Women Behind Bars Who Were Sexually Abused by Prison Employees May Be Given ‘Compassionate Early Release’

A Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee released the results of a damning bipartisan probe, revealing thousands of sexual assault and abuse cases in prisons, which the department has identified as a top priority.

Now the Justice Department is considering the expansion of a program that provides early releases to female inmates who are victims of sexual abuse behind bars.

The New York Times reported that Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco has told top officials at the Bureau of Prisons (B.O.P.) to encourage female inmates who have been assaulted by prison employees to apply for the Justice Department’s compassionate release program.

Several women testified before the committee to accompany the release of the report, which was based on numerous interviews with current and former prison officials, whistleblowers, and survivors of sexual abuse while incarcerated.

“BOP has failed to successfully implement the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA),” the report’s executive summary finds.

“It failed to prevent, detect, and stop recurring sexual abuse in at least four federal prisons, including abuse by senior prison officials. At FCI Dublin, for example, the former Warden and Chaplain both sexually abused female prisoners.”

“I was sentenced and put in prison for choices I made — I was not sent to prison to be raped and abused,” said Briane Moore, who was repeatedly assaulted by an official at a women’s prison in West Virginia and was met with threats to block a transfer to a facility closer to her family if she resisted, The Times reports.

The report’s findings are startling.

Female inmates were sexually abused in 19 of the 29 federal facilities that have housed female inmates over the past ten years. Additionally, in at least four federal facilities, managers failed to enforce a federal law intended to reduce sexual assaults. The report also revealed that hundreds of sexual abuse and assault charges are among a backlog of more than 8,000 internal affairs misconduct cases waiting to be investigated.

“Our findings are deeply disturbing and demonstrate, in my view, that the B.O.P. is failing systemically to prevent, detect, and address sexual abuse of prisoners by its own employees,” subcommittee leader and Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff said, according to NPR.

This isn’t the first report to show illegal activity among Federal B.O.P. employees. Last year, an investigation found that employees within the B.O.P. were turning a blind eye to corruption among the workers.

In September, Monaco wrote to the prisoner’s rights group Families Against Mandatory Minimums, saying she ordered the BOP’s new director Colette S. Peters to “review whether B.O.P.’s policy regarding compassionate release should be modified” to assist female inmates who were victims of sexual abuse from prison employees.

Peters told The Times that she has begun to consider requests from inmates who are victims of sexual abuse and are not considered a threat if they are released. However, prison advocates feel Peters is not doing enough, and are pushing the U.S. Sentencing Commission to give inmates the right to directly request a compassionate release ruling from trial judges, instead of the bureau.