NI: Mass Strip Search at Maghaberry
01 May 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...] they had problems unlocking the door. Male screws in riot gear worked at it for a long period of time, and when