Six female New York prisoners sue officials over sexual abuse
Six female inmates in New York State prisons have sued officials in the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, alleging they were sexually abused by male corrections officers.
The class-action lawsuit, filed in Manhattan Federal Court, alleges that the state Corrections Department has been lenient toward officers who sexually abuse female inmates.
The six plaintiffs said their complaints about sexual abuse were ignored and in some cases were even passed on to the abusing officers.
The suit names Anthony Annucci, the department’s acting commissioner, and Jason Effman, coordinator for the department’s Prison Rape Elimination Act, along with their fellow officers Steven Maher, Christian Nunez, and John Shipley.
The complaint notes that “women in custody are unable to consent in the coercive prison environment where officers have complete discretion and control over the treatment of prisoners under their supervision.”
The women behind the suit were incarcerated at two prisons— the Taconic Correctional Facility in Bedford Hills, and the Albion Correctional Facility in Orleans County in western New York.
One plaintiff, a 24-year old woman who has been locked up at the Bedford Hills since 2011, alleges that she was sexually assaulted and raped for nearly three years by a corrections officer at the facility. The officer involved had previously been accused of sexual and physical abuse of female prisoners.
The plaintiff also speaks of how “officers call ahead to alert the officer on duty at the post that a supervisor is on his or her way.” She reported the sexual abuse in writing to the department’s commissioner, who launched an investigation.
While the US represents nearly five percent of the world’s population, it incarcerates about 25 percent of the global prison population, making it the world’s largest jailer, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
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