human strike
18th October 2013, 19:21
This is a story that broke in March but I missed at the time, presumably because it seems to have only been covered by openDemocracy. A FOI request revealed that in the space of less than 2 years there were at least 43,960 forcible strip-searches of children as young as 12 in custody (child prisons and secure homes), ostensibly to find contraband (drugs, weapons, etc.) in England and Wales despite a change in government policy that prohibited routine strip-searches. Unsurprisingly a number of these children are survivors of former childhood sexual abuse. Out of all of these searches drugs were found on 15 occasions and weapons on 0 occasions - out of 44,000 searches! It seems tobacco was found in less than 1 in 50 searches. One prison containing 400 boys stripped 399 every month. It is clear then that any claim that this was done to find contraband is ludicrous. The motive is clearly abusive; to discipline, humiliate and degrade.
What this equates to is the systematic sexual assault of predominantly children of colour by the British state. Despite everything I've learned about the police and prisons and the rest, the violence and barbarity of the state can still shock me.
http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/carolyne-willow/43960-children-forcibly-stripped-naked-in-custody-ignites-memories-of-bei
What this equates to is the systematic sexual assault of predominantly children of colour by the British state. Despite everything I've learned about the police and prisons and the rest, the violence and barbarity of the state can still shock me.
http://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/carolyne-willow/43960-children-forcibly-stripped-naked-in-custody-ignites-memories-of-bei