Arabic version: تسوية قضية التفتيش العاري مقابل 100 ألف دولار
According to ABC News, the ACT government has agreed to pay Canberra woman Julianne Williams $100,000 after an illegal strip search at the Alexander Maconochie Centre breached her human rights.
Williams, an Aboriginal woman, was detained on remand at Canberra’s only prison in 2021 when the incident occurred. She sued the territory in July over her treatment. In a civil case last year, the ACT Supreme Court found she had been subjected to an attempted strip search in her room and a strip search in a toilet, with both actions breaching the Human Rights Act.
Justice Verity McWilliam also found that officers’ use of force was incompatible with Williams’s right to humane and appropriate treatment. CCTV and guards’ body-worn camera footage captured events leading up to the search, showing Williams distressed after the prison refused to let her attend her grandmother’s funeral.
Williams had not initially sought compensation, but later lodged Federal Court proceedings after her application for an act of grace from the ACT government stalled. Court orders showed the government settled on Thursday, agreeing to pay $100,000 plus costs as assessed between the parties. ACT Corrective Services said mandatory strip searches were removed from procedures in 2022 and body scanners were introduced in 2023. Commissioner Leanne Close said strip searches fell from more than 4,000 in 2020 and 2021 to 580 in 2024.
