Women abused in federal prisons may get out early

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.

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 compile a list of inmates who have been assaulted by prison staff and might qualify for the department’s underused compassionate release program.

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.

On Tuesday, a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee released the results of a bipartisan investigation that provided the starkest picture to date of a crisis that the Justice Department has identified as a top policy priority.

“I was sentenced and put in prison for choices I made; I was not sent to prison to be raped and abused,” said Briane Moore, who was repeatedly assaulted by an official at a women’s prison in West Virginia.

Moore was one of several women to provide firsthand testimony before the committee to accompany the release of the report, which was based on interviews with dozens of whistleblowers, current and former prison officials, and survivors of sexual abuse.

Among the findings made public: Bureau employees abused female prisoners in at least 19 of the 29 federal facilities that have held women over the past decade; in at least four prisons, managers failed to apply the federal law intended to detect and reduce sexual assault; and hundreds of sexual abuse charges are among a backlog of 8,000 internal affairs misconduct cases yet to be investigated.

A committee analysis of court filings and prison records over the past decade found male and female inmates had made 5,415 allegations of sexual abuse against prison employees, of which 586 were later substantiated by investigators.

“Our findings are deeply disturbing and demonstrate, in my view, that the BOP is failing systemically to prevent, detect and address sexual abuse of prisoners by its own employees,” said Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., who leads the subcommittee.

Committee investigators documented a culture that contributed to an environment in which male prison officials said they knew what they were doing was illegal but believed they would never be held accountable.