Maine prisons no longer require visitors to remove bras

WARREN, Maine – Maine’s corrections commissioner has ordered state prison workers to stop making women remove their bras to go through screening to visit inmates.

Commissioner Joseph Fitzpatrick says he didn’t know that women were being required to remove undergarments after the bras apparently set off metal detectors. The commissioner says he became aware of the complaints through news media reports.

He said he had not received any formal complaints.

He declined a request for further comment from The Associated Press.

In 2015, female lawyers visiting clients at the Cumberland County Jail in Portland lodged complaints after being required to remove their underwire bras before they could meet with their clients. That policy was later rescinded, as well.