Female Inmates and Sexual Assault

18/4/2020 Female Inmates and Sexual Assault - JURIST - Commentary - Legal News & Commentary
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Female Inmates and Sexual Assault

SEPTEMBER 15, 2014 11:00:00 PM Christina Piecora
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JURIST Guest Columnist Christina Piecora, St. John’s University School of Law, Class of 2015,
is the author of the first article in a twelve-part series from the staffers of the Journal of Civil
Rights and Economic Development. Piecora discusses possible solutions to the issue of
sexual assault against female inmates…Imagine a young woman handcuffed as a large man
beats and rapes her so forcefully that it results in her rectum being torn. Imagine her pained
cries that go unanswered and ignored. Imagine that after hours of this vicious assault she is
left in a bloody heap on the floor. In all likelihood, this deplorable act of violence makes you
angry and disgusted. However, does your reaction change if you learn that the victim was
wearing
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ignore what Congress has labeled an “epidemic” of sexual assault in America’s prisons.
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https://www.jurist.org/commentary/2014/09/christina-piecora-female-inmates/?fbclid=IwAR0X-t8jRJSKdlvG-TTo239MOFQIFY46L2SLpKSLLHjThFPJW9qt… 1/6
Currently, there are over 200,000 women imprisoned in the US. According to Human Rights
Watch at least 15 percent of incarcerated females have been the victims of prison sexual
assault. These assaults occur at the hands of prison staff and other inmates.
Males are the perpetrators in 98 percent of staff-on-inmate sexual assault (PDF] of female
inmates. Forty-one percent of guards in the average state female correctional center are male,
a job that entitles them to perform strip searches and have access to prisoners in their most
vulnerable states. Therefore, although women comprise only 7 percent of the state prison
population, they comprise 46 percent of sexual abuse victims. Male prison officials not only
use force and violence to commit sexual assault against female prisoners but also use their
positions to coerce, threaten and intimidate inmates into sexual activity. Thousands of
documented accounts exist of prison staff demanding sex in exchange for drugs, favors and
access to educational programs. Similarly, prison officials often use threats of going to the
parole board with false reports of bad behavior, planting drugs on prisoners or withholding
basic necessities such as feminine hygiene products or visitation with children if inmates do
not perform sexual acts. While these acts are repugnant, prison officials are not the only
perpetrators of sexual assault against female inmates.
The rate of inmate-on-inmate sexual victimization [PDF] is at least 3 times higher for
females (13.7%) than males (4.2%). This has been attributed to the fact that a majority of
prison officials do not view female-on-female sexual assault as “true rape,” making them less
likely to reprimand inmates. Furthermore, as the female prison population has grown at a
dramatic rate, states have been unable to keep up. Therefore, female prison facilities tend to
be overcrowded and poorly designed, making them difficult to police.
In addition to cross-gender supervision and poorly designed facilities, prison sexual assault
against females is prevalent because little punishment exists to deter perpetrators. Victims
are often blocked from bringing charges against prison staff who were either complacent or
the culprits in their attacks by the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA). The PLRA requires
prisoners to exhaust all administrative remedies before they are allowed to file suit in federal
court to challenge prison abuses. For victims this means that they must report their abuse to
the very people committing or facilitating that abuse. Thus, inmates who complained of staff
sexual misconduct were punished 46.3 percent of the time.
Additionally, victims must meet an incredibly high burden of proof to substantiate a

constitutional claim. The Eighth Amendment establishes the right to be free from cruel and
unusual punishment. However, for victims to establish a violation of their Eighth Amendmen
t rights they must prove that the prison official had a “seriously culpable state of mind” by
satisfying the subjective deliberate indifference test. The test requires that the prison official
must (1) “both be aware of facts from which the inference could be drawn that a substantial
risk of serious harm exists” and (2) “also draw the inference.” For victims, the difficulty lies in
proving
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Another reason for the high incidence of prison sexual assault is the limited oversight of state
prisons. Recently the federal government made history by passing the Prison Rape Eliminati
on Act (PREA). The PREA implemented national standards for the detection, prevention and
punishment of prison rape. However, the PREA standards only apply federally. Thus, because
state and local facilities confine the majority of inmates, most inmates are not protected by
the PREA standards.
There are a number of steps we can take to better protect inmates from the horrors of sexual
assault. First and foremost states need to adopt the PREA standards. Congress can incentivize
states to do so by withholding or increasing federal grant money. Additionally, while the PREA
was a good first step, many other provisions can be incorporated to make it more effective.
These provisions should address prison overcrowding, establish a national hotline where
prisoners can anonymously report sexual abuse and create a national taskforce to investigate
prisons with high incidences of sexual assaults.
Additionally, I propose that Congress adopt a statute entitled the Protecting Vulnerable
Inmate Populations Act (PVIP). PVIP would prohibit non-violent first offenders from being
placed with violent offenders, mandate that all correctional staff in female prisons be trained
to interact specifically with female inmates and allocate funding to help modernize female
correctional facilities to make them easier to police and monitor.
Furthermore, no legal roadblocks should stand in the way of victims getting the justice they
deserve. Therefore, the PLRA should be amended to allow for suits without exhausting
administrative remedies when a sexual assault claim exists. Additionally, the US Supreme
Court should make the deliberate indifference standard an objective standard, which would
only require victims show that a reasonable person would have been aware of the risk and
ignored it.
The epidemic of prison sexual assault will not be cured overnight. However, these proposed
measures will move us closer to eliminating the horrible problem. We need to demand
government action. For every moment we just stand by more vulnerable women are being
victimized.
Christina Piecora earned a BA summa cum laude in government and politics from St. John’s U
niversity. Christina served as an Equal Justice Works AmeriCorps Legal Fellow working at the
Urban Justice Center’s Veteran Advocacy Project. Christina currently serves as the Executive
Notes and Comments Editor of the St. John’s Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Develop
ment.
Suggested Citation: Christina Piecora, Female Inmates and Sexual Assault, JURIST – Dateline,
Sep. 15, 2014, http://jurist.org/dateline/2014/09/christina-piecora-female-inmates.php
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18/4/2020 Female Inmates and Sexual Assault - JURIST - Commentary - Legal News & Commentary

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Female Inmates and Sexual Assault

Additionally, victims must meet an incredibly high burden of proof to substantiate a

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