Source: In These Times
by Khawla Nakua
“When Karla Padilla started her sentence at the federal correctional institution in Dublin, Calif., in 2023, a guard singled her out. Over the next 15 months, the guard strip-searched Padilla so frequently that anyone near her risked being searched too, and other inmates began keeping their distance whenever that guard was on shift. Most prisons across the country conduct strip searches under a federal policy that requires women officers to inspect incarcerated women. The officer instructs them to remove their clothes, shake their hair, open their mouths, lift their breasts or genital area and then bend, squat and cough. On one particularly cold day in November 2023, while Padilla was cleaning the chapel, the guard demanded that Padilla strip for a search in full view of four male guards stationed there.” (09/01/26)