Mon 18 Jul 2016 In: New Zealand Daily News View at Wayback View at NDHA
An Official Information Act request to the Department of Corrections has confirmed that transgender prisoners who are in a prison that doesn’t align with their gender identity, are subject to strip searches undertaken by officers of a different gender. Section 94(1) of the Corrections Act 2004 states that “A rub-down or strip search may be carried out only by a person of the same sex as the person to be searched, and no strip search may be carried out in view of any person who is not of the same sex as the person to be searched.” In practice however, according to the Department, transgender prisoners who are placed in a prison that does not match their gender identity are faced with a strip search carried out by a member of the opposite gender. “For the purposes of strip-searching, prisoners are to be searched by an officer of the same sex as stated within Section 94 of the Corrections Act 2004,” states the Department of Corrections. “A transgender prisoner placed in a men’s prison will be searched by male officers and a transgender prisoner placed in a women’s prison will be searched by female officers.” It is also unclear whether the Department collects specific information regarding the number of strip searches conducted with the use of “reasonable force”, with the Department declining the request for information regarding the number of these during each month from June 2011 until , April 2016. The Department stated “The information that you requested does not currently exist in a form that can easily be readily supplied to you, and would instead require initiation of a project to extract, analyse and present the data in the form requested. Therefore, this part of your request is declined under section 18(g) of the OIA, as the information requested is not held by the Department.” In May, Ti Lamusse of No Pride in Prisons spoke during the Equal Justice Project forum and said "Every single transgender woman going through our prisons has been sexually assaulted, including by staff. "In fact, even the strip search on admission to the prison is a sexual assault... for a transwoman it means having men hold her down while other men inspect her body including her genitals. There is systematic sexual violence in our prisons.” All inmates are subject to strip searches and these are conducted when a prisoner first arrives to prison, immediately before the prisoner is transferred to another prison, when the prisoner is received in a prison on transfer from another prison, or leaves or returns to or from a prison for outside employment, court appearances, medical appointments, or any other reason in accordance with the Corrections Act 2004. In information revealed as part of a OIA request by No Pride in Prisons Ti Lamusse in April, the Department stated that these searches are a task that is not undertaken lightly by their staff. “Staff are extremely careful to ensure they follow the correct legislation and procedures and to conduct the search with decency and sensitivity, maintaining the prisoner’s dignity and privacy.” They also stated that they are “very aware and sympathetic to the particular needs of transgender prisoners including the issues surrounding their placement and safety.” “Corrections is undertaking a comprehensive programme of work to help support transgender prisoners.” The information was requested by a member of the public - Mark Hanna - and shared with Gaynz.com Daily News
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Monday, 18th July 2016 - 3:55pm