I’ve written two articles as a guest blogger for the NZ Council of Civil Liberties, on how the Department of Corrections conducts strip searches in prisons. The first of these articles has just been published, the second will be up in a few days. You can read the full article over on their website: Strip searches in prisons – what is reasonable?
Here’s an excerpt:
In New Zealand prisons, corrections officers conduct strip searches of prisoners in order to find contraband items such as drugs and weapons. Recently, the Department of Corrections has released information regarding how they have been conducting strip searches in response to two requests made under the Official Information Act. I believe their response to these two requests is cause for concern.
Strip searches are clearly invasive, and it’s clear that there is the potential for them to be abused, so it’s important that there are appropriate restrictions placed on them in the law and that the Department of Corrections is held accountable for administering them appropriately.
In March, an OIA request regarding strip searches in New Zealand prisons was sent to the Department of Corrections by Ti Lamusse, a member of the activist group No Pride in Prisons.
I happened to see this request, which was made publicly via the website FYI.org.nz, and the response to it raised more questions in my mind. Mx Lamusse’s request asked several questions, two of which were:
- How many strip searches are conducted?
- How many strip searches find anything?
Corrections released month by month data for the number of strip searches conducted and the number of contraband items found through strip searches, from June 2011 until June 2015…
Honest Universe 
My second article has also been published now, on use of force and discrimination against transgender prisoners: https://nzccl.org.nz/blog/guest-post-strip-searches-prisons-force-and-gender-discrimination