Certainly.
Obviously when people are attempting to introduce drugs into the institution or to conceal drugs within the institution, they're going to use any means available to them to prevent us from finding those drugs. They're very rarely going to have the drugs just sitting in their pocket where a frisk search is going to find them.
The fact of the matter is that strip searches are necessary in some cases. The Corrections and Conditional Release Act is very restrictive about when we can do the strip searches. We have to have reasonable grounds to believe the individual is in possession of contraband. We also have to have reasonable grounds to believe that the strip search is necessary in order to find those drugs. Finally, we have to convince our institutional head that a strip search is necessary in this particular case. It is not like we're just doing these searches on visitors on a whim.
In regard to routine strip searches of the inmates, again, the CCRA gives us the right to do those in particular cases. I would certainly disagree with any characterization of these as any type of sexual assault. These are a necessary tool to deal with the presence of contraband coming into our institutions.