State to pay $1 million to female inmates
Women alleged abuse by prison staff members
OLYMPIA – The state Department of Corrections on Friday agreed to pay $1 million to compensate five female inmates who said they were sexually abused by corrections staffers at the state’s main women’s prison near Gig Harbor.
Scott Blonien, assistant secretary of corrections, called the allegations “very unfortunate.” He said the agency is eager to work with the women, their lawyers and other interest groups “to learn from it and move on.”
As part of the settlement, prison officials also agreed to make changes at all three women’s prisons, including Medical Lake’s Pine Lodge Corrections Center.
The class-action lawsuit, known as Jane Doe v. Clarke, was filed in July 2007 by current and former prisoners who said staffers tolerated sexual misconduct and punished women who complained.
A Spokesman-Review investigation in 2007 detailed similar allegations at Pine Lodge. At least seven women, virtually all of whom volunteered to take polygraph tests, alleged sexual harassment or abuse from staffers.
At the Washington Correctional Center for Women, where the five women in the lawsuit were incarcerated, female inmates complained that they were fondled, forced to perform oral sex in supply closets and given gifts by guards in exchange for undressing. State attorneys denied the charges at the time and noted that the statute of limitations had run out. In the $1 million settlement signed Friday, the state admitted no liability.
Among other changes, Blonien said, prisons are adding cameras and windows in doors.
“We’re attempting to diminish the number of places where this type of activity can take place” without being spotted by inmates or staffers, he said.
The agency also is improving the reporting and investigating of such incidents, he said, including forming a six-person team that will only handle allegations of sexual assaults from inmates, including those committed by inmates.
“There weren’t processes and procedures in place to ensure that these things are handled as expeditiously as they should have been,” Blonien said.
During an 18-month period before the filing of the lawsuit, there were 202 allegations of sexual misconduct in Washington’s prison system. Nearly half – 46 percent – involved staffers. Of those cases, 26 incidents were substantiated.
Blonien said the number of complaints has risen recently. That may be because victims are more willing to step forward, he said.