DOJ investigation finds staff sexually abused women at Florida prison

A Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation concluded that the conditions at Lowell Correctional Institution allowed for staff sexual abuse of female inmates since at least 2006, the department announced Tuesday.

The DOJ highlighted several allegations of staff raping, sodomizing, beating and choking female prisoners in its written notice to the facility. The department noted there is “reasonable cause to believe” the Lowell Correctional Institution violated the Eighth Amendment, which forbids cruel and unusual punishment, with its staff’s treatment of inmates. 

The investigation found that the Florida Department of Corrections (FDOC), which operates Lowell Correctional Institution in Ocala, Fla., documented and was aware “of a pattern or practice of staff sexual abuse of Lowell prisoners since at least 2006” but failed to correct the “systemic problems that enabled” the abuse. 

“The Department has reasonable cause to believe that Lowell violates the constitutional rights of prisoners in its care, resulting in serious harm and the substantial risk of serious harm,” the DOJ wrote in its notice. “Specifically, Lowell fails to protect women prisoners from harm due to sexual abuse by staff.”

“Finally … the Department has reasonable cause to believe that Lowell’s violations are pursuant to a pattern or practice of resistance to the full enjoyment of rights protected by the Eighth Amendment,” it added. 

The DOJ instructed the state agency to immediately rearrange the prison’s staff, set up a video surveillance system and make several changes to protect the female inmates from abuse. 

Through more than 100,000 pages of documents and dozens of inmate interviews, the federal investigators found that between 2017 and the present, sergeants, corrections officers and other staff “committed notorious acts of sexual abuse” against prisoners. The investigators labeled the incidents of sexual abuse as “varied and disturbing.”

“Some staff abused prisoners through unwanted and coerced sexual contact, including sexual penetration, and groping,” the written notice said. “Prisoners were forced or coerced to perform fellatio on or touch the intimate body parts of staff. In other instances, staff demanded that prisoners undress in front of them, sometimes in exchange for basic necessities, such as toilet paper.”

The written notice cites an April 2020 case, in which a sergeant admitted to engaging in oral sex with a prisoner, leading him to be arrested for sexual misconduct. The DOJ investigators noted that the sergeant had been accused of sexually abusing another prisoner in 2017, but the FDOC didn’t fully investigate after verifying the prisoner’s injuries. 

The investigators said that cases of staff groping inmates, bribing them for sex, commenting on their bodies and watching them when they use the toilet, shower or change clothes were “common.” Officers also threatened to give inmates solitary confinement if they reported any of the abuse, according to the DOJ.

Florida Department of Corrections Secretary Mark Inch said in a statement that the agency “has cooperated fully” with the DOJ’s investigation “and will continue to do so.”

“We appreciate the work of the U.S. Department of Justice and will be sharing the actions our Department has taken to address the serious concerns outlined in their review,” he said.

Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division Eric Dreiband said in a statement that the sexual abuse “is never acceptable” and “not part of any prisoner’s sentence.”

“This illegal and indecent treatment of women must end, and the Department of Justice will not tolerate it,” he said.