Correctional Services Act, 1998 (Act No. 111 of 1998)Chapter III : Custody of all Inmates under Conditions of Human DignityPart C : Security27. Searches |
| 1) | The person of an inmate may be searched by a manual search, or search by technical means, of the clothed body. |
| 2) | Upon reasonable grounds, the person of an inmate may be searched in the following ways: |
| a) | A search by visual inspection of the naked body; |
| b) | search by the physical probing of any bodily orifice; |
| c) | a search by taking a body tissue or body excretion sample for analysis; |
| d) | a search by the use of an X-ray machine or technical device, by a qualified technician, if there are reasonable grounds for believing that an inmate has swallowed or excreted any object or substance that may be needed as an exhibit in a hearing or may pose a danger to himself or herself or to correctional officials or to the security of the correctional centre; and |
| e) | by detaining an inmate for the recovery by the normal excretory process of an object that may pose a danger to that inmate, to any correctional official to any other person or to the security of the correctional centre. |
| 3) | A search of the person of an inmate contemplated in subsection (2) is subject to the following restrictions: |
| a) | the search must be conducted in a manner which invades the privacy and undermines the dignity of the inmate as little as possible; |
| b) | a correctional official of the same gender as the inmate must conduct the search and correctional officials of the other gender must not be present; |
| c) | all searches must be conducted in private; |
| d) | searches contemplated in subsections (1) and (2) must be authorised by the Head of the Correctional Centre but searches in terms of subsection (2)(b), (c), (d) and (e) must be executed or supervised by a registered nurse, a correctional medical practitioner or a medical practitioner, other than a correctional official, depending on the procedure necessary to effect the search. |
| 4) | A correctional official or person conducting a search in terms of this section may seize anything found. |