Sisters Inside Is an Independent Community Organisation Which Exists to Advocate for The

Sisters Inside is an independent community organisation which exists to advocate for the human rights of women in the criminal justice system in Queensland. We work alongside women in prison to determine the best way to achieve this, and to address gaps in the services available to them.

Introduction

Sisters Inside welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the development of the Human Rights National Action Plan and Baseline Study of the Australian Federal Government and would like to take this opportunity to do the following:

• Support in full the submission made by the Human Rights Law Resource Centre;
• Advocate for the implementation of Australian Human Rights Legislation and;
• Encourage the National Action plan to focus upon the serious issue of the strip searching of women prisoners in Australia. Sisters Inside argues that this amounts to sexual assault and torture of a vulnerable population and is of utmost importance for inclusion in any review of human rights issues in Australia.

Background

In general, a strip search is taken to mean the following:

A search in which the woman must take off all her clothes[1]. The searching officer may direct the woman to hold her arms in the air, to stand with her legs apart and raise each foot and wiggles her toes for a visual search.

Women who are incarcerated represent a particularly vulnerable population of people with Australia, with the majority of women having been exposed to various acts of violence, inclusive of sexual assault. Unpublished research conducted by Sisters Inside in 2000 revealed that 92% of women in Brisbane Women’s Correctional centre at that time had experienced sexual assault or abuse, many for protracted periods of time.Sisters Inside is of the view that the strip-searching of women in prisons continues to perpetuate a cycle of trauma and torture and that this practice is a breach of our Human Rights obligations. As a result of this, we believe that any examination into the current state of Human Rights in Australiamust take the issue of strip searching into consideration.

In a review of the Queensland Corrections system, the Anti-Discrimination Commission of Queensland outlined their concerns with the practice of strip searching, stating:

Being compulsorily required to strip search in front of prison officers is a demeaning and humiliating experience for any human being, male or female. Even if a strip search is conducted in a totally professional and impersonal manner, the humiliation is compounded by the fact that prisoners then have to be supervised and relate on a daily basis with prison officers who have observed them in a naked and vulnerable state. In our western society where public nakedness is far removed from the accepted norm, this immediately reduces the dignity of any relationship between the prison guard and prisoner. However, for a woman who has been sexually abused, strip searching can be more than a humiliating and undignified experience. In some instances, it can re-traumatise women who have already been greatly traumatised by childhood or adult sexual abuse. The vast majority of female prisoners who spoke to the ADCQ said strip searching diminished their self-esteem as human beings and greatly emphasised feelings of vulnerability and worthlessness. Strip searching can greatly undermine the best attempts being made by prison authorities to rehabilitate women.[2] (ADCQ Report pp72-73)

Given that the overwhelming majority of women prisoners are survivors of sexual abuse and incest, strip searches are often experienced as a form of assault that traumatizes and re-traumatizes women in an oppressive and demoralizing manner. Subjecting women prisoners to routine or random strip searches by people who exert considerable control over their lives constitutes an abuse of authority and presents a breach of human rights obligations.

Research consistently reveals that women in prison have experienced physical and/or sexual abuse. For example:

• 64% of women in a Victorian prison had a history of physical or sexual abuse[3]
• In 2002, research showed that 42% of women in Queensland prisons had histories of sexual abuse prior to the age of 16[4];
• In 2001, 77% of women in West Australian prisons had experienced past abuse[5];
• 89% of Australian women in prison have been sexually abused at some point in their lives and a significant number of women were abuse as children by peoplein a position of authority and trust[6].
• A survey conducted in 1989 by the Women's House in Brisbane found that 70-80% of women in prison were survivors of incest.
• In 1992 an Australia wide survey[7]showed that of the 2,762 rapesreported by women to the researchers, 43% ofsurvivors were aged 16 or under at the time of the rape: 15.7% of survivors were aged 0-10 at the time of the rape

The consequences of sexual and physical assault are widely documented, including death and permanent disability, injury and pain, major emotional trauma, stress related symptoms such as sleep disturbance and impaired thinking, depression and anxiety, eroded self-esteem, feelings of isolation, guilt or self-blame, and difficulties in relating to others.

Research also shows that the controlled and punitive environment of the prison intensifies the psychological effects of having been subjected to sexual or physical assault. In a prison setting, women again find themselves in an authoritarian relationship where they lack control and autonomy.[8]Furthermore, the practice of strip-searching is particularly destructive given the women’s experiences of past abuse. The strip-searching of women in prison is comparable

to feelings of vulnerability and powerlessness, as well as the psychological harm caused by sexual assault.[9]

Why it is a Human Rights Issue

As a debasing, unreasonable and discriminatory practice, strip searching contravenesAustralia’s International Treaty obligations, such as the

• Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel Inhuman or Degrading Punishment or Treatment

• International Covenant on Civil andPolitical Rights (ICCPR)

-All persons deprived of their liberty shall be treated with humanity and respect for the inherent dignity of the human personArticle 10.1 ICCPR

-No-one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Article 7

-Everyone has the right to protection of the law against such interference or attacks Article 17.2

• Convention onElimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women(CEDAW)

-No-one shall be subjected to arbitrary and unlawful interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence ... Article 17.1

The ICCPR makes reference to prisoner’s human rights based on the following provisions: Thatprisoners will be treated with humanity and respect and that they shall not be subject to cruel,inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Furthermore, ICCPR codifies the right ofpeople not to be arbitrarily interfered with and to the protection of the law against suchinterference.A punishment is cruel if it does not contribute to acceptable goals and results in purposelessand needless pain and suffering.

Strip searching also violates the provisions set forth by the Convention Against Torture as itconstitutes cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. Strip searching, as an unjustifiable anddehumanizing practice, is an unlawful interference with the privacy and well being of theprisoner and violates the obligation to treat women prisoners with humanity and respect for theinherent dignity of the human person.

Subjecting a woman prisoner to a mandatory strip search constitutes and reinforcesthe imposition of powerlessness and loss of dignity. The strip searching of women, and particularly women whoare survivors of sexual assault, is an antiquated practice that can only result in the furtherdegradation and humiliation of women.

The arbitrary, capricious and oppressive strip searching of women is also in breach ofAustralia’s commitment to the rights of women. As a large majority of womenfrom prison are survivors of sexual abuse and/or incest, strip searches impact women disproportionately. A strip search, as an assault, is an act of violence towards a woman’sperson.

It is also ineffective in exposing contraband. Sisters Inside’s research has revealed that strip searches do not exposecontraband being smuggled into the prison. According to records obtained by Sisters Inside through the Freedom of Information Act 1992, there were 41,728 searches conducted in Brisbane Women’s in the three years between August 1999 and August 2002 (one of which was conducted on a baby). Only two of these searches discovered any significant contraband.Some of the contraband reported as found by the Department following searchesincluded cigarettes, earrings, a sanitary pad (no blood), a “scratch on a cell wall fromthe window to the door” and a “foul odour”. Out of 41,728 searches there were onlytwo instances of an unspecified drug being found.

National Action Plan

Sisters Inside believes that any examination of the contemporary landscape of Human Rights within Australiamust include:

• investigations into strip searching of women prisoners; and
• ways to integrate and embed laws designed to protect the human rights of women prisoners in Australia.

[1]Clothes are removed in two stages—first one half (top or bottom), then the other.

[2] Anti-Discrimination Commission Queensland, (2006) Women in Prison Report pp72-73

[3] Denton, Barbara (2001) Dealing: Women in the Drug Economy, Sydney: University of New South Wales Press

[4]Hockings B, Young M, Falconer A & O’Rourke P (2002) Queensland Women Prisoner’s Health Survey, Brisbane: Queensland Department of Corrective Services

[5]WA Department of Justice (2002) Profile of Women in Prison: A Report for the Western Australian Department of Justice, Community and Juvenile Justice Division, Perth: Department of Justice.

[6]Kilroy, Debbie (2001) “When Will You See the Real Us?” Women in Prison Journal ,October 39.

[7]Easteal, Patricia (1993) “ Survivors of Sexual Assault: A National Survey” Patricia Easteal (ed.), Without Consent: Confronting Adult Sexual Violence, 74-91

[8]Connor 1997 cited in Byrne, M. & Howells, K. (2000) Key Issues in the Provision of Correctional Services of Women, Paper presented at the Women in Corrections: Staff and Clients Conference, Australian Institute of Criminology and Department for Correctional Services, SA, Adelaide, 31 October - 1 November, 2000, p. 4.

[9]Pereira, C. (2001) “Strip Searching as Sexual Assault”, Women in Prison Journal, 2, 17-23