A brief search around prison for continentals (8)

I believe the answer is:

africans

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'continentals' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.

'a brief search around prison' is the wordplay.
'brief search' becomes 'fris' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'around' indicates putting letters inside.
'prison' becomes 'can' (the can is American slang for prison).
'fris' going around 'can' is 'fricans'.
'a'+'fricans'='AFRICANS'

'for' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Another definition for africans that I've seen is " Libyans?".)

I've seen this clue in The Sunday Times.

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