Inmates Sexually Abused In Prison Are Potentially Eligible For Compassionate Release
The Department of Justice is pressing top officials at the Bureau of Prisons to tell inmates who prison employees have assaulted to apply for compassionate early releases.
Landwebs
A number of women abused in federal prisons were awared compassionate release because of abuse at Dublin FCI in California, Gracyann Joslin reports for the Davis Vanguard. The Department of Justice is pressing top officials at the Bureau of Prisons to tell inmates who prison employees have assaulted to apply for compassionate early releases. A backlog of 8,000 internal affairs misconduct cases have yet to be investigated, and more than 5,400 allegations of sexual abuse against prison employees have been substantiated over a 10-year period. Under federal law, any sexual contact between a prison employee and a prisoner is illegal.
Prisoners’ rights groups have complained that Bureau of Prisons officials have been reluctant to grant compassionate discharges. Inmates can provide evidence of a terminal illness or of abuse at the hands of an official, but they have to apply through the Bureau of Prisons. Now, because of widespread distrust toward the BOP, criminal justice reform groups have asked the U.S. Sentencing Commission to allow inmates to request compassionate release from judges directly.
