Strip searches of female prisoners have been going on for years in Northern Ireland. The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission recently welcomed a judgment in the High Court which criticised the practice of strip searching women prisoners at Hydebank Wood as an "unnecessary and humiliating policy".

The application for judicial review of such searches was brought by a young unnamed mother, a prisoner challenging the conditions under which she is being held at the Centre.

The Commission, which assisted her to bring her case, expressed grave concerns over the lack of in-cell sanitation available to female prisoners at Hydebank Wood and their subjection to strip searches.


The Court listened to her experiences of strip searching, they were often carried out in front of as many as five other officers. The woman was often teased and humiliated by officers. They failed to have proper and explicit regard to her privacy under human rights, the policy of strip searching was "disproportionate, humiliating, degrading and unnecessary".


The Court also found that while the sanitation arrangements for women at Hydebank may "not be ideal", they could not be described as degrading.