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SERIOUS STEPS TAKEN TO ADDRESS FEMALE PRISONER ABUSE

Just kidding. Last week, a BOP contractor employee monitoring home confinement inmates who sexually abused a Miami woman on house arrest got a prison sentence one month shorter than his victim’s time on house arrest.

Miami-Dade resident Benito Montes de Oca Cruz, 60, got a 4-month prison sentence for one count of abusive sexual contact, followed by a year of supervised release, four months of which will be on home confinement. His victim was on five months of house arrest at the end of her 51-month sentence when he committed “abusive sexual contact” on her.

Remember when DOJ official Lisa Monaco said that women prisoners who suffered sexual abuse at the hands of BOP employees would be recommended for compassionate release due to their treatment? She was kidding, too. One FCI Dublin victim was denied a compassionate release recommendation last fall, the BOP telling her “that the officers’ cases have not yet been ‘adjudicated…’ [Her attorney] said that prison officials told her to refile her motion, most likely once all the officers are charged or sentenced.”

The inmate has under a third of her sentence to serve – under three years – so the BOP’s “come back next week” directive should run out the clock on her request right smartly.

Sadly, this would be true even if she were doing a life term. One of the abusive COs, aptly if disgustedly known as ‘Dirty Dick,” committed suicide after he learned that he was under investigation for abusing women, according to the woman’s lawyer. “So unless they are planning to do a final adjudication… there will never she will never be able to meet the Bureau of Prisons’ standard.”

Maybe Satan can convene a grand jury somewhere in the fires of hell… 

Of course, this begs the question of why the BOP and DOJ themselves cannot turn their considerable investigative powers to determine whether the abuse happened.  The BOP has its own investigative office, the SIS (which stands for “Special Investigative Supervisor”). The DOJ has an inspector general office. To be sure, the BOP doesn’t need to get a criminal conviction against a BOP employee to recommend compassionate release for an inmate victim, either.  But showing any initiative might hurt BOP employee morale by suggesting that abusing inmates was not a perk of working at the BOP.

And after all, how many other sordid tales about ‘Dirty Dick’ would be enough to corroborate that he was a s abuser? E. Jean Carroll only required two…

Last week, the female prisoner filed for compassionate release with her sentencing judge, seeking a sentencing reduction of about 34 and a half months of her 120-month sentence.

Miami Herald, A Bureau of Prisons monitor gets his sentence. He raped a Miami woman on house arrest (April 30, 2023)

KTVU, Dublin prison sex assault survivor seeks compassionate release after BOP denies (May 5, 2023)

– Thomas L. Root