How the Department of Justice is Failing Victims of Sexual Assault in Prison

By Mary Price

CW/TW: sexual assault, rape, sexual coercion

Last month, three women who survived sexual violence while incarcerated took the incredibly brave step of testifying in front of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI). They testified as part of the subcommittee’s eight-months-long scrutiny into sexual abuse of incarcerated women perpetrated by corrections personnel.

The three witnesses shared deeply personal details of the traumatizing sexual violence they endured. Their statements were at once unique and strikingly similar. Themes of power, manipulation, predation, and a callous refusal to recognize, much less address, the pervasive sexual violence in prison were woven through each of their accounts.

Take Briane Moore’s story. Moore was sentenced to 10 years in prison, which she served at FCP Alderson. A single mother, she was determined to maintain family bonds during her sentence — a challenge made difficult by the 12-hour distance between prison and home. She thought that if she maintained a good record and did the programming that was offered, she could earn a transfer closer to home.

The captain at FCP Alderson knew that Moore longed to be closer to family. He cruelly leveraged that information, repeatedly forcing her to have sex with him. “The captain made it clear that if I wanted a transfer, I had to accept abuse,” she said during her testimony.

The sexual predation she endured is shockingly common, particularly for women. The PSI found that federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) employees “sexually abused women in their custody in at least two-thirds of the facilities” that house women.

The BOP, though, consistently fails to track and root out this epidemic of abuse. The Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) mandates audits of prisons and mechanisms for survivors to report abuse, yet fails in its duty to protect. For instance, FCI Dublin was known as the “rape club” for the pervasiveness of sexual violence there. Nonetheless, FCI Dublin passed PREA audits with flying colors. What’s worse, the former Dublin warden, Ray Garcia, was the PREA compliance officer. He’s no longer the compliance officer because in early December, he was convicted on eight counts of sexually abusing women under his care.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is stepping up prosecutions of prison sexual assault. While commendable, jailing the abusers is not enough. It won’t heal survivors’ trauma or stop this from happening in the future. We need independent oversight to make real change. The BOP has shown that it cannot be trusted to mind their own foxes in their own hen houses.

Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.), who presided over the PSI hearing, has co-sponsored the Federal Independent Oversight Act. This bill would, among other things, create an independent committee to investigate complaints received from prison staff, incarcerated people, or their loved ones.

We cannot call our system a justice system if those incarcerated face such rampant abuse, and especially when those abusers can continue without consequence. As Moore said during her harrowing testimony, “I was sentenced and put in prison for the choices I made. I was not sentenced to be raped and abused while in prison.”

On January 12, the Sentencing Commission met to vote on a set of proposed priorities for the upcoming Sentencing Guideline amendment cycle. Included in their proposals were grounds for expanding compassionate release to people who have experienced sexual assault in BOP custody perpetrated by BOP staff. Although this is progress indeed, the Commission added a requirement that the sexual assault result in “serious bodily injury,” a term defined in the guidelines to include extreme physical pain or psychological impairment.

We at FAMM are concerned about the use of this standard as a key to unlock compassionate release, particularly in cases of sexual assault where the asymmetry of power never favors the incarcerated person. We plan to voice this opinion to the Commission in our response to the proposed amendments. Sign up for our emails to stay informed on this and other issues relating to the BOP and prison reform.

Justice for survivors of sexual assault means believing their stories, righting their wrongs, and stopping this epidemic of sexual violence in prison.

Mary Price is FAMM’s General Counsel.