VA: Strip-Searching of 8-Year-Old at Prison Leads Virginia to Halt the Practice
Gov. Ralph Northam of Virginia on Friday ordered the suspension of a policy that allows prison officials to strip-search children after an 8-year-old girl was told to remove her clothes before being allowed to see her father, an inmate.
An 8-year-old girl visiting her father at a Virginia prison was strip searched last month in violation of state policy, authorities said.
“The incident is deeply troubling and represents a breach in our protocol,” said Lisa Kinney, a spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Corrections, in a statement to CNN. “We sincerely apologize to this child and her family.” The child was visiting her father, who is an inmate at Buckingham Correctional Center, Kinney said. The girl was accompanied by an adult visitor who was not her parent or legal guardian.The staff member who ordered the search didn’t have the authority to do so and is facing disciplinary action, Kinney said.
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Disciplinary action? “Hey, don’t search kids until this blows over. Too bad we couldn’t have covered it up like we always do. Now go beat an inmate and steal some prison food.”
You would think not strip searching an 8 year old would be common sence. That’s how stupid people are these days. I feel bad for that little girl and her daddy. Can you imagine how bad he feels for putting her through that becuase hes in jail. It’s just unbelievable that this even happened.
Who was also present during the search? Did I miss something about a “Supervisor”, someone with a higher degree of judgement and responsibility, being present? This incident was as much the guard’s fault for blindly obeying policy (thinks nazi death camps) as it was the Supervisors fault for not reviewing the decision and intervening because it was not only a violation of law but also because it was on its face wrong.
Many bad decision on the part of corrections and law enforcement officers can be attributed to poor or weak supervisors, the people whose are supposed to prevent bad decisions from happening. So in addition to a review of the policy on “strip searches” there need to be, in my opinion, a review of the supervisory role in the monitoring and implementation of this policy and probably many others. Leaving people who are not trained or experienced to make good judgement calls on various issues alone is just asking for an incident like this to happen. If we were to take a look back in time at various incidents we would see a common thread among them and that is “poor supervision”.
You would think it would be common sense to not strip search an 8-year-old child.
But remember, this is the same country that makes children younger than that act as their own attorneys in asylum hearings and has, in some states, placed children about that age on the sex offender registry.
So really, this type of thing is par for the course.
Jailers called me a Cho-Mo (slang for child molester) and pedophile when I was locked up for an illegal porn case that involved a few images teenage girls in what prosecutors called nonnude child erotica that none could identify as real children. 15 years later and I’m still trying to figure that out. Suffice to say it appears the tide hasnt turned on them for stripping down this real child in a perverted course of LE conduct. SHAME, SHAME, SHAME! Who are the real Cho-Mos? LE!
@Not a Cho-Mo – can you tell us in which state you were prosecuted and what the statute number was? I want to learn about this charge. Thanks.
It was the feds. Title 18 United States Code 2252A. If you read the FBI and DOJ websites, you will find the (il)legal description of child porn. It does not necessarily mean what people always think. A child = <18 yoa. Porn = a pose in a lewd or lascivious manner so as to arouse a viewer whether the model is clothed or nude.
Based on that description, everyone involved with the children’s bathing suit and underwear sections of a JC Penny, Macy’s or other major department store catalog should be arrested.
Have you ever seen these photos in their catalogs? Kids with the hand on the hip and their butt poked to the side. A stance that appears to be similar to when a runway model pauses for a moment at the end of the runway.
Something is truly wrong with our country ever since Megan’s Law.
If I had the money to, I’d hire an attorney and begin a class action lawsuit against the Kenka family and the state of NJ where this all started.
Maestro How right you are. My husband was found to have Marie Claire ads on his computer and also something similar to Seventeen Magazine 6 years ago. We took the computer in for service (Geek Squard) and they in turn notified the LEO.
3 years prison-7 years probation, lifetime registration in Florida for completely covered but erotically posed (per LE).
Can identify perfectly with not a cho-mo
NEVER,Ever take your computer in for service. I once brought a computer back that didn’t work and cops came to my door. Luckily they believed me when I stated I could not even get the computer to work and discovered it was a returned computer being sold as an “Open box”.
I work on and fix my own computers and if it has to be repaired beyond my abilities, I buy a new one, take the old one apart and destroy it.
Also never take an old computer to a recycling place without destroying the hard drive. I get girly ads pop up all the time on my computer. It is not me it is crap that is being allowed by mass ad campaigns and no one vets them.
I had to go over to my parents house who are in their 80s and get porn off their computer. They have no idea how it got there but I had to uninstall their browser to get rid of it and install a new browser.
It appeared to be a virus with some woman who cam up on a cam every time you opened a browser. She had on no shirt and a huge chest and my Mother was livid. Luckily I saved them. And btw even though they didn’t do it, it was adult porn so they could not have gotten in trouble but very disturbing. You can open any email and end up with a virus these days.
I have am self taught on fixing computer issues because I do not trust these snitches at best buy and other places who don’t care if you didn’t put it on there, they just want a pat on the back for getting you arrested.
When I was on probation, someone told my probation officer I had porn on my computer. I said go ahead and look I have nothing to hide and you don’t need a warrant. Can you believe she found porn on the computer? WTF
Fortunately I had a cool probation officer and she agreed it was odd that they knew specifically what to look for but nothing else was found. ( No violation )
Not A Cho-Mo – wow! That is disturbing indeed. Did they tell you why they were being so aggressive in prosecuting you?Most of the cases from feds that you read about “supposedly” include heinous, explicit images and videos. I even read a quote somewhere from a federal prosecutor saying “we are going after the worst of the worst,” or something to that effect. Of course I’ve never really believed them, and now I see that perhaps the opposite is true. If you don’t mind my asking, how did they come to investigate you and what happened? What was your attorney’s take on all of this? I’m very disturbed by the liberties I see LE taking and this kind of goes along with some of the entrapment issues and other concerning developments. That’s a separate issue, but it’s related if they are just aiming to boost conviction numbers and pack the prisons.
I appreciate your interest, but I will not discuss my case in depth because I am still litigating it. As for why the feds were involved, my case occurred at a turn in politics when the US Congress was increasing penalties on CP and that encouraged federal agencies and prosecutors to cherry pick cases to make headlines. Fear mongering in other words.
Totally understand. Sorry that happened to you, and unfortunately I’m not surprised (about the feds looking for headlines). Hope your litigation goes well and you can get some relief.
It’s too bad that these prison officials do not have to pass an IQ exam before they are hired. Many couldn’t qualify as ‘burger flippers’ out in the real world.
A few prisons have gone to visitations through a glass barrier so that this doesn’t happen. It is a catch 22. Invasion of privacy versus contraband being brought into the prisons like drugs, cell phones and more.
You have to walk through metal detectors to get onto an airplane and to go into a courthouse. Prisons are a bit trickier as they are not just trying to stop guns and knives but also drugs, phone and other items inmates are not supposed to have.
Having said that, it is being found, From numerous news stories, that often times it is prison employees getting paid to supply inmates with contraband.
Like everything else in life, a few bad apples ruin things for everyone. Wouldn’t be surprised if this location doesn’t suspend visitations while a new policy is put in place.
Same governor that vetoed bill that would’ve barred RSOs from emergency shelters.
He has a lot of sense. I forgive him for the blackface.
Ditto.