Nickey Harvell 4/25/14 E-portfolio Assignment Rape in Women Correctional Facility The case of female rape in the prison

system has increased over the years and within that time frame rape inside the woman prison has increased, but not amongst inmates like in the male prison but amongst correctional officer, medical, and other staff members. In Georgia womens correctional institution there has been stories of rape, of pregnancies and forced abortions, of women prisoners left stripped and bound for weeks. Nearly 200 women have come forward, they tell of women treated like dogs, bound and fed from dishes shoved under their faces; of guards photographing women engaged in sex acts; of inmates being taken off the grounds to work as prostitutes the report states that this has been going on for at least 13 years. According to the book nearly half of woman in jail has had pass history of sexual abuse. Georgia isnt the only correctional institution to have reports, over that last few years Alabama woman jail Tutwiler has been getting a lot of report of the same magneto. Many of the women at the prison have reported encounters with the warden that they characterize as abusive, threatening and intimidating. The women in these situations that complain about the abuse are placed in segregation and are subjected to very aggressive treatment by investigators and other staff. It is not an environment that encourages people to come forward with instances of abuse. There has been very little done on these matters the state's criminal justice system has failed to aggressively punish guards who abuse inmates.

According to court records reviewed by EJI, six Tutwiler employees have been indicted on charges of sexual misconduct involving inmates since 2010. All of the charges were settled with plea bargains, and only one prison employee served more than six days in jail. It goes back to the book how much rights does an inmate loss once they are behind bars? These staff member are being slapped on the wrist and sent back to their jobs to do it over and over no repercussion to deter them and no safety for these woman inmates. With such allocation being brought to the front line how is it that its still bushed under the rug? The Alabama attorney general's office had been alerted to the problem through lawsuits filed against the state on behalf of women raped and impregnated while they were inmates at Tutwiler. The state has aggressively fought to have the litigation dismissed. Suzanne Webb, a spokeswoman for the attorney general's office, said the agency had no comment on the report. The Alabama Department of Corrections, meanwhile, has underreported sexual misconduct at the prison in official reports, according to court records obtained by EJI. In 2009, the corrections department reported no instances of sexual abuse at the prison, even as two officers at the facility were indicted for sexual misconduct. The EJI has requested a criminal and civil investigation by the Justice Department into the alleged misconduct and the failure of Alabama authorities to oversee the prison and aggressively prosecute abusers. In a 2011 Huffington Post investigation investigative found that there is widespread brutality in Alabama prisons and limited oversight by corrections officials or state law enforcement. Nearly 10 percent of former inmates in state jails and prisons reported being sexually victimized by a corrections staff member or other inmate. In my research I found that rape in women prison is not just from the staff but from inmate on inmate too and Oklahoma is one o the highest in woman prison rapes. And according

to an article by oklahomalegalgroup.com, Oklahoma legislature does not seem to think there is a problem brewing in Oklahoma's prisons. The Oklahoma Department of Corrections was called to testify because one of the state's facilities, the Mabel Bassett Correctional Center in McCloud, was listed as the nation's only all-female prison classified with a "high rate of inmate-on-inmate sexual victimization," according to the National Inmate Survey 2011-2012, conducted as part of the Prison Rape Elimination Act. According to the Sexual Victimization in Prisons and Jails Reported by Inmates report, "In 2011-12, an estimated 4.0 percent of state and federal prison inmates and 3.2 percent of jail inmates reported experiencing one or more incidents of sexual victimization by another inmate or facility staff in the past 12 months or since admission to the facility, if less than 12 months." Two percent of respondents indicated sexual assault by another inmate, while 2.4 percent indicated sexual abuse by a prison staffer. The combined percentages are greater than 4 percent, because some respondents reported both types of victimization. Since 2006, the state's prison agency has substantiated 33 incidents involving the sexual abuse of female inmates by prison staff and 27 incidents involving sexual harassment by staff. It's a situation well-known to state officials for decades, yet New York state has continuously failed to implement policies used in other states to protect female prisoners from being sexually victimized by prison employees, usually correction officers. One New York women's prison ranked among the worst in the nation for prison rape, with a rate five times the national average. In at least three rulings in the past year, judges compensated women raped by New York state correction officers, including a woman who gave birth to a guard's child while incarcerated. Prison officials say there have been seven pregnancies since 2000 in which the father of the inmate's child was a staff member from the facility.

The question in my head is why are males staffing female prison? In 1999 Department to implement court order on staffing female housing units this was initially proposed by former director Bill Martin as a result of a 1999 federal lawsuit settlement agreement. Among the requirements of that settlement agreement, the department was mandated to assign female staff in all reception and housing assignments at female facilities as well as assign one female transportation team member when transporting female prisoners. Process to comply with the directive through attrition. Since that time the case has continued to be tied up in the courts. The final outcome of the case now rests with its possible consideration by the U.S. Supreme Court. The courts decision of whether or not to hear the case is expected in October or November of this year. I would think this commonsense with all of the accusation coming from inside women jail house Female correction officer are in male jail houses so why are they not in woman facility? In recent reports female correctional officer has brought new ways of controlling male prisoner, According to a report filed by the MTC Institute, the paradigm for managing inmates at many correctional facilities is changing. Originally, the goal was containment, control and punishment of prisoners. This invited traits normally considered male-specific. Under this old paradigm, female officers were usually only successful if they mimicked the attitudes of their male colleagues. The shift has seen a growing focus on the rehabilitation of prisoners, therapy and reintegration into society. Discussion, Empathy, Understanding, Conflict resolution. Female officers are often naturally inclined to these sets of skills. Control and authority are still important, but the shift in the desired skill set has opened up an alternate option that invites correctional facilities to hire a mix of female and male officers and minimizes the necessity for females to mimic males. The ability to put inmates at ease and negotiate with them is now seen

as more valuable than it was in the past. Successful corrections teams now appear to have a mix of male and female staff members where each officer contributes their natural skills to dealing with prisoners in varied situations. Justice often eludes women in prison. Success in criminal court is frequently hinder by the difficult nature of proving sex crimes in prison, theres the problem of an inmate's word which hold little to no credibility, and where the sympathies of a judge and jury can often lie with guards who clam lie or seduction. That coupled with an aggressive union that fights to keep its male members employed in female prisons despite allegations of abuse, has resulted in an atmosphere largely sheathe from systemic change.

Citation
https://www.prisonlegalnews.org thinkprogress.org www.oklahomalegalgroup.com www.huffingtonpost.com