After 15 inmates in the women's facility at the Federal Correctional Complex Coleman in Florida said they were raped by prison officers, Senator Marco Rubio said he wants answers, the Associated Press reported.
The Miami Herald published a report in August detailing the pain of survivors from the facility in Sumter County. They said that they were raped and abused but have yet to see criminal charges filed against the prison personnel responsible.
The U.S. government paid millions in a settlement earlier this year to the 15 women who spoke out about the alleged sexual assault at the facility. Six corrections officers at the Coleman facility said they had "sexual contact" with the female inmates, while seven have resigned or retired, AP reported.
Rubio told the director of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons that he's "deeply concerned" about the lack of protection for the inmates at the prison. He also sent a letter to Michael Carvajal, the director of the federal prisons bureau, asking for more information in Coleman's handling of a recent audit that sought to learn about and review how rape inside the prisons is dealt with.
For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below.
The audit is required under the Prison Rape Elimination Act, which requires correctional facilities to have safeguards to protect inmates from being sexually attacked or abused, whether by fellow inmates or staff members.
He asked why no female inmates were interviewed when auditors visited the prison in April.
"It appears that all female inmates were transferred from FCI Coleman to another prison just two days prior to the on-site audit. This is deeply concerning because it was female inmates who made the allegations of sexual abuse," Rubio wrote to Carvajal.
A lawsuit filed by female inmates alleged that prison officials often moved them to solitary housing at a local county jail, to keep them silent or in fear. They also said officers took them to "dead spots" in the women's facility, where surveillance cameras could not capture them being raped.
"The allegations made by inmates at FCI Coleman raise serious questions as to the facility's compliance with PREA and the conduct of its officers," wrote Rubio, citing coverage in the Miami Herald and the Tampa Bay Times.
The Herald said the bureau of prisons declined comment on Rubio's letter, saying it responds directly to members of Congress and their staff.
Ron Berman, father of Carleane Berman, said he's glad that the Bureau of Prisons is getting public pressure, and he wants more elected leaders to demand answers.
"The wardens knew about this—and conspired to silence the voices of the women who were remanded into their care," Berman said.
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Zoe Strozewski is a Newsweek reporter based in New Jersey. Her focus is reporting on U.S. and global politics. Zoe ... Read more
