Report: 8-year-old strip searched at Virginia prison
An agency official said a lapse in protocol allowed a corrections worker at a Virginia prison to strip search an 8-year-old girl who was visiting her inmate father.
Governor Ralph Northam issued a statement about the incident at the Buckingham Correctional Center last week saying it was deeply disturbing. Northam has also directed the state’s Secretary of Public Safety to suspend the policy until more investigations are done.
A statement from the Virginia Department of Corrections said strip-searching a minor is extremely rare but in this instance, procedures were not followed. The agency says only a parent can agree to have their child strip-searched and in this case, the adult who brought the child to the prison was not the child’s parent or legal guardian.
A report in the Virginian-Pilot said the girl was stripped naked and searched because she was under the impression that she would not be allowed to see her father unless she allowed the search to happen.
