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The chaplain, James Theodore Highhouse, 49, pleaded guilty as part of a plea agreement in February in federal court to five felonies for sexually abusing a female inmate who came to him for spiritual guidance, and then lying to federal agents during the ensuing investigation. She said the officer, a captain at the prison, would take her to private areas of the facility to abuse her out of sight of surveillance cameras. The four other charged Dublin employees are at various stages of their cases. special report by the U.S. Department of Justice, faced scrutiny for repeated incidents of inmate sexual abuse, jury found the former warden Ray J. Garcia guilty of seven counts of sexual abuse, Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. ", Tami Abdollah is a USA TODAY national correspondent covering inequities in the criminal justice system. 108-79) requires BJS to carry out an annual comprehensive statistical review and analysis of the incidence and effects of prison rape. Aimee Chavira, a federal prisoner currently incarcerated in Arizona, claimed she was repeatedly sexually abused by male staff at the Dublin womens prison, near Oakland. I have no trust in the Church and really, I dont trust anyone because of what he did.. James Theodore Highhouse, 49, a prison chaplain, has already signed a plea agreement . U.S. District Judge Haywood S. Gilliam Jr. said the guidelines, which call for a sentence of less than three years, seriously underestimate the seriousness" of Highhouse's conduct. Ms. Peters has said she has begun to consider requests from inmates who have been abused and are not deemed to be threats to the community if they are granted their release. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. His lawyers asked for two years, the low end of the federal guidelines, which called for a sentence of 24 to 30 months. Human rights group Amnesty International in 2014 reported that torture and ill-treatment were still prevalent worldwide, indicating that 141 countries are practicing these systematic forms of abuse in their detention facilities. Do Not Sell My Personal Information. researches product purchases and suppliers. Contacting the Special Investigations Division by Telephone: (609) 826-5617. WASHINGTON The epidemic of sexual assaults against female prisoners in federal custody has prompted the Justice Department to expand the use of a program to provide early releases to women abused behind bars, according to people familiar with the situation. Sentencing Commission, an independent agency that creates guidelines for federal judges, to carry out a law that gives inmates and their lawyers the right to directly petition courts for compassionate release without having to go through the Bureau of Prisons. John Russell . Ray J. Garcia, 55, of Merced, was accused in 2021 of sexually abusing at least one incarcerated woman at the Federal Correctional Institute in Dublin, east of San Francisco. "Speaking about my experience in such a public setting is incredibly hard. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. The former warden, Ray J. Garcia, was arraigned Wednesday on a superseding indictment charging him with abusing two additional inmates, for a total of seven counts involving three victims. The committees report sharply criticized the Justice Departments leaders for failing to bring charges against many of those accused of abusing inmates at the now-shuttered womens unit at Coleman. In an interview with The Washington Post, Lowe said he made a mistake that enabled the inmates to steal the keys. OAKLAND, Calif. A former worker at a federal women's prison in California was sentenced Thursday to 20 months in prison for sexually abusing an inmate. A former Bureau of Prisons (BOP) correctional officer was arrested today in Oahu, Hawaii, on criminal charges related to his alleged sexual abuse of female inmates. That woman said in a victim impact statement that she cried herself to sleep after testifying before a grand jury about Highhouses abuse. One of the rape victims, identified in the most recent lawsuit as Jane Doe 1, said she contracted genital herpes as a result of the sexual assault. Chavez was arrested in Arizona and is awaiting transfer to Oakland to face these charges. The push comes amid new revelations about the extent of abuse of women, and the unwillingness of many prison officials, over decades and at all levels in the system, to address a crisis that has long been an open secret in government. An inmate's size and strength is particularly important in . At the time, he said prison staff allowed massive amounts of contraband to flow into the facilities. Ms. Peters has said that addressing prisoner abuse, along with the overreliance on restrictive housing units, are among her top priorities. I hope that they will not have to go through what I went through. WASHINGTON The Bureau of Prisons has rejected the early release of a female inmate who said she had been sexually abused by male employees at a notorious California penitentiary, reflecting a broader struggle by the Justice Department to free inmates abused in federal custody, when appropriate. Briane Moore, formerly incarcerated in the Federal Bureau of Prisons, testifies during the hearing of Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Investigations, on Sexual Abuse of Female Inmates in Federal Prisons, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Dec. 13, 2022. The charges against Chavez were unsealed Wednesday as members of Congress have urged more scrutiny and investigations into allegations of systemic sexual abuse of inmates by those in power at the prison. Thus far, only a handful of the women at Dublin have applied for compassionate release, but many others are waiting to see the outcome of the requests from Ms. Chavira and others before taking action. Linda De La Rosa, formerly incarcerated in the Federal Bureau of Prisons, testifies during the hearing of Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Investigations, on Sexual Abuse of Female Inmates in Federal Prisons, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Dec. 13, 2022. Aided by Denver attorneys David Lane, Liana Orshan and Tania Valdez, Arapahoe filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the BOP and numerous employees, which eventually settled for $750,000. A federal corrections officer accused of holding hard-to-get feminine hygiene products over inmates' heads to sexually abuse seven women took a plea . Enrique Chavez isthe fifth Bureau of Prisons employee at the high-profileNorthern California prison in Dublin to be indicted at the facility since spring 2021. The whole incident split people into two groups-those who justified what happened with Xavier saying what goes around comes around and those who condemned the brutality happened with Xavier. But that seems to be changing, albeit slowly. Prosecutors had sought a 10-year prison sentence. Its hard to come up with the right words to describe how egregious an abuse of these victims this was, Gilliam said. In recent weeks, the deputy attorney general, Lisa O. Monaco, has pressed top officials at the Bureau of Prisons, a division of the department, to encourage inmates who have been assaulted by prison employees, and might qualify for the departments underused compassionate release program, to apply. Copyright 2023 Corrections1. BOP employees, including Officer James Townsend, Chaplain Hightower, and Officer Bell, fostered a culture of rampant sexual abuse of prisoners widely referred to as 'the rape club,'" court documents allege, per the outlet. If convicted, he faces a maximum of life in on each count of sexual abuse by threats and up to 15 years in prison on each count of sexual abuse of a ward. In 2019, Ms. Reynolds took the lonely, terrifying risk of identifying the officer who pressured her for sex and quickly discovered she was one of at least 10 women who had been abused by officers and workers at the facility. Highhouse must register as a sex offender once he's released from prison, Gilliam said. But taking this relatively modest step has proved more difficult than anticipated. Ms. Monaco has pushed federal prosecutors to crack down on sexual abuse at federal facilities, even though proving such crimes is often time-consuming and difficult. and The perpetrators have included male employees at every level of the prison hierarchy: warden, pastor, guard. Under current rules, the Bureau of Prisons initiates the process of requesting a compassionate release, filing a formal motion with the judge who presided over the original trial. Anyone can read what you share. They seek damages but do not name a specific dollar amount. The prison is one of the nation's few all-female federal prisons. Ca'Linda was sexually abused repeatedly by staff in two different Kentucky facilities. Cameron Lindsay, a former warden at three federal prisons and correctional consultant, said more needs to be done to review the prison's policies. (Also read:SHOCKING! The charge carries a maximum of 20 years in prison and no required minimum sentence. Employees abused prisoners at 19 facilities, according to a Senate probe. Dust Particles found in Amul Milk True or Fake?). The U.S. Justice Department and the Bureau of Prisons convened a task force of 18 senior executives to visit Dublin, examine conditions and meet with inmates and staff members. The other woman who was raped became pregnant and later miscarried, William McCall, one of the two lawyers representing the 20 women who filed the first federal lawsuit, told The Washington Post. A previous lawsuit had been filed earlier in June on behalf of 20 other female inmates, alleging that Noel and the jail guards violated the womens civil rights by either intentionally or negligently allowing the male inmates to gain access to their pods and not coming to their aid. This may be called Tools or use an icon like the cog. The charges announced today reflect the Departments commitment to root out sexual misconduct within the BOP and to hold accountable those who illegally exploit their authority.. The high-profile Dublin prison in Northern California, formerly home to well-known actorsand one of the nation's few all-female federal prisons,has come under scrutiny in recent months for alleged systemic abuse. Other allegations against Highhouse, previously kept quiet by Dublin officials, came to light during the investigation, prosecutors said. The report found that half of inmate-on-inmate and staff-on-inmate sexual abuse occurred in areas that weren't under video surveillance. They characterized the rejection as temporary, although they did not say what factors would lead to an approval or offer a timetable for instituting the new system of internal reviews. Select the option or tab named Internet Options (Internet Explorer), Options (Firefox), Preferences (Safari) or Settings (Chrome).