Former female inmates reflect on rampant sexual abuse by prison staff

According to a Senate investigation report released on Tuesday, widespread sexual abuse of female detainees still happens in federal prisons and staff accountability measures have not been able to stop the scourge of such violence. The Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Senate determined that women were mistreated by prison employees at at least 19 of the 29 federal institutions that housed female convicts since 2012. Between 2012 and 2022, the Bureau of Prisons opened 5,415 cases claiming sexual misconduct by government employees. Briane Moore, a former prisoner and survivor, appeared before the subcommittee on Tuesday and described how, while incarcerated at a federal facility in West Virginia, an officer sexually assaulted her.  She said the officer, a captain at the prison, would take her to private areas of the facility to abuse her out of sight of surveillance cameras.

"I knew he had the power to prevent me from being transferred to a prison closer to my family closer to my daughter," Moore said. "He was a captain with total control over me. I had no choice but to obey."

[caption id="attachment_71965" align="aligncenter" width="534"] Linda De La Rosa testifies during the hearing of Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Investigations, on Sexual Abuse of Female Inmates in Federal Prisons, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Dec. 13, 2022.
© Jose Luis Magana/AP[/caption]

She claimed that she was aware of other women who had suffered consequences for reporting abuse and that she feared being put in solitary confinement if she attempted to report the officer.

The investigation revealed that inmates continue to be at danger due to the delayed pace of accountability for inmate sexual abuse and the lack of resources for internal investigators. There are around 8,000 cases in the Bureau of Prisons' Office of Internal Affairs' backlog, some of which have been open for more than five years.

Georgia Democrat Jon Ossoff, who has focused on misconduct and abuse in prisons, is the chairman of the investigative subcommittee, which is a part of the Senate Homeland Security Committee.

"This situation is intolerable," Ossoff said at Tuesday's hearing "Sexual abuse of inmates is a gross abuse of human and constitutional rights and cannot be tolerated by the United States Congress. It is cruel and unusual punishment that violates the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and basic standards of human decency."