HC Deb 08 June 1984 vol 61 cc285-6W
Mr. McNamara

asked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many strip searches were made of female prisoners in Her Majesty's Prison, Armagh in the month of May; if he will give the number of persons involved and the number of times each prisoner was searched; whether any prison contraband, smuggled items or illegal correspondence were discovered in any of the searches, indicating which items; and in how many cases prisoners refused to be searched and had to be restrained while the seaches were being conducted.

Mr. Scott

During May, 36 strip-searches were carried out on 20 female inmates in Her Majesty's prison, Armagh. Individual prisoners were searched the following number of times:

Number of prisoners Number of searches in each case
1 4
1 3
11 2
7 1

No prohibited articles were found during these searches.

There was one occasion during the month when a prisoner declined a routine full search before going on an inter-prison visit and the visit did not proceed.

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