Mass Strip Search at Maghaberry
01 January 1991
Mass Strip Search at Maghaberry
artdoc June=1992
On Monday March 2nd, every prisoner at Maghaberry women's prison
(with the exception of one who was recovering from a medical
operation) was subjected to a strip search. The move was
unprecedented in two respects. Never before has a strip search
been carried out on the whole female prison population at one
time and never before has strip searching been conducted as part
of a wing and cell search operation. Given the history of strip
searching policy, it is probable that the governor sought
clearance from the Northern Ireland Office before sanctioning the
search.
Strip searching of women prisoners first attracted criticism
towards the end of 1982 when, in addition to the reception and
discharge search which is applied to all prisoners, extra strip
searches were introduced. These were applied to all prisoners
leaving and returning to the women's prison (at the time,
Armagh), and principally affected remand prisoners making court
appearances in Belfast. Believing that routine strip searching
constituted a form of sexual abuse and an intimidating violation
of privacy, some prisoners refused to be searched.
The ensuing controversy led firstly to the introduction of
random strip searching, and thus fewer searches, from March 1983,
and secondly to a thorough inquiry into the issue by NCCL. The
latter concluded that, `the introduction of routine strip
searches ... amounted to an ill-considered attempt to maintain
authority in the prison following years of unrest in the prison
community ... We are not convinced by the security arguments...
Nor can we find a convincing justification for its continued
enforcement'. The NCCL inquiry concluded that there were no
grounds for the original change of policy in 1982.
The latest strip search took approximately ten hours to
conduct. The morning began with prisoners being told that a
security search was to take place. About an hour later, they were
told that they were to be strip searched. The 22 women in the
republican wing of the prison objected, and were then threatened
with punishment. They continued to object.
Not long afterwards, according to the prisoners' own account,
`large numbers of female screws dressed in full riot gear entered
the wings carrying shields and batons. Before long, the sound of
screaming was heard throughout the gaol as one woman [...] was
set upon by six of the riot squad, dragged down onto the floor
of her cell and forcibly stripped naked.
The terror and revulsion felt by every other woman in the gaol
was so overwhelming that most began to barricade their doors
(using the bed and locker), in an attempt to prevent the same
thing from happening to them. Cell doors were left wide open so
that both male and female searchers on the landings outside could
watch if they wished... Between 5 and 16 female screws in riot
gear, their faces disguised with helmets, would burst into the
cell, seize hold of the woman's arms and legs, and drag her down,
pushing her face tightly into the floor. Women's mouths were
covered in an attempt to stifle screams. While some women's arms
were twisted up their backs, others were pinned to the floor
above their head. Women were punched, kicked, scrabbed, nipped
and had their limbs twisted in various directions through out the
ordeal..'
The prison doctor recorded the women's injuries later the same
night and he sent [...] to an outside hospital the following day
because of the extent of swelling and bruising down one side of
her face. Many of the women were put on anti-inflammatory
tablets, pain-killers, sleeping draughts, and one woman had a
urine sample taken as a result of back injury. Once stripped
naked, some of the screws forced the woman's clothing back on
again while still holding her down. Others left the victim lying
naked or half naked on the floor... When the screws tried to gain
entry to the cell [of...]