Mon 1 Aug 2016 In: New Zealand Daily News View at Wayback View at NDHA
A trans woman who recently spent time in a men’s prison, says she was groped on more than one occasion by male officers when undergoing strip searches. Photo: RNZ / Phil Pennington Jade Follett, who was released from prison roughly a year ago after spending eight months incarcerated at Rimutaka men’s prison and two months at Arohata women’s prison, has told Radio NZ that she was groped by Corrections Officers when undergoing strip searches. Follett says she was always searched by two male officers while in Rimutaka Prison and her request to have female officers carry out the searches was denied. "According to them that's not how it works,” Follett told Radio NZ. “I mean, me personally, I'm not too concerned about taking my clothes off in front of men, just because of my history and stuff like that. However, it would've been a lot nicer to have that option. "And you know, for a lot of other women that aren't as comfortable ... that option would make things a lot more pleasant and not so terrifying.” 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. “No Pride In Prisons have been concerned basically since we formed about how trans prisoners are searched,” says Emmy Rākete of No Pride in Prisons. “With the enormous volume of strip searches being made, less than 1% of which actually find contraband, we're concerned about the effect on trans prisoners.”
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Monday, 1st August 2016 - 11:40am