Two inmates said Highhouse claimed to them that he was a sex therapist, asked graphic questions about their sex lives and offered to let them have sex in his office, prosecutors said. Aimee Chavira, a federal prisoner currently incarcerated in Arizona, claimed she was repeatedly sexually abused by male staff at the Dublin womens prison, near Oakland. Highhouse, wearing a T-shirt and blue jeans, spoke briefly in federal court in Oakland and apologized to the women he harmed. He was found guilty of all eight charges and faces up to 15 years in prison. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. Attorney General Holder recently put extreme limitations on reports of prison rape. In an effort to prevent an inmate from reporting abuse, Garcia allegedly told the inmate he was a close friend with the head of the Special Investigative Services, which investigates allegations of misconduct by inmates and guards in the prison. At the same time, prosecutors wrote, a prison counselor would rail about inmates "snitching" on employees, suggesting they instead . Sexual victimization of adult inmates is an ongoing problem in U.S. jails and prisons, with thousands of victims of inmate-on inmate abuse and staff-on-inmate abuse during 2016 through . "What I can tell you is that when you look at the institutions that you're highlighting -- and you see an institution that has been riveted with cases it's it's hard to explain -- it's hard to understand how systemic changes were not implemented.". 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", Tami Abdollah is a USA TODAY national correspondent covering inequities in the criminal justice system. (Also read:SHOCKING! And they immediately made it clear what they were after. According to the complaint against Klinger, who was accused of one count of sex abuse of a ward, he had sex with two inmates and told both he wanted to father their children and made plans to marry them. The Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General is committed to aggressively investigating allegations of abuse, including sexual abuse, across the BOP.. Later, other male inmates joined in on terrorizing the women, the suit states. In an interview with The Washington Post, Lowe said he made a mistake that enabled the inmates to steal the keys. Copyright 2023. "You can pencil whip anything, on the surface you can illustrate that procedurally everything is being done in compliance with applicable policy and procedure. Privately, officials familiar with the case, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, do not dispute her allegations. He faces up to 39 years in prison. Other allegations against Highhouse, previously kept quiet by Dublin officials, came to light during the investigation, prosecutors said. Nine out of 10 victims were males abused by female staff. Former Army Chaplain Who Sexually Abused Inmates Gets 7 Years in Prison, By A previous lawsuit had been filed earlier in June on behalf of 20 other female inmates, alleging that Noel and the jail guards violated the womens civil rights by either intentionally or negligently allowing the male inmates to gain access to their pods and not coming to their aid. His lawyers asked for two years, the low end of the federal guidelines, which called for a sentence of 24 to 30 months. Statistics regarding the number and frequency of sexual abuse in prisons vary greatly. The push comes amid new revelations about the extent of abuse of women, and the unwillingness of many prison officials, over decades and at all levels in the system, to address a crisis that has long been an open secret in government. While Highhouse, 49, was charged only with abusing one inmate and lying to authorities, prosecutors say he engaged in predatory conduct with at least six women from 2014 to 2019 including one he counseled at a veterans hospital where he worked before joining the federal Bureau of Prisons, where allegations were routinely ignored. In 2019, Ms. Reynolds took the lonely, terrifying risk of identifying the officer who pressured her for sex and quickly discovered she was one of at least 10 women who had been abused by officers and workers at the facility. The felony grand jury indictment, filed March 10 in the U.S. District Court Northern District of California, charges Chavez with two counts of abusive sexual contact around October 2020. Unbelievable! According to reports, A Brazilian Jujitsu instructor Daryell Dickson Menenzes Xavier surrendered to authorities and confessed that to sexually assaulting and murdering his son at the mere age of twelve months old. Here are some highlights from the report: Overall allegations of sexual abuse rose 14% from 2015 to 2018, according to an earlier 2021 reporton the same data set by the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics. A former Metropolitan Correctional Center officer who was found guilty of sexually assaulting prisoners earlier this year was hit with a federal suit Friday alleging he abused three more inmates On Wednesday, Bureau of Prisons Director Colette Peters visited Dublin for an update. Samantha Cedillo, 31, was charged Wednesday in a warrant in Douglas County with sexual abuse of an inmate. It is cruel and unusual punishment that violates the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and basic standards of human decency.". Six of the accused officers . Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. U.S. District Judge Haywood S. Gilliam Jr. said the guidelines, which call for a sentence of less than three years, seriously underestimate the seriousness" of Highhouse's conduct. The Clark County Sheriff's Office in Indiana. Ray Garcia, 55, was the warden at the Federal Correctional . 1:16-cv-00329-WJM-STV. A fifth employee at a federal women's prison in California has been indicted on charges stemming from sexual abuse of an inmate. Twenty-eight female prisoners at an Indiana jail claim in two federal lawsuits that they were subjected to a "night of . Figures could be higher, owing to the secretive nature of these abuses. The investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division and Florida federal prosecutors found reasonable cause to believe . According to BJS (Bureau of Justice Statistics), one in five inmates in state prisons report a physical assault by another inmate. Without reliable internal investigations, sentencing judges are more likely to reject compassionate release requests after conducting their own fact-gathering efforts, department officials say, unless a prison official is criminally charged with abusing a particular inmate. There are some cases they should be agreeing to immediately, if this policy is really about justice at all, said Erica Zunkel, Ms. Chaviras lawyer, who represents clients through a law clinic at the University of Chicago, where she is a professor. Sexual Abuse Prevention. That was an apparent reference to an open federal criminal investigation into a male employee who is believed to have abused Ms. Chavira and other inmates, according to a person with knowledge of the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity. 2. This may be called Tools or use an icon like the cog. Enrique Chavez entered a plea to one count of . In some cases, the women allege, the abuse lasted for years. The lawsuits were filed after Lowe was criminally charged in October with three counts escape, official misconduct and trafficking with an inmate, according to online court records. Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest? She . Highhouse ruined my life he truly did, one inmate said in a victim impact statement. Feb. 22, 2023. Unfortunately, violence is common in correctional facilities, particularly jails at higher-security . Do Not Sell My Personal Information. But taking this relatively modest step has proved more difficult than anticipated. For the past year, several working groups in the Justice Department have sought to determine how to fix a system long plagued by health and safety problems, corruption, staff turnover and physical and sexual abuse that has disproportionately targeted female inmates and prison workers. Former inmate and survivor Briane Moore testified before the subcommittee on Tuesday, recounting how she was raped by an officer while she was imprisoned at a federal facility in West Virginia. "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.