Florida female inmates feared reprisals from the guards who assaulted them

Last year, 15 women filed a lawsuit alleging systemic sexual harassment and assault by male prison officers at the Coleman Federal Correction Complex in Sumter County, near Wildwood.

The women’s ages ranged from 30 to 56, and most were first offenders. The work camp where they were incarcerated is minimum security, though FCC Coleman itself is the largest prison in the federal system, housing 6,000 inmates, mostly men, in several compounds.

It’s a compellingly credible lawsuit because the female inmates, who had good reasons to fear reprisals, agreed to use their real names. And they also named the guards whom they say repeatedly abused and assaulted them.

In one particularly awful account, made public by The Herald and Tampa

Bay Times, an inmate said she was raped every Wednesday for six months at a warehouse where she had been assigned to work.

Lauren Reynolds, serving time for a firearms conviction, said the sexual attack always took place before her shift began, and named the officer as Daniel Kuilan.

Something unexpected happened in July when the U.S. government responded to the womens’ lawsuit: It revealed that Kuilan, along with five other prison officers, had admitted to sexual misconduct at FCC Coleman.

And federal authorities specifically identified Lauren Reynolds as Kuilan’s victim.

Yet he’s not in jail. He was never charged with rape, or any crime, as a result of his actions at the prison.

Instead, according to the government, Kuilan was allowed to resign from his job on a medical disability. Five other prison officers — including one who admitted had sex with numerous female inmates — have also quit or retired without being prosecuted.

One woman described being harassed for four years by an officer who took her to empty rooms and ordered her to perform oral sex. That officer, Christopher Palomares, was identified as an abuser by a total of 10 female inmates.

The government acknowledges he admitted having sexual contact with seven of them.

But, like Kuilan, Palomares hasn’t been arrested or indicted.

As expected, several of those named in the allegations told government investigators that all intimate contact with the prisoners was consensual, which is ludicrous.

Here’s the official policy statement of the Bureau of Prisons: “There is never any such thing as consen

sual sex between staff and inmates.” (The word consensual is emphasized by the agency.)

Still, the assertion that the women were willing participants in a casual prison fling is the go-to defense in these types of cases.

Prosecuting isn’t ever easy when it’s the word of a sworn law enforcement officer against the word of a convicted felon.

That’s what makes the Coleman lawsuit so important — multiple victims, naming multiple names. The female inmates, some of whom are still incarcerated, knew the risks they were taking by coming forward.

They said they were warned of swift retribution if they spoke to anyone about the assaults — officers threatened to terminate their work assignments, or have them transferred to tougher prisons, farther from their families.

One inmate said she was told she would get fired from her prison maintenance job if she refused a guard’s demand to see her breasts.

She said he took her clothes off on a mattress in back of a parked semitruck while she pleaded with him not to attack her.

According to the government, that officer, Timothy Phillips, later admitted having sex with two female inmates.

Intimidation of the women took other sinister forms. Some recounted how officers would show them computer screens displaying personal information — including home addresses — of the inmate’s family members, including young children.

The message was clear, the threat chillingly obvious.

For the record, Phillips, Kuilan, Palomares and the other named guards aren’t defendants in the federal lawsuit.

It’s the Bureau of Prisons, which the women say have turned FCC Coleman into a “sanctuary” for serial abusers.

“When you get away with something, most human nature is to keep doing it,” Lauren Reynolds told Times reporter Romy Ellenbogen.

And getting away with it is what happens at Coleman.

If those officers had allegedly done what they did anywhere but at a prison, they’d probably be in a cell themselves — not at home collecting benefits, as some are.

Being allowed to resign or retire isn’t punishment. It’s a Get Out of Jail Free card than any sexual predator would be elated to have.