We don't strip search air travelers. So why do we still force inmates to undress?
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Version 0 of 1. I have been strip searched over 250 times – and I know these examinations are about degradation and control, not drug detection or security. That’s why, even though these searches can be eliminated without any appreciable effect on safety, this practice continues. Each time I undressed in front of officers at York correctional institution, I shed another layer of dignity. Self-esteem hits an all-time low each time you are forced to disrobe in front of someone else, to bend over, spread your buttocks in someone’s face and cough to expel what might be inside. My last one was as embarrassing as my first. And I was never touched during any of them. The modern correctional institution’s insistence on demeaning prisoners this way becomes even more worrisome when one considers that technology exists that can search a person without requiring her to disrobe. SecurPass body imaging takes 10 seconds and can see inside a person’s body even for items that were swallowed, a tough catch even for the most ambitious of strip searchers. Virtual strip search machines may have been banned by the Transportation Security Administration two years ago for use on passengers boarding airplanes, but those citizens had privacy rights; prisoners do not. Using this technology on someone in custody is legitimate and more respectful than its Luddite alternative of stripping naked. The Boss Chair (Body Orifice Screening System – a non-lethal electric chair that identifies metal hidden within the body of a clothed person) – could prevent those even more awkward situations when the searcher commanded me to show “more pink” and open myself for her. And in six-plus years of living in a facility that had one, I never heard of the Boss Chair being used. This is surprising, especially since strip searches are far less efficient than any available technology. The practice of inspecting dirty genitals and anuses repulses most correctional officers so much that they are glad to give people some slack during the search, allowing kilos, killing instruments – and prisons’ newest contraband problem: cellphones – inside. I know they did for me as the lack of prison healthcare caused an uncontrollable rash on my legs that prevented me from shaving. Many guards were more than happy conduct my strip searches minus the strip to avoid looking at my hairy appendages. It was lucky for them that I never packed any contraband. Strip searches have made some big catches, for sure, like the Florida inmate who was discovered to have tucked 30 items in his anus – including pills, a lip balm container and a CVS receipt. But those sightings are rare and can occur just as easily with a search technology which makes the humiliation and harm this practice causes no longer defensible. The “bend, squat and cough” that calls for inmates to get naked in order to demean them is maintained out of correctional tradition, not effectiveness. And this ritual makes inmates even more vulnerable to staff who might abuse their power during a search. In early December, three women filed suit after each was subjected to strip searches that ended in digital penetration, assaults that occurred when they went to Rikers Island jail as visitors. And the City of Milwaukee announced earlier this month that it is about to pay $5m to 74 plaintiffs who claim their rights were violated during strip searches conducted by Milwaukee police officers who were looking for drugs. One man said his strip search was so violative that his anus was bleeding. It’s not as if an overhaul is impossible. Just a few months ago, Hamilton County jail in Indiana decided to forego strip searching inmates entirely and instead has them step through a SecurePass. Every facility can do it if they choose. There’s no reason not to swap strips for scans; using technology rather than human searchers has many benefits. In addition to preventing humiliation and trauma, especially for women who are survivors of previous sexual abuse, it would also bring every police station and correctional facility into compliance with the Prison Rape Elimination Act for transgender inmates. The law prohibits “cross-gender viewing” – someone from another gender seeing an inmate disrobed. Just this fall, a court dealt the state of Maryland a blow when it ruled that the way it strip searched a transgender woman – using staff of both sexes – violated the law. Our actions speak for us in ways we often don’t understand. By failing to exchange strip searches for more effective and far less intrusive and embarrassing technology, modern police departments and prisons admit that they’re not about correction and safety, they’re about control and shame. It’s why the criminal justice system needs reform in the first place. |