Female Correctional Officers And Sexual Misconduct

Highlights

69 percent of staff sexual assault allegations with male prison inmates involve female correctional employees, Bureau Of Justice Statistics.

In juvenile facilities, in most-serious incidents of staff sexual misconduct, an estimated 91% of incidents involve only female staff, Bureau Of Justice Statistics.

Author

Leonard Adam Sipes, Jr.

Retired federal senior spokesperson. Thirty-five years of directing award-winning public relations for national and state criminal justice agencies. Interviewed multiple times by every national news outlet. Former Senior Specialist for Crime Prevention for the Department of Justice’s clearinghouse. Former Director of Information Services, National Crime Prevention Council. Former Adjunct Associate Professor of criminology and public affairs-University of Maryland, University College. Former advisor to presidential and gubernatorial campaigns. Former advisor to the “McGruff-Take a Bite Out of Crime” national media campaign. Certificate of Advanced Study-Johns Hopkins University. Former police officer. Aspiring drummer.

Article

The Bureau Of Justice Statistics of the US Department of Justice announced several years ago that the majority of staff involved sexual assault allegations with male inmates in prisons and jails involved female correctional officers or employees.

There are now two reports from the Bureau Of Justice Statistics essentially suggesting the same dynamic.

This is somewhat astounding when considering that the vast majority of sexual assaults or violent crime involves male offenders. If true, what are the implications when females become “predators?”

Background

The data is part of the National Prison Rape Statistics Program, which collects administrative records of reported sexual violence, and allegations of sexual victimization directly from victims, through surveys of adult inmates in prisons and jails and surveys of youth held in juvenile correctional facilities.

Data is based on allegations, investigations, and degree of seriousness. Go to the linked sources for clarifications.

Among the 76,459 inmates participating in the sexual victimization survey, 2,861 reported experiencing one or more incidents of sexual victimization in the past 12 months.

ABC News

According to federal government reports, sexual relationships between inmates and prison employees are fairly common. The U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics released a report in January 2014 reviewing data collected on sexual victimization in prisons from 2009 to 2011, in which they found that almost half – 48 percent — of substantiated (emphasis added) incidents of sexual victimization involved guards and inmates, while the other 52 percent involved only inmates.

Gender appeared to play some kind of role in the nature of the banned relationships, as 84 percent of the relationships that female staffers had with inmates “appeared to be willing,” whereas only 37 percent of the relationships between male guards and inmates qualified as such, according to the report.

Although the inmates are supposed to be monitored 24/7, Miller said, that it’s “very easy” for a female corrections officer to have sex with an inmate inside a prison, ABC News.

BJS-69 Percent Staff Sexual Conduct With Males In Prison Involved Female Officers-Employees

Source: Sexual Victimization in Prisons and Jails Reported by Inmates, 2008-09

Victim, Perpetrator, and Incident Characteristics of Sexual Victimization of Youth in Juvenile Facilities, 2018

Data are from BJS’s 2018 National Survey of Youth in Custody (NSYC-3), conducted from March to December of 2018. The survey was conducted in 327 facilities that housed juveniles, including 217 state-owned or state-operated facilities and 110 locally or privately operated facilities that held state-placed youth under contract.

In most-serious incidents of staff sexual misconduct, an estimated 91% of incidents involved only female staff, while 6% involved only male staff.

Source: Bureau Of Justice Statistics.

Growing Number Of Female Correctional Officers

In 2001 24.5 percent of correctional officers in male facilities were women. As of 2005 69,299 of 419,637 or 16.5 percent of federal and state officers were female. By 2007 women represented 37 percent of the adult correctional workforce and 51 percent of the juvenile workforce, Corrections.Com.

The number of female corrections officers in male prison facilitates has gone up in recent years – up from 24 percent to 40 percent between 2001 and 2007, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, ABC News.

Cases Rising-Cases Substantiated

The annual number of substantiated (emphasis added) incidents of sexual victimization increased by 63% from 2011 to 2015. Overall, 8% of completed investigations were substantiated from 2012-15, Sexual Victimization Reported by Adult Correctional Authorities.

Observations

This is a difficult topic to address. The professional life of a correctional officer is far more complex and dangerous than most acknowledge. They deserve our respect and admiration.

Female correctional officers (and professional staff) are a growing and vital aspect of corrections. The vast majority do their jobs with dignity and poise. The implication that many (or most) female correctional officers are involved in nefarious activities is simply wrong.

When I was the director of public information for the Maryland Department of Public Safety (a combined law enforcement and corrections agency) I spent a lot of time in correctional facilities. I saw first hand the difficult and immensely taxing jobs of correctional officers.

Yes, there is an endless amount of abuse heaped on all correctional officers by inmates, but the bulk of it fell upon female officers. At the time, many of our prisons were increasingly staffed by females. In some, the percentage was close to half. In parole and probation, the percentage was higher.

If you Google “female correctional officers and sexual misconduct,” there are multiple articles addressing specific cases. Several suggested that female officers (or staff) entered into sexual relations with male inmates as a form of protection. Others suggested more of a personal relationship fostered by manipulative male inmates often involving contraband such as smuggled cell phones or drugs.

But when “an estimated 91% of incidents involved only female staff” in juvenile facilities, the reasons why get far more complicated.

I have profound respect for females officers. Whether they represent law enforcement or corrections, they take considerable abuse from many. I had multiple conversations with female police and correctional officers and their stories always seemed to involve an unnecessary degree of conflict.

But the bottom line is that any sexual misconduct, regardless of the sex of the officer, is criminal and poses a security problem for correctional facilities. It’s an issue that few are willing to discuss.

See More