Strip searches were almost “routine” during Sara’s incarceration in a Melbourne women’s prison more than eight years ago. As a survivor of sexual abuse, she found it deeply distressing to be ordered by guards to strip naked.
“It was very degrading and humiliating. I felt like I was being raped and exploited. It felt quite disgusting but I felt like I had no choice,” Sara, who did not want to use her full name, told Guardian Australia.
Like Sara, many inmates have a history of trauma or abuse. Invasive strip searches by guards compound both that trauma and the power imbalance inherent in the system, he said. “I remember seeing so many broken souls and at that time I was a broken soul,” he said. “In a way, you’re following strip search practices, because you’ll have consequences if you don’t follow them.”
An average of 15,154 strip searches are carried out in Australian prisons each month, of which only 0.58% result in the detection of contraband items, according to analysis by the Human Rights Law Centre. An average of 317 strip searches were conducted in juvenile detention centers each month, with a detection rate of 4.32%.
The analysis is based on data obtained by the HRLC under freedom of information laws from six Australian jurisdictions, over various time periods between 2021 and 2022.
It forms the basis of a report released Tuesday that calls for a ban on the practice of strip searches.
It’s a campaign that Sara and other advocates have joined as part of Formerly Incarcerated Girls Justice Advocates Melbourne (Figjam), a collective of women, trans and gender diverse people.
HRLC senior lawyer Sohini Mehta told Guardian Australia that strip searches should be replaced with less invasive examinations, such as the use of whole-body scanning technology, as well as trauma- and culturally-based examinations.
“It is totally unnecessary. We have modern technology, we have body scanners similar to those used in airports and public buildings,” Mehta said.
“It’s just baffling how that technology is not available in some prisons and even where it is available, why strip searches have not been stopped in favor of the use of that technology.”
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Most of the searches described in the data obtained under FoI, according to the report, did not result in the identification of any contraband items or the guards did not record whether any items were found.
The report found that most searches were conducted for “routine reasons” and that many people in prison “experience strip searches as acts of sexual assault and coercive control.”
A Figjam member named Stacey, who contributed to the report, said: “Like many women in prison, I am a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. Being strip-searched by guards is an abuse of power that is deeply damaging and re-traumatizing… I spiraled into what other harms I would face in prison.
“Strip searching is not something you get used to; it takes you back to all these past abuses. However, the prison system treats you like a criminal, not a victim of what it puts you through, and offers you no support.”
The report described strip searches as “a tactic of gender-based state violence” that “severely harms women in prison, particularly the high number of women in prison who have experienced sexual and family violence”; and noted that while data is limited, it suggests that First Nations women and children experienced strip searches at a higher rate than the general prison population.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women were “reportedly subjected to almost half of all strip searches of women” in the ACT in 2024, the report found, while in a seven-month period in Queensland in 2020-2021, more than half of the 700 strip searches carried out in the state’s three youth prisons were of First Nations children.
“It’s really disturbing,” Mehta said. “It is clear from the data and also other evidence that strip searches have a disproportionate impact on people who are overrepresented in the criminal legal system due to factors such as systemic racism and discrimination.”
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In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Indigenous Australians can call 13YARN on 13 92 76 for crisis information and support.
