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Ms. Kinney did not identify the staff member or say what kind of action would be taken. She said strip searches of children were extremely rare.

Prison visitors, including minors who are with their parents or legal guardians, cannot be searched by force but if they refuse, “they shall be denied entry into the facility,” according to the state Department of Corrections’ operating procedures.

Even if the child is accompanied by a legal guardian, the policy is coercive, said Bill Farrar, a spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia.

“You’re telling a child that you don’t get to see your loved one again, potentially ever, if you don’t comply with this very invasive, very humiliating, very traumatizing search,” Mr. Farrar said.

The searches must be done by a prison employee of the same gender. Visitors undergoing a search must remove all of their clothing, including wigs or dentures, and give them to the prison staff for inspection.

Once naked, visitors have to spread their legs, bend over, spread their buttocks and squat and cough, according to the policy.

Martin F. Horn, a former commissioner of corrections in New York City and secretary of corrections in Pennsylvania, said it was reasonable for prisons to have a policy of strip-searching visitors, even children, who have made prison employees suspicious.