Ending routine strip searching in prisons
KEY PROJECT | Dignity for People in Prison
Victoria’s bail discriminatory bail laws have driven up the number of people in prison and are disproportionately impacting women experiencing poverty and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women.
Strip searching is a degrading practice that is frequently and routinely carried out in Australian prisons, despite the availability of non-invasive alternatives such as body scanning technology. Routine strip searching is distressing and dehumanising for any person, but can be especially retraumatising for women and children in prisons who are overwhelmingly victim-survivors of physical and sexual abuse. Across Australia, children as young as 10 are being routinely strip searched by prison guards.
To put an end to routine strip searching, the Human Rights Law Centre conducts research and carries out freedom of information searches across the country to expose the frequency with which children and women are being routinely strip searched. We use this information to advocate for change.
In June 2022, after prolonged advocacy alongside the Tasmanian Aboriginal Legal Service, we successfully convinced the Tasmanian government to end routine strip searching of children in Tasmanian youth prisons. This built on the progress made in 2018, with landmark laws ending routine strip searching of children in the Northern Territory and policy reforms in Victoria, which have drastically reduced the use of strip searches in women’s prisons.
We will continue to build momentum for law reform across the country to end the use of this degrading, harmful and unnecessary practice.
“Being subjected to routine strip searching robs people of their dignity and can be dehumanising and degrading for any person. There is no excuse for governments across Australia to continue to routinely strip search people in prison when there are far more effective and less intrusive ways of checking for contraband, like using x-ray scanners similar to those used at airports.”
- Monique Hurley, Managing Lawyer, Human Rights Law Centre