FACTSHEET Procedures for searching visitors need to be sensitive to the needs of children, women, elderly visitors and other vulnerable groups. In some countries, even vaginal searches of women visitors are a common abusive practice which should be abolished. Procedures for searching professional visitors, such as legal representatives, social workers and doctors, should be agreed with the appropriate professional bodies to ensure a balance between security and the right of confidential professional access.56 Women visiting relatives at a men’s prison on the edge of Kabul were subjected to invasive body-cavity searches at the order of the prison’s commandant, arguing that the measure was needed to keep out contraband. While most male visitors got into the American-financed prison with a mere pat down search, it was reported that almost every female visitor had to undergo a vaginal search without reasonable suspicion or recourse. ‘We have been strictly ordered to search genital areas of all the women who are visiting the prisoners’, one guard described, saying that she was still uncomfortable with the blanket order to search all women.53 In 2012, a mental health counsellor and six nurses working at a prison in Portsmouth issued a lawsuit after, as employees of the companies holding contracts at the prison, they had been subjected to strip and visual body-cavity searches and were told they would be barred from the prison if they did not submit. As part of an ongoing investigation of drugs being brought into the prison it had been ordered that ‘all civilian contract employees be subjected to a strip search and visual body-cavity search’.57 Considering the rights of children of incarcerated parents, including to regularly visit their parent(s), the Committee on the Rights of the Child recommended measures ‘to ensure that the visit context is respectful to the child’s dignity and right to privacy’ and urged states to ‘ensure that security matters and policies on incarcerated parents take into account the rights of affected children’.54 While detainees and their visitors are usually the focus of searches, detention staff may also bring dangerous or illicit items into the facility. In many countries, search procedures have therefore been established for staff. While in principle, measures to prevent malpractice, corruption and staff smuggling items are legitimate, the safeguards described for detainees and visitors apply equally to staff working in places of detention. What could monitoring bodies check? • What is the legal framework for searches of visitors? • Are there clear rules regarding prohibited items? Are these rules visibly displayed? The Scottish Public Services Ombudsman found that a 15-year-old girl visiting her father at a high security prison had been ‘inappropriately searched’ as it had been conducted in the absence of an appropriate adult. The girl had been with her 16-year-old brother, and was searched after setting off a metal detector. Subsequently, both children were denied the right to visit their father because the girl was not accompanied by an adult.55 • What is the procedure for searching visitors? • Where strip searches are conducted, are they based on individual assessment? Do they take place out of sight of other staff and visitors? • Is the specific vulnerability of children, women, elderly visitors, etc. taken into consideration? • What are the consequences for visitors who refuse to undergo a body search? Are their visiting rights suspended? Does the detainee they came to visit face any consequences as well? 53. ‘Afghan Prison’s Invasive Searches of Female Visitors Stir Fear of Slipping Rights’, New York Times, 16 March 2012; ‘Afghanistan: End Invasive Searches of Women Visiting Prison’, Human Rights Watch, 20 March 2012. 54. UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, Report and Recommendations of the Day of General Discussion on ‘Children of Incarcerated Parents’, 30 September 2011, paras. 38 and 39; see also Rule 28 of the UN Bangkok Rules, requiring that visits involving children ‘shall take place in an environment that is conducive to a positive visiting experience’. 55. ‘Girl “inappropriately searched” at jail’, Herald Scotland, 25 September 2013. 56. Coyle A, A Human Rights Approach to Prison Management, p65. 57. American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, ‘Lawsuits Filed Against Portsmouth Sheriff and Other Jail Officials for Cavity Searches of Contract Workers’, 30 April 2012; ‘Female workers sue over Portsmouth strip searches’, Pilotonline.com, 1 May 2012. 8 | Penal Reform International | Body searches: Addressing risk factors to prevent torture and ill-treatment