Adalah to Israel Prison Service Commissioner: Instruct all Prison Personnel to Stop Illegally Strip Searching Prisoners

On 7 July 2004 Adalah sent a letter of complaint to the Attorney General and the Israeli Prisons Commissioner, demanding that they instruct all prison guards and wardens to refrain from illegally strip searching and resorting to physical force against prisoners and detainees, and in particular prisoners classified by the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) as security prisoners. Adalah further called on the Prison Service Commissioner to establish a special commission of inquiry to investigate and indict any prison guards found responsible for assaulting prisoners and illegally forcing them to remove their clothes. The letter was sent after Adalah received numerous complaints from prisoners categorized by the IPS as security prisoners, regarding the use of excessive force by prison guards, specifically in the Shata and Gilboa prisons. Following informal inquiries conducted by Adalah with several prisoners from Shata and Gilboa prisons, it has became clear that most cases of prisoners' being physically attacked by prison guards occur when prison guards attempt to conduct intimate strip searches. Adalah was further informed that any prisoner who has recently requested to see the prison physician has been unjustifiably ordered to undress. Adalah argued that, although the practice has no legal underpinning, ordering strip searches of prisoners has become widespread and systematic.

Adalah has previously contacted the IPS concerning the use of unreasonable and unlawful force by prison guards against prisoners. For example, in September 2003 Adalah contacted the IPS regarding a prisoner who was severely beaten by Shata prison guards after he refused to strip naked. Adalah consequently filed a complaint to Yahas (the IPS prison guard investigation unit), which contained the prisoner's testimony that he had been being physically abused upon his refusal to strip, in a situation where there were no reasonable grounds for him to do so. The northern region state attorney's office notified Adalah that it has yet to decide whether or not the five prison guards involved in the incident should be indicted. The authority to conduct various searches of prisoners' bodies is largely based upon the Criminal Procedures Law (Enforcement: Search of the Body of a Suspect) – 1996, as well as the IPS Orders, which specifically detail how and when to carry out a bodily search of a prisoner. The law further states that the authority to conduct a strip search is granted solely to an IPS officer, and then only when reasonable suspicion exists that a prisoner is concealing a restricted object in his clothes or possessions. IPS Orders further mandate that conducting strip searches is contingent on the consent of the prisoner; should a prisoner object, the strip search can only proceed with the written authorization of an IPS officer, and after the prisoner has been granted the opportunity to present his objection before the IPS officer. The IPS officer is obligated to notify the prisoner that, if the strip search is performed, reasonable physical force may be resorted to.

The European Court of Human Rights has clearly ruled that strip searches of prisoners should only be conducted when the need arises in order to safeguard prison security or in order to prevent an offence being committed. The Court has further ruled that the illegal and routine strip-searching of prisoners constitutes torture, and as such contravenes Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

In the letter of complaint, Adalah Attorney Abeer Baker stressed that strip searches gravely breach prisoners' rights to dignity and privacy, and even more so when undertaken illegally. Furthermore, whilst the IPS Orders authorize the use of force against a prisoner who objects to a strip search, the search itself must be legal. Therefore, “… the use of force, including reasonable force, against a prisoner objecting to an illegal search is clearly unlawful,” the complaint further contends. Moreover, it is apparent that a pattern has evolved whereby prisoners' objections to strip-searches are used by prison guards as pretexts to violently and physically attack them. Adalah argued in the complaint that, by conducting illegal strip searches of prisoners, degrading them and using undue force against them, prison guards are systematically exceeding their legal authority.

Adalah further added that initiating a policy according to which any prisoner who asks to be seen by a physician must remove his clothes is illegal as it blatantly contradicts the law, which specifically details the circumstances in which prison guards are authorized to perform strip searches. “Regretfully, in all of the cases brought to us, none of these provisions has been adhered to,” Adalah stated in the letter. Furthermore, the prisoners' complaints confirm that orders to strip are being issued on a regular basis, without the provision of the written authorization of an IPS officer, and without the prisoners being granted the right to put forward their arguments against being strip-searched. On the contrary, it is evident that as soon as prisoners raise objections, they are stripped and violently assaulted by prison guards. Adalah further noted that, as prisoners classified as security prisoners are incarcerated under stringent security conditions, and are subject to strict limits on their freedom of movement and their contact with the outside world, it is not clear why these prisoners are forced to undergo meticulous and illegal inspections.

Adalah argued that if these incidents, which occur in all prisons and in particular the Shata and Gilboa Prisons, are overlooked, and in the absence of thorough and intensive investigations into and indictments of those found responsible, prison guards will be encouraged to use excessive physical force, and continue to degrade and humiliate prisoners and detainees. The failure to adopt these measures will in turn lead to the recurrence of the abuse of prison guards' authority and powers, Adalah further claimed.