Chapter 127 of the General Laws is hereby amended by inserting after section 21, as appearing in the 2012 Official Edition, the following section:-

Section 21A. (a) As used in this section, the following words shall, unless the context clearly requires otherwise, have the following meanings:-

“Emergency or otherwise urgent situation”, a situation in which a correction officer determines that a specific inmate presents an immediate and serious threat to the inmate’s own safety or the safety of others.

“Strip search” a search in any correctional facility in which an inmate is required to remove all clothing and may include a visual inspection of a nude inmate’s oral, anal or vaginal cavity.

(b) Strip searches of inmates, including the videotaping thereof, shall not be conducted by or in the immediate vicinity of a correction officer or other employee of the opposite sex, except under an emergency or otherwise urgent situation.  If during an emergency or otherwise urgent situation, a correction officer is required to operate the camera or be in the immediate vicinity of a strip search, the officer shall, immediately after the termination of such emergency or otherwise urgent situation, notify, in the case of a county correctional facility, the administrator or the administrator’s designee, or, in the case of a state correctional facility, the superintendent or the superintendent’s designee. Upon such notification, the administrator, the superintendent or such designees, shall produce a report detailing the situation.