Uniformed public services free essay sample

Today I am going to talk to you about the types and methods of searches conducted by staff in a custodial environment and also control measures in a custodial environment. Firstly, I am going to talk to you about searches in a custodial environment. Searches are very important in prisons overall for security purposes. Searches can be planned or random or part of the system of the prison, routine or intelligence-led. Everyone entering the prison needs to be searched before they are allowed in the prison, including staff. The type of searches depends on many things such as, the risk of safety that person may cause and what type of category the prison is. High security prisons, that hold Category A prisoners, will routinely search all staff and visitors. There are also x-ray machines to look in bags, coats and shoes of people that cross the security gates of the prison. We will write a custom essay sample on Uniformed public services or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page In Category C prisons, visitors and staff aren’t routinely searched before entering the prison. Items that aren’t allowed to enter prisons are; metal, cutlery, scissors, computers, mobile phones and obviously alcohol, drugs and weapons. All goods that are arriving to the prison have to be screened, even post. This is extremely important because many stuff can be smuggled into the items, for example drugs can be smuggled into the prison by being concealed in the spine binding of books and magazines. Prison staff also search the prisoners cells and other parts of the building on a routine and intelligence-led basis. They also search the perimeter of the prisons walls outside to make sure nothing bad was thrown into the prison, for example weapons. Searching can also involve certain detectors and also dogs, for dangerous items that have slipped through the security checks. Staff have to respect individuals and their property during searching them. Slide 3 Rub-down searches are used to check that a person entering the prison has no disallowed items in their possession. Staff need to be trained in order to do any searches and searches need to be carried out by a member of prison staff of the same sex. Rub-down searches are used to check nothing is attached to the outer body, but not inside the body. Slide 4 Electronic wands and electronic walk-throughs are used in prisons in order to detect any metal objects and other items. Depending on what type of prison it is the prison officers are allowed to search cells, prisoners and visitors with an electronic wand. In Category A prisons, visitors have to walk through an electronic walk-through to make sure they are not bringing in anything made out of metal, for example weapons. The prison service has just introduced a body orifice secure scanner, aka BOSS, (click) which allowed them to see whether prisoners are hiding anything internally for example drugs. Slide 5 Before the prison staff can search the visitors they need to explain the procedures beforehand, and also there should be posters and leaflets in the searching area describing how the prison staff is going to search you and why. Also the visit order that the visitor was given contains search information. If a visitor refuses to be searched, as you cannot be forced to, then you will not be allowed to enter the prison and visit the offender you wanted to see, this same policy applies to staff as well.. Again, the different types of searches depend on the type of prison it is, for example if someone wanted to visit a Category A offender they will need to be thoroughly searched. Slide 6 Routine searches of prisoners is very important, because many items are smuggled into prisons somehow. Searching of prisoners can mean many things, from rub-down searches, BOSS, Electronic wand and walk-through searches, searching the offenders cell, and searching the perimeter of the prisons walls for items that may have been thrown in by the public.