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GRASSLEY, DURBIN, PADILLA MEET WITH BOP DIRECTOR PETERS TO FURTHER INVESTIGATE SEXUAL MISCONDUCT
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Senators Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Alex Padilla (D-CA) met with Bureau of Prisons Director Colette Peters last Wednesday to discuss sexual misconduct by BOP personnel and the Dept of Justice’s efforts to root it out.
The meeting followed letters that Grassley, Durbin, Padilla, and Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) sent to DOJ last year seeking information about sexual misconduct allegations against BOP staffers.
“I appreciate that DOJ convened a Working Group to address sexual misconduct by BOP employees and that BOP has begun implementing reforms to enhance prevention, reporting, investigation, prosecution, and discipline related to staff sexual misconduct,” Durbin said. “DOJ’s report in November was evidence of the desperate need for reform and improved oversight. I will continue pushing BOP and DOJ to ensure that BOP operates federal prisons safely, securely, and effectively.”
The meeting comes as a new report released by the DOJ’s Bureau of Justice Statistics reported that prison and jail staff rarely face legal consequences for sexual assault.
BJS released data on more than 2,500 documented incidents of sexual assault in federal and state prisons and jails between 2016 and 2018. Despite federal laws intended to create zero-tolerance policies for prison sexual abuse, most notably the Prison Rape Elimination Act, the report found that staff sexual misconduct perpetrators were convicted in only 20% of jailhouse incidents and only a 6% of substantiated prison incidents. Fewer than half of the perps lost their jobs.
“Staff sexual misconduct led to the perpetrator’s discharge, termination or employment contract not being renewed in 44 percent of incidents,” the report states. “Staff perpetrators were reprimanded or disciplined following 43% of sexual harassment incidents.”
Not everyone is sanguine about BOP efforts, nor – according to the report’s findings – should they be. In a recent release, the advocacy group FAMM said, “The Department of Justice (DOJ) is stepping up prosecutions of prison sexual assault. While commendable, jailing the abusers is not enough. It won’t heal survivors’ trauma or stop this from happening in the future. We need independent oversight to make real change. The BOP has shown that it cannot be trusted to mind its own foxes in its own hen houses.”
Sen. Charles Grassley, Grassley, Durbin, Padilla Meet With BOP Director Peters to Further Investigate Sexual Misconduct (February 2, 2023)
DOJ Bureau of Justice Statistics, Substantiated Incidents of Sexual Victimization Reported by Adult Correctional Authorities, 2016–2018 (February 2, 2023)
Reason, New Data Show Prison Staff Are Rarely Held Accountable for Sexual Misconduct (February 3, 2023)
FAMM, How the Department of Justice is Failing Victims of Sexual Assault in Prison (January 24, 2023)
– Thomas L. Root