VIOLATED BODIES|

Strip Searching and Urine Testing:Women in Prison ~ *

Stella Simmering and Ruby DiamondCoalition Against Police Violence

strip search of an imprisoned woman involves the removal of all her clothing.

J^^^The search is always carried out in the presence of at least two guards. When the woman is completely naked, she is then ordered to:

• open her mouth, remove any dentures, and allow the guards to inspect the inside of her mouth,

• lift up her arms and allow inspection under them, including the armpits,

• lift up her breasts and allow inspection under them,

• turn around, so that the guards are behind her, spread her legs, bend over and use her hands to part the cheeks of her buttocks, to allow inspection of her anus and vagina.

If no female guards are available, then male guards are permitted to perform the search. Prison standing orders state that where a woman ‘refuses to co-operate’ in degrading herself in this manner, a sufficient number of guards will be provided to ‘restrain’ her while her clothing is pulled off, and her legs forcibly spread.

It is clear that women sensitive to nudity and oral and genital displays to total strangers will suf­fer psychological trauma. These are the women most likely to ‘refuse to co-operate,’ their refusal arising from a sense of humiliation and degrada­tion which the demanded acts entail. These are the women who the guards can use force against. Women locked in observation cells because they are suicidal can still be stripped. Women who are

Routine and random strip searching and urine testing mean women in prison are treated as if they are always guilty, no matter how many times their innocence is proved by

crying can be stripped. Past sexual assault trauma is ignored. So is the woman’s psychological con­dition. Privacy is ignored. A woman can be stripped in front of any number of guards, male and female, and may be stripped with other women. Visitors can also be strip searched, with result that some women inmates ask friends and relatives not to visit.

There is no requirement that the guards have any evidence of concealed contraband or drugs. Women are routinely and randomly degraded. No matter how many times nothing is found, women will be stripped every time they are moved within the prison system. Women who go to court, who

have had their arms handcuffed behind their backs all day, who have had no contact with anyone except police and prison guards, can still be stripped.

Women can also be urine-tested for drugs, whether or not they take drugs. As with strip searches, privacy is often denied. During testing women are made to pull down their pants and uri­nate into a container while the guards watch. Women who refuse, or are simply unable, to do this are treated as if they had tested positive. (Which is the same as saying that if they claim the right to silence, they are guilty.) They are then thrown into maximum security and denied contact visits with their children. About 90% of people tested show no drugs, but can still be tested again and again. During body cavity searches, women are forced to make their anus and vagina available for inspection. Though this search is supposed to be done by a medical practitioner, force can be used on non-consenting women. This makes the ‘search’ a rape.

We can see that prison procedure subjects women to sexual assault by strip searches, urine tests and body cavity searches

Strip searching and urine testing are intrinsically sexual assaults

The best way to understand that sexual assault is intrinsic to strip searching and urine testing is to place these specific actions in a civilian context. Imagine that you are alone at home, in the bath­room, doing your hair, or putting on your make­up, and two strangers walk in, block the door, and order you to take of all your clothes. You are trapped in the small room. You hear that there are another three just outside the bathroom door. In fear of what they will do to you if you resist, you take off your clothes.

When you are naked in front of the two strangers in the bathroom, one of them tells you to open your mouth. Out of fear, you obey. They tell you to hold up your breasts, and tell you to turn around, bend over and part the cheeks of your buttocks for them. Out of fear, you obey. They may or may not let you get dressed again before telling you that they want you to urinate while they watch. They tell you that if you do not urinate for them, they will keep you locked in the bath­room until you do. Out of fear, you obey.

Or imagine that you are a strong, proud woman and that, when these strangers tell you to strip, you

36 POLEMIC VOLUME 7 ISSUE 1

decide to defend yourself. The three other strangers, waiting just outside the door, come in and all five of them hold you down and forcibly pull your clothes off and forcibly part your legs. There is no doubt in your mind whatsoever that you are being sexually assaulted. Women in prison feel exactly the same.

The use of forceAll prison standing orders say that guards are

allowed to use force to strip search, or body-cavi- tysearch women. The following testimony gives an example of how one middle-aged woman, in the part of pentridge prison called ‘the hospital’, was strip searched:

The fourth strip occurred in the same prison hos­pital’. In response to being so badly abused, I had tom the cell bedding to shreds. Late that night, four male guards and a male ‘nurse’ came into the observation cell and told me to go into the shower with them. Not knowing what they intended, Ifear­fully declined to do so. They said that they would do it in the cell, then, and the four guards grabbed my arms, legs and head. While the ‘nurse’ looked on, I was held down on the cell bed, and the pants of the oversized mens’ pyjamas (which were all I had been given to wear) were pulled down to my ankles. My legs were pulled apart by the guard grip­ping my ankles. He stared down at me in a horri­ble way, not leering, but just cold and dead and cynical. He made me feel as if I was extremely ugly. Because I twisted my head to one side in an effort to keep the others from pulling the pyjama top off, the guard holding my right arm struck me hard, repeatedly, on both sides of my face, stunning me. When I had been stripped naked, a canvas bag thing with arm, head and torso holes in it was pulled over me. Then I was dragged by my arms and head into the next cell and left alone. No explanation was given to me for this behaviour of the guards.

Women who refuse to submit, and against whom force is used, can be charged with a prison offence, namely assault. This means that it is effectively illegal for a woman inmate to defend herself against sexual assault.

Psychological effects of strip searchingEighty percent of women in prison have experi­

enced sexual assault before being imprisoned. Such a woman is likely to freeze when ordered to strip. The past trauma surfaces again, the heart

starts pounding, fear increases. Such a woman, after freezing, can be standing before the guards, with her arms wrapped protectively around her­self, her body shaking, her eyes closed against the frightening reality. Guards interpret this as ‘resis­tance’ or as ‘refusal to cooperate’, and immediate­ly apply force. The original trauma is thus exacer­bated.

Women in prison have no control over when they will be naked and when they will not. They have no control over when their genitals will be on display and when they will not. One woman

STRIPSEARCH

POLEMIC VOLUME 7 ISSUE 1 37

New South Wales Acts & Regulations

including at no extra costthe NSW Rules,

NSW State Environmental Planning Policies and the

NSW Regional Environmental Plans

$195 single copy or $395for a subscription

Also available from Aunty Abha's • Commonwealth Acts & Regulations

• Victorian Acts & Regulations• Queensland Acts & Regulations

• High Court Judgments• Aunty Ahha s Acts & Regulations

combined with LBCs Statutes Annotations

All prices quoted below are for an annual subscription with quarterly updates. You keep all previous copies for historical reference. Prices include software & postage.

$395 annual subscription to any of the Acts & Regulations

$790 buy 2 get 2 freeannual subscription for all jour

Acts & Regulations above

$2500 site licence subscription to all Aunty Abba's Acts & Regulations and High Court Judgments for a

single server with up to 1000 workstations.

Please call us for any further information,a free evaluation CD-ROM

of the full product or a brochure.

Phone (02) 9261 4288FAX (02) 9264 1464

To me the experience was pack rape. There were usually several guards involved. The first time they stripped me in pentridge prison ‘hospital’ my mind was numb while they were actually doing it. I didn’t feel anything emotionally at that time. When things are too much, some protective mech­anism of the mind just switches everything off sometimes.

The second time they did it, I was still in shock from what had happened at court that day. When one of the guards pulled my legs apart as one of the others held my arms down, I began to cry and cry like a baby. I had never in my life experienced such total abuse. I could not escape them physically, because I was locked inside a concrete and steel cell, but I just couldn't face them any more. I curled up and cried and cried and cried.

After this second strip, plus the one at the police station, with four male police and two female police, I felt the prison system was utterly denying me the right to have any control over anything at all, not even my own body. It was after this that I com­pletely withdrew inside myself and began to focus on gathering my spirit in prepara­tion for leaving my body behind.

Women in prison know that they will be subjected again and again to forced genital displays. This creates a deep sense of total powerlessness. That sense of total power­lessness leads to severe depression and is a factor in suicide and self-mutilation. Strip searching and urine testing have the same effects as any other form of sexual assault. These include a destruction of self-esteem in one’s own body image, a sense of vio­lation of self, a loss of the sense of physi­cal safety and a feeling of not being able to defend oneself.

Strip searching and urine testing: arbitrary, excessive and oppressive

The purpose of strip searching and urine testing is to detect contraband. However, figures show that prisons vastly overesti­mate the extent of its presence. Results of a 1995 freedom of information request to the Tasmanian prison department state:

Question: In the last 5 years, how many times have drugs or contraband been found on the bodies of female inmates? Answer: To the best recollection of senior staff, no drugs or contraband have been

described her experience as follows:

The 1991-2 annual report of the Victorian prison system states that from January to June 1992, 5 331 strip searches were done on men and women. Of these, 5 273 revealed nothing. In other words, 5 273 innocent people were subjected to sexual assault when there was no evidence of drugs or contraband. All women inmates can be urine tested and strip searched regularly, even in circumstances in which it is impossible to have obtained drugs or contraband. Such circumstances include solitary confinement in observa­tion cells before a court appearance. Before being taken to court, women are still stripped naked and forced to display their genitals. Routine and random strip searching and urine testing mean women in prison are treated as if they are always guilty, no matter how many times their innocence is proved by nothing being found. It has been recommended that strip searching and urine testing only be per­mitted where evidence suggests the pres­ence of contraband or drugs. This would greatly reduce the numbers of innocent people who are sexually assaulted.

It is extremely hypocritical of the prison system to degrade women inmates, by urine testing, for drugs of choice, such as Valium or marijuana, when these women may be compelled to take far more dam­aging drugs provided by the state, such as largactil or stellazine. At a 1991 national corrections health conference, it was admitted that women inmates are given tranquillisers which are not available out­side prison. On release, these women are forced into detox, or withdrawal at a criti­cal and stressful time.

A wall of silence has so far surrounded the abuse of women in prison. The silenc­ing has three main aspects. Firstly, women who experience this abuse seldom feel comfortable speaking about it, except to other women who have also been through it. Secondly, prison policy silences prison guards, and denies access to journalists. Thirdly, court procedures silences lawyers because what happens to women after they are in prison is not considered rele­vant in most court cases. The main parties in abusive prison practices are thus silenced. As with other types of sexual assault, it is time to break the silence on the state-sanctioned violence called strip searching and urine testing.

Amanda George, in a paper titled

found on the body of a female inmate.

38 POLEMIC VOLUME 7 ISSUE 1

.... Before they do it to you!

| TraH iko -: 'folia ^ Roy a. LComrYt is>s i o n

Or by yearly subscription

$15/ $8 Cone

yv**<*«y

Send a cheque or

MONEY ORDER TO:

PO BOX K365 HAYMARKET SYDNEY 2000

TEL 02-281 5100

now roil

A magazine of comment on criminal justice issues

Gathering Together in Memory of Women Who have Died in Custody (1993), has remarked:

‘The women we are remembering, mourning and thinking about today are important women to us all. Speaking about their lives, their survival and their dying gives a voice to women whose lives were often characterised by a punishing silence. The greatest contribution all of us can make to the survival of women who are and who have been in prison is to become informed about who it is that is sent to prison; what goes on in prison and then to speak loudly about and against the myths and

lies that surround prison. The greatest prison wall is community ignorance and apathy.

Women in prison are isolated, silenced, humili­ated and degraded. Held in a position of complete powerlessness, they are not in a position to defend themselves. It is only those in the outside commu­nity who can help stop the use of sexual assault as a control mechanism against women in prison.

POLEMIC VOLUME 7 ISSUE 1 39