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Guards Assaulting Female Inmates in Michigan

By Jeralyn, Section Inmates and Prisons
Posted on Mon May 23, 2005 at 08:45:19 AM EST
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The Detroit News is running a series on a lengthy investigation it conducted into prison guards who sexually assault female inmates .

From April 2002 to spring of the following year, Renee Williams says she received gifts from a prison guard with whom she was having a sexual relationship. When they had a falling out, Williams says the guard withheld her mail. When she complained, he had her committed to a mental services unit claiming she was delusional.

The Justice Department has brought several lawsuits against the state over the abuse:

Michigan's 2,000 female inmates remain in jeopardy, predatory guards often go unpunished and taxpayers face a mounting bill from inmate lawsuits that already exceeds $4 million, a five-month Detroit News investigation found. At the heart of the problem is the department's failure to change practices that allowed abusive behavior to flourish in the 1990s, The News' investigation found.

A whopping 31 guards have been convicted of sexually abusing female inmates. In today's installment, prison inmates name guards as the fathers of their children. The News has an editorial today, Get Male Guards Out of Female Prisons.

The full series, including Justice Department documents, is accessible here.

< Bush's Appellate Judges Could Tip Court Balances | 'Punk Prison' May Close in Michigan >

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    • Guards Assaulting Female Inmates in Michigan | 3 comments (3 topical)
    Re: Guards Assaulting Female Inmates in Michigan (none / 0) (#1)
    by Che's Lounge on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:55:40 PM EST
    We're ALL criminals!!!!!!!!

    Re: Guards Assaulting Female Inmates in Michigan (none / 0) (#2)
    by soccerdad on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:55:41 PM EST
    As has been pointed out by a number of posters in the past these kinds of incidents in our own prisons are not uncomon and give credence to the idea that the behavior of those who abused Iraqis or Afghanis are not an isolated few that may have resorted to such behavior under the stress of the circumastance. Rather it must speak to an attitude that exists in rather a large section of the American population. Where does it come from? Has it always been this bad? Does it arise from a dehumanization of those who are seen as quilty of some crime, but this is really an answer. Is it that power is now seen as being of and by itself justification for any action, i.e. I can so I will and that by itself makes it ok? I find it disturbing that so many in the US including many of our government officials and even a small but vocal minority of religious leaders are so quick to dehumanize and marginalize so many. In their quest for power and ultimate control, people are either useful in that they can be manipulated by the powerful into believing they are part of the "chosen" , the "base" etc or they are the enemy to be despised, dehumanized and conquered.

    Re: Guards Assaulting Female Inmates in Michigan (none / 0) (#3)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:55:41 PM EST
    They're all just pigeons, people... The first step to abuse is dehumanization- you can abuse and kill those you don't view as humans...ask the Nazis, ask the Virginian slave-owners of the "Fair South," ask the Afrikaans jailors from the 70's and 80's... Or you can just ask the American jailors in Guantanamo Bay, Abu Graib and Afghanistan...

    Guards Assaulting Female Inmates in Michigan | 3 comments (3 topical)