Can a prison visit a visitor without a search?

Prison visitors do not abandon their constitutional rights when they enter a penitentiary. However, the Fourth Amendment does not afford a prospective visitor to a penal institution the same rights that a person would have on public streets or in a home. Spear v. Sowders, 71 F.3d 626, 629-30 (6th Cir. 1995). Because of institutional security concerns, visitors have a lesser expectation of privacy when seeking to visit a prison. As a result, prison authorities have much greater leeway in conducting searches of visitors. Merely as a condition of visitation, absent any suspicion, visitors can be subjected to some searches such as a patdown or a metal detector sweep. Id. "Prison officials may well have a need to search visitors in some manner in order to prevent smuggling of contraband (such as drugs or weapons) to inmates." Wood v. Clemons, 89 F.3d 922, 927 (1st Cir. 1996). However, some degree of individualized suspicion is required to search visitors or their belongings by force or without their consent and without allowing a visitor the option to leave the prison rather than be subjected to a search.³ See Gadson v. State, 341 Md. 1, 13 (1995).