After decades of turning a blind eye to horrific sex crimes, Alabama’s Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women is finally being taken to task by the DOJ.
During its 2013 investigation of sexual violence in Tutwiler, the DOJ collected hundreds of letters from inmates, 25 percent of which detailed some form of sexual misconduct. In addition to raping and sodomizing them, personnel withheld basic necessities from women if they refused to perform sexual favors. Some women were watched as they showered and dressed, and others were called derogatory names. Those who chose to speak up were thrown into segregation and subjected to polygraph tests.
At the time of the investigation, 36 percent of Tutwiler’s staff had sexually abused female inmates. But heinous sex crimes have occurred in the facility for decades, and DOJ discovered the Alabama Department of Corrections (ADOC) knowingly allowed them to persist.
According to a settlement announced Thursday, Tutwiler will overhaul its current system of responding to and tracking sexual misconduct. In addition to fully staffing and reorienting its camera policy, the prison must hire a full-time staff member to ensure the facility is in compliance with the Prison Rape Elimination Act, which requires all correctional facilities to track sexual abuse and submit policy recommendations to reduce it. In addition to retraining all of its staff and swiftly disciplining and reporting anyone in violation of its new zero-tolerance policy, Tutwiler is obligated to educate every inmate about what constitutes sexual misconduct, how to respond and report it, and how to collect physical evidence. Women who report sexual misconduct must receive medical attention and have access to crisis intervention resources. Personnel are obligated to ensure the safety of those who bring forth sexual abuse complaints, and cannot put inmates in segregated, protective custody units. Moreover, the prison is required to accommodate the needs of trans and gender non-conforming inmates with non-surgical healthcare, hygiene products, and clothing.
“Prisoners are entitled to be safe from sexual predation by staff, and to live in an environment free from sexual assault, sexual harassment and the constant fear of these abuses,” Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta said in a DOJ press release. “Our agreement uses gender-responsive and trauma-informed principles designed to address and eliminate the culture of abuse that Tutwiler’s women prisoners have suffered from and endured for years.”
While the settlement marks a significant victory for the women in Tutwiler, men women in other prisons across the country are still subjected to heinous sex crimes. Most rapes and sexual assaults go unreported. The Bureau of Justice Statistics concluded that the number of allegations of staff-on-inmate sexual victimization increased by 11 percent, between 2009 and 2011.