“Bend Over and Spread Your Butt Cheeks”: Access to Justice for Women Strip Searched in Prison

Abstract

There is much anecdotal and theoretical speculation that strip searching negatively affects women in prison; however, there is little empirical research focused exclusively on women’s experiences of being strip searched. This paper presents the findings of a small qualitative study that explored women’s experiences of being strip searched while imprisoned and suggests that strip searching prevents justice from being achieved. Five women, all of whom were previously incarcerated in Canada, were interviewed. The findings indicate that women in this study experienced being strip searched as humiliating, degrading, and dehumanizing. Furthermore, some women experienced it as sexual assault. The women described protecting themselves against the immediate harms of strip searching, particularly when menstruating, by electing to not have visits from loved ones or go out into the community, which resulted in extended separation from their support systems. Long-term negative effects of strip searching were experienced by women. By inflicting strip searches on women, the state violated and humiliated the women, which is tautological to denying their humanness, thus denying them justice. Furthermore, their unique life histories and circumstances, such as prior sexual victimization and the fact that they menstruate, were not taken into account when the women were subjected to strip searches. Suggestions for improvements to access to justice are discussed.