Call for end to strip-searching of women in Scottish prisons

Dawn, who was automatically strip-searched while in prison on remand four years ago, told the BBC it made her feel “absolutely humiliated”.

She said she was caught in a cycle of addiction, shoplifting and poor mental health and being strip-searched made her feel even more isolated.

“I’d lost all self-respect – any little bit that I had left, I felt it had been taken away,” she said.

“I felt I was looked at. I feel I was looked down at. It was very humiliating and embarrassing.”

Dawn, whose name we have changed to protect her identity, said being told to remove your clothes for a search is even more upsetting for those who have suffered sexual abuse.

Since she was in prison, Dawn has gone through rehab and now volunteers at the charity Sisco to help others with addiction in jail.

The issue of strip-searching has long been highlighted as a problem across the UK.

In England in 2007 the suicides of six prisoners at HMP Styal highlighted the practice of routinely strip-searching female prisoners as a contributing factor in their deaths.

Technology – including scanners and metal detectors – was meant to replace routine strip searches but the practice continues.

Ms Sinclair Gieben said: “It’s not only degrading, it’s not only re-traumatising, but it’s also resource intensive and it’s not pleasant for the staff to have to do it either.

“So why do we carry on with an anachronistic, outdated method that does not have a proven effectiveness?”