An 8-year-old girl was strip searched by prison employees in Virginia, after being told she would not be able to see her father again if she did not agree to the procedure.

The child was attempting to visit her father at the Buckingham Correctional Centre in Dillwyn, alongside her father’s girlfriend, Diamond Peerman.

But according to her mother, she was told upon arrival that she needed to undergo the strip search or risk being banned from the prison, even though Virginia state law requires a legal guardian to consent for such a search. Ms Peerman is not her legal guardian.

“Hey Mom, am so mad the jail had to strip me with all of my clothes off this doesn’t make no” sense, she later texted her mother, according to the Virginian-Pilot.

“Did they make you take all of your clothes off,” the mother responded.

“Yes all of my clothes off,” the girl responded.

The state Department of Corrections told that newspaper, when reached for comment on Thursday, that they had only just been made aware of the incident. The staff member who approved the search did not have that authority, added Lisa Kinney, the director of communications for the agency.

“It is deeply troubling and represents a breach in our protocol. We sincerely apologise to this child and her family and will be taking immediate disciplinary action against the person responsible,” Ms Kinney wrote in an email.

But the girl's mother says the damage is done.