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December 14, 2022
Another ugly report about some ugly realities involving prison rape by guards in federal prisons
This new Reason article discusses a new disconcerting report emerging from the US Senate. The piece is fully headlined, "Senate Investigation Finds Federal Prisons Fail to Prevent or Investigate Rapes; Long delays and management failures 'allowed serious, repeated sexual abuse in at least four facilities to go undetected'." Here is how it gets started:
The federal Bureau of Prison's deeply flawed, backlogged system for investigating sexual assault fails to protect female inmates from rape while protecting employees who commit sexual assault, according to a bipartisan report issued today by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI).
The PSI investigation found that the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) has failed to implement a federal law to prevent prison rapes, and that long delays in investigating complaints have led to a backlog of more than 8,000 internal affairs cases, leading to failures to hold employees accountable. The report says that these management failures "allowed serious, repeated sexual abuse in at least four facilities to go undetected."
"BOP's internal affairs practices have failed to hold employees accountable, and multiple admitted sexual abusers were not criminally prosecuted as a result," the report concludes. "Further, for a decade, BOP failed to respond to this abuse or implement agency-wide reforms."
Overall, the PSI investigation found that BOP employees sexually abused female inmates in at least two-thirds of federal women's prisons over the last decade. However, the report focused on four prisons — MCC New York, MDC Brooklyn, FCC Coleman, and FCI Dublin — where it says multiple BOP employees abused multiple women.
The 68-page report from the Senate PSI is available at this link. It makes for hard, but important, reading.
December 14, 2022 at 01:50 PM | Permalink
Comments
Prof, it gets even better.
DOJ has claimed in multiple cases that repeated rapes by prison employees committed against female inmates are NOT "extraordinary and compelling reasons" under 3583(c)(1)(A).
Tough pill to swallow for those helpless victims and their advocates, I can assure you.
Posted by: Zachary Newland | Dec 14, 2022 4:02:18 PM
I'm confident that the "tough on crime mob" that populates this website are going to raise their voices in unison, express their burning outrage and moral indignation in no uncertain terms, and then announce a new campaign aimed at fighting this injustice and righting this wrong.
I'll be watching for their announcement on a daily basis.
Posted by: SG | Dec 14, 2022 10:56:01 PM
SG,
I’m happy to do so. I would also recommend a punishment greater than those given for rape in the general public. Law enforcement should be held to higher standards. This includes administration not doing enough to fight this issue.
It turns out that the “tough on crime mob” want all criminals punished. We don’t see it as just police vs criminals. It’s about doing right vs crime. .
There also needs to be some context. Whenever you have men in positions of power over other women (or men), there will be predatory behavior. That, alone, should not be shocking. It’s about doing our best to minimize it and punish those who take advantage. An imperfect system does not mean it should be shut down.
Posted by: TarlsQtr | Dec 15, 2022 11:34:10 AM
Zachary - you noted, "DOJ has claimed in multiple cases that repeated rapes by prison employees committed against female inmates are NOT "extraordinary and compelling reasons" under 3583(c)(1)(A)."
That is unreal and completely unacceptable - just wow - I mean wow - if that isn't extraordinary and compelling then what is?
Posted by: atomicfrog | Dec 15, 2022 12:24:13 PM
Tarls,
If you are truly serious about this, then I would suggest you get all of your 'tough on crime mob' brethern together (Bill Otis, and the 'usual suspects') and contact Gym Jordan who will soon be the Grand Poobah of the House Judiciary Committee. Urge him to hold hearings on this subject matter (instead of grandstanding with his "Hunter Biden hearings" which we all know is a complete waste of time) and let's see if something PRODUCTIVE will actually occur in Congress. Good luck!!
Posted by: SG | Dec 15, 2022 7:46:37 PM
SG,
Far be it from me to speak with Bill, but I’d bet a year’s salary that his position is as strong as mine, if not stronger.
Again, we are anti-criminal regardless of the criminal’s profession.
Posted by: TarlsQtr | Dec 15, 2022 11:32:24 PM
SG, you blow ALL credibility when you pooh-pooh the Hunter Biden stuff--you're a partisan hack.
Posted by: federalist | Dec 19, 2022 4:29:54 PM