Tutwiler Prison for Women opened in Wetumpka, Alabama, in December 1942
By the CNN Wire Staff updated 4:41 PM EDT, Tue May 22, 2012
Women allege widespread sexual abuse at Alabama prison, nonprofit group says
(CNN) -- Male guards at an Alabama women's prison engaged in the widespread sexual abuse of female inmates for years, a nonprofit group alleged in a formal complaint filed with the Justice Department on Tuesday.
The Equal Justice Initiative asked the Justice Department to investigate alleged incidents occurring between 2009 and 2011 at the Tutwiler Prison for Women in Wetumpka, Alabama. The federal agency confirmed that it received the complaint though declined further comment.
"In interviews with more than 50 women incarcerated at Tutwiler, EJI uncovered evidence of frequent and severe officer-on-inmate sexual violence," the Montgomery-based group said in a statement.
"This troubling cycle of abuse and lack of accountability has established a widespread pattern and practice of custodial sexual misconduct," said Bryan Stevenson, the group's executive director.
Stevenson also blamed the Alabama Department of Corrections for under-reporting the alleged attacks, which the group says include rapes, and for responding inadequately.
The group claims that more than "20 Tutwiler employees have been transferred or terminated in the past five years for having illegal sexual contact with prisoners."
"It's an ongoing thing, a daily thing," said Stefanie Hibbett, 31, a former Tutwiler inmate. "You see women raped and beaten, and nothing is ever done."
Hibbett said she was the victim of sexual assault in November 2010. She said she told the prison's warden about the assault, but no charges were ever filed against the prison guard she says attacked her. An Alabama judge dismissed a civil suit she filed in the case in August.
Several imprisoned women also allegedly became pregnant after being raped by guards, giving birth while in custody, the nonprofit group reported.
CNN cannot independently confirm that account. The Alabama attorney general's office referred questions to the Alabama Department of Corrections, which did not immediately return a call for comment.
A 2007 Justice Department report found that Tutwiler maintained the highest rate of sexual assault among prisons for women and 11th overall of those evaluated across the United States.
CNN's Dave Alsup and Vivian Kuo contributed to this report.
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Today is
The Victim Has No Past, It's the moment of Abuse that is judged, not ones past
Prisoners of any kind and any gender can be a victim to a system that goes unmonitored, allowing the enforcement of rules to be abused and or violated.
Each Human Being, in a moment of time, is an individual without history or power, the individual becomes as defenseless as any human being who have no history of violence and aggression.
At what point does a prisoner become the victim of a possible abuse by ones that suppose to be part of a system of support? Are Prisoners victims if they are incarcerated for any reason?
When do we differentiate between a "Prisoner & a Individual"?
The Moment a human being is captured or yield his/her freedom of travel to be subjected to the law of a state or government, he/she is no longer in control of his/her well being, and hence, is a ward of the state or government.
Once a individual relinquish his/her consciousness of freedom to become a conscious prisoner, it then becomes the entity of the incarcerator to provide safety to the individual to the extent that the individual has "rights" within confinement, equal to the same system of physical, emotional, and psychological protections there of a free human being in a free society.
The Treatment of a nations prisoners reflects the level of care and attentiveness of attention to detail, of a nation, that is on display.
Any Male or Female Prisoner being abused by other inmates or guards suggests that the entire system of imprisonment is flawed. A Prisoner being abused with conscientious impunity by the abuser, lacking fear of any degree of investigation leading to his/her documented abuses, are being abused with complacencies by the government or state.
The Victim is no longer the innocent citizen, the victim becomes the incarcerated, whom are treated with equal disdain and abuses that the imprisoned individual would have been on the innocent citizen victim during the act of committing a crime.
These Woman who have been abused is unacceptable, and each and every accused individuals, over the past 20 years, ought to be re-address by an independent body that would provide no degree of favoritism or cronyism.
The Egregious issue is that the acts of a few, in any and all scenarios, are acts that will be told to the group, providing the group with enough knowledge to take action against the abuser.
Allowing Woman to be abused in a jail environment ensures a degree of abuses, ten times more so, than what would have happened on any street by police officers or gang members.
Top to Bottom changes are necessary & people need to be punished.
In My Opinion
ASMFMB
5/22/2012
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