U.S. District Court: CONFISCATION.

Ballance v. Virginia, 130 F.Supp.2d 754 (W.D.Va. 2000). A state prison inmate who was convicted of sexual crimes involving juveniles brought a [ss] 1983 action against corrections officials alleging wrongful confiscation of photographs of children from his cell. The district court held that the confiscation complied with the First Amendment even though only a small percentage of photographs were of seminude children. The court noted that state officials provided minimum procedural safeguards, including notice of confiscation, provision of avenues for protest, and review of the prisoner's allegation of a First Amendment violation by someone who was not involved with the confiscation. The court found that the confiscation of all photographs served to further the prison's interests in both rehabilitation and institutional security because the possible discovery of the cache of photos by other prisoners created a potential for disturbance. According to the court, a prisoner has no Fourth Amendment right to be fre e from unreasonable searches of his cell because he has no expectation of privacy in his cell. (Wallens Ridge State Prison, Virginia)