Dennis (44) was strip-searched 71 times: – Traumatizing

In the hospital lighting in the cramped visiting room in Hamar prison, Dennis laughs loudly as he tells robber stories from his time as a party fixer in Berlin. But when he talks about his time in prison, the face of the Spanish-German 44-year-old takes on a serious strain. He leans forward in the small leather chair. Dennis, who has completed four out of ten years for drug trafficking, was strip-searched at least 71 times when he was detained in several different prisons in Eastern Norway. – It was humiliating. It disturbs you. It is traumatizing to be in that situation so often and not know when it will happen next. In May 2021, the Supreme Court ruled that routine strip searches of remand prisoners, such as Dennis experienced, were a violation of human rights. The prisons changed their practice when it was discovered by lawyers in 2020. What did the Supreme Court say? The Supreme Court concluded that repeated body searches during detention had been carried out in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The three convicts who had their cases tried in court were compensated for this by receiving a lower sentence. The three convicts had been body searched 140, 129 and 73 times respectively. All the visits were carried out on a purely routine basis – without any assessment being made relating to the individual inmate or the circumstances of the individual case, nor the situation in the prison. The Supreme Court considered this to be a breach of Article 3 of the ECHR. The convicts received one less day in prison for two illegal body searches. Read the full decision here. Those who have been subjected to this can apply to have their sentence reduced at the Re-admissions Commission: one day less in prison for every second strip search. This has led to extra meetings in the commission: – There has been a small flurry of that type of case because of the Supreme Court’s decision in 2021, says Acting Chair Trude Marie Wold of the Re-admission Commission to news. Dennis is a trans woman, and would prefer to serve time in a women’s prison. As long as he has to dress in men’s clothes, he wants to use the pronoun “he”. Photo: Julia Thommessen / news – Traumatizing In the wake of the verdict, petitions began to flow into Wold’s office. Of 242 cases the commission received in 2022, more than 10 per cent involved strip searches in custody, figures news has received from the commission show. In comparison, the commission did not receive any cases of strip searches in 2020, the year before the Supreme Court judgment became known. But Dennis has not been strip-searched enough to get a reduction in his sentence, the commission believes. The lower limit is set at 240 strip searches in custody. – No one has been strip-searched so many times. If so, how long have you been detained? They must have set the bar so high to process fewer cases. But every strip search is illegal, so you should be compensated for all of them, he says. Dennis identifies as “a lesbian woman stuck in a gay man’s body”. He has worked for queer rights in prison in Norway, and is thanked in a pamphlet made for queer people in prison. Photo: Julia Thommessen / news – 71 strip searches give you the right to 36 days of penalty reduction, according to the Supreme Court judgement. Does it matter when you serve a ten year sentence? – Yes. I lose time and I lose money every day I’m in jail. And then there is a matter of principle. If it is not correct, it must be compensated. Extra meetings in the commission 15 of the 30 cases the commission had received as of 31 December 2022 have been processed. Eight have been reopened. The head of the commission says she understands Dennis’ situation, but that the law requires that readmission leads to a significant difference for the inmate. – The boundary must be set somewhere, but it is not set in stone. If there is a question of 120 days or more in penalty deductions, it will always be the case that it will result in a considerably milder legal process. If it is below that, it will be a discretionary assessment, says Wold. Dennis hopes to complete his sentence in Spain, where his father lives. Photo: Julia Thommessen / news Wold emphasizes that the commission processes all cases that come to them, and among other things assesses the number of days an inmate can have deducted from his sentence, compared to the years the inmate has left in prison. Trude Wold is acting head of the Readmission Commission. Photo: Synnøve Hole / news The Reinstatement Commission also does not take up cases where convicts have been subjected to routine strip searches during the sentence period. – It has something to do with what we are authorized to do. There must be circumstances that the court should have known about, so that body searches that have taken place after a judgment has been handed down cannot be reopened. The alternative in these cases is compensation, says Wold. – Illustrates the need for repair Maria Hessen Jacobsen at Advokatkontoret Elden has over 150 clients who consider themselves exposed to routine strip searches. Maria Hessen Jacobsen was among the lawyers who discovered that her clients were strip-searched far more often than necessary. Photo: Private – It illustrates the need for repair, she says of the “crash” at the Re-admission Commission. Nevertheless, Hessen Jacobsen believes that Norway should do far more to repair the damage caused to convicts throughout the country. – For many, it is too late. They have been released from prison. For others, the threshold set by the Re-admission Commission is not sufficient. They do not reach that seriousness, but they are obviously within the seriousness that the Supreme Court has assessed as infringement. She points out that the Oslo district court recently ruled that there is no legal authority to provide financial compensation for human rights violations. – There is an urgent need for a way in which we can repair human rights violations that is more effective than the Readmission Commission, says the lawyer. Hessen Jacobsen believes the commission is not the right body to assess compensation for inmates who are exposed to violations in prison. – This is not a function that lies at the core of what they are supposed to do. This is something that I believe the Ministry of Justice should clean up. If you have committed violations, you must also be willing to repair them. Capsen has a friend sent from Berlin to Hamar. He uses it to hide the fact that he is starting to get gray hair in the meeting with news. Photo: Julia Thommessen / news Wold in the Readmission Commission agrees: – We think this should have been done administratively. If the Prison and Probation Service had its own authority to assess this, then perhaps those with fewer, like Dennis, would be caught. – It should not be necessary to use the commission’s resources on this. We have addressed that, but as of today there is no such authority. And then we become the only possibility. Professor Kjetil Mujezinović Larsen at UiO has been given until 1 August to investigate the right to demand compensation for human rights violations on behalf of the government.



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