Sexual Harrasment

[Gaoler]

A while back I ran across a thread here about sexual harassment. In particular how the jail has the responsibility to punish inmates for sexually harassing a female CO and if they do not punish the inmate appropriately then the jail can be held liable.

If anyone knows any particulars that they can share it would be greatly appreciated. My wife has had a couple of incidents at her facility that the admin completely swept under the rug, not so much as even a stern lecture to the inmates.

[gijanetexas]

Here is the big case won on that subject.

If the Administration will lock up an inmate for calling staff racial slurs or for just sleeping through count, they need to teach the inmates to keep it in their pants.

Sexual Harrassment by Inmates Against Correctional Staff
Published Oct 16 2006, 10:29 AM by Joshua Stengel
Filed under: News
A recent case has come out from the Ninth Circuit holding that the California Department of Corrections can be held liable under Title VII for sexual harassment by inmates against correctional staff. The case is summarized in more detail below.

Frietag v. Ayers, No. 03-16702 (9th Cir. 2006)

Daenna Frietag was a correctional officer in the Secure Housing Unit of Pelican Bay State Prison in California. The female correctional officer made complaints and attempts to stop repeated "exhibitionist masturbation" and other harassment by prisoners. However, her complaints were rebuffed by the prison. The Ninth Circuit held the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation was liable under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. The CDCR tried to argue that they could not be liable under Title VII for maintaining a hostile work environment caused by inmate misconduct. The court disagreed and proffered that prisons are not uniquely exempt from liability for sexual harassment by inmates. According to the court, Freitag presented "overwhelming evidence" at trial that the CDCR maintained a sexually hostile work environment at Pelican Bay by failing to take prompt and reasonable corrective action in response to her multiple complaints, and that it retaliated against her for those complaints. The jury found for Freitag on her sexual harassment and retaliation claims against CDCR and First Amendment claims against the warden, an associate warden, and the EEO coordinator. It awarded her $500,000 in economic damages and $100,000 in non-economic damages. In addition, the trial court permanently enjoined the prison from maintaining a sexually hostile work environment or retaliating against employees who complain of perceived Title VII violations, and ordered the appointment of a special master to aid in the development of a remedial plan to resolve the inmate sexual misconduct problem and monitor compliance with the plan. On appeal, a unanimous panel agreed that CDCR could be held liable under Title VII for a hostile work environment created by inmates. The court noted that employers may be held liable for third-party conduct and non-employees where the employer "knows or should have known of the conduct and fails to take immediate and appropriate corrective action". The court also noted that "nothing in the law suggests that prison officials may ignore sexually hostile conduct and refrain from taking corrective actions that would safeguard the rights of the victims, whether they be guards or inmates".

[Gaoler]

Thanks....

[Crosstimbers Okie]

My wife has had a couple of incidents at her facility that the admin completely swept under the rug, not so much as even a stern lecture to the inmates.

Kind of makes you wonder why they value inmates above staff.

[COintheWoods]

The subject of the original post here. Figured I'd get my chance to $%^ and moan for a moment.

Basically what happened was, I was working third shift, and in one particular cell (two man cell, no toilet in cell but that's irrelevant right now) one of the inmates was on fifteen minute checks. This was the SMI (serious mental illness) wing, and the guy on checks was on them for a very good reason, so I was staggering my checks (sometimes five minutes, sometimes twelve or fourteen). For the sake of ease, let's call the guy on checks A, and his roommate B. B was on the top bunk. At one point in the night, I checked on A and it looked like B wasn't wearing any underpants. I thought it was weird, but when I checked again, he was covered. So a while later, I check on A again and noticed that it didn't look like B had any pants on again. I thought this was really odd and checked again, after a half a second. Sure enough, B's scrotum was completely visible. I wasn't sure enough that he was masturbating to write it in the paperwork for the DR that I subsequently wrote, but I suspected it. B gets really disruptive, agitated because I'm writing him a DR. So the supervisor comes down, gets B calmed down (after about an hour of excessive shouting and such). Shortly thereafter, B knocks to get let out to go to the bathroom. B apologizes to me, asks if he got written for masturbating, I told him that I had written him for indecent exposure. He pretty much admits to masturbating, thanks me as if I were doing him a favor by not writing it as such (but I couldn't seeing as I didn't see his hand, only his scrotum due to the angle of the window and the bunks).

Now, B lives in the unit that I run now. About two weeks ago, he got very agitated about me issuing him a DR for threatening to knock another inmate's teeth down his throat. Myself and the neighboring COII were speaking with B (more like he was yelling at us) and he bring up that the DR I gave him for indecent exposure was dropped. From then until now, he's been lording this over me. It doesn't help that for the DR I gave him for threatening, they gave him 15 days in the hole, suspended. And today, he became so disruptive that the supervisor had to be called down twice, and yet he is still not in the hole.

In fact, today I gave B a major DR for lying (he lied to another officer, and then to me about lying to the other officer). Before I had even gotten a chance to print out my report or turn it in, I got a phone call from the assistant supervisor trying to pressure me into essentially dropping the DR. This is after B screamed at the supervisor for fifteen minutes straight and called me a "fat ass."

The reason that he's getting this special treatment? Because that's just "how he is." I'm sorry, but if this were any other inmate, they would have gone straight to the hole. It's almost like they're protecting this guy, and condoning his behavior. I don't get it -- he's not all that SMI, he's just easily agitated. He's in a normal living unit, so he can't be that SMI.

Anyway, sorry for the rant. There was another time that I was flashed -- again in our SMI unit -- where the inmate had no pants on and was displaying his genitalia. I gave him the DR for indecent exposure, and he never went to the hole for it. I don't know whether they gave him a suspended sentence or what, but he never was disciplined for it.

[glorifiedbabysitter]

Sounds like my joint!! I was told by a good guy, GUNNER, that this is about all you can do. You wrote him up, you turned it in to your supervisor, that's it, that's all you can do. Like Gunner said, maybe they are using him for something bigger, maybe they want to protect him for something else, who knows. Don't let the higher staff get you down, you did YOUR job and that should mean everything to you. don't let them get you down.

[COintheWoods]

Thank you glorifiedbabysitter. Hopefully things will get straightened out soon and if not, well, I guess I'm leaving anyway

[tcurtis76]

where are you going? different facility? agency? different field?

[COintheWoods]

Originally Posted by tcurtis76

where are you going? different facility? agency? different field?

Dispatch for the Vermont State Police. Until I get hired for the BOP in Tucson.

[cllingo]

As long as you realize, you will experience the "205"ers(engaging in a sexual act) just as frequently in the BOP as you have in your current place of employment.