body cavity search on the defendant. The search revealed a foreign matter in the defendant's rectum, which the defendant removed. It was a cellophane envelope containing marijuana and a quaalude pill. Five days later, the defendant waived her Miranda rights and gave a statement to an FBI agent, in which she admitted that she had placed the envelope in her rectum and that she previously had done so on three or four occasions. 19 As stated earlier in this opinion, the government bears the burden of proving the reasonableness of a body cavity search conducted on an inmate on prison grounds. As also stated, notice is not an essential element of reasonableness in every fact situation. Prior notice is unnecessary, for example, when prison officials have reason to believe that a particular prisoner is actually hiding contraband in a body cavity. In that situation, notice is unnecessary because the search is not random and is not directly triggered by an inmate's voluntary actions. 20 In the case on appeal, the warden determined, on the basis of information related by a correctional supervisor, that there existed sufficient reason to suspect that the defendant would attempt to smuggle contraband into the prison when she returned from her weekend furlough. We cannot hold that this was an abuse of the warden's discretion, see Royal v. Clark, 447 F.2d 501, 501-02 (5th Cir. 1971), or that it violated the defendant's fourth amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. The prison administration has an extremely strong interest in preventing contraband from entering the prison. Additionally, the prison officials conducting the search attempted to minimize the intrusion on the defendant. The body cavity search was conducted only after a strip search failed to reveal any contraband. The body cavity search was conducted by a female medical officer in the prison clinic in the presence of only the medical officer and a female correctional officer. Therefore, the search and seizure were reasonable, and the district court properly admitted the contraband into evidence. 21 The defendant admits that if the search was legal, the statement given to the FBI agent also was legal. Our review of the record confirms that the defendant's statement was admissible. Therefore, defendant Lilly's conviction is affirmed. 22 REVERSED as to defendant Gallegos; AFFIRMED as to defendant Lilly. 23