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| Prison Guards Get Light Sentences For Sex Abuse |
| By citylimits.org |
| Published: 05/23/2011 |
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New York State prison guards who break the law by having sex with an inmate often receive favorable treatment by juries and light sentences from judges. About three months after an inmate at Albion Correctional Facility alleged that Correctional Officer Donald L. violently raped her, the officer found himself on the wrong side of the law. Sitting at his own arraignment hearing in the Orleans County Courthouse in October 2007, he entered a guilty plea on charges of third-degree rape and official misconduct, exposing himself to the possibility of up to four years in prison for the first charge alone. At Donald's January 2008 sentencing hearing, his attorney called for mercy—specifically, for the former officer to be sentenced to weekends in jail,. "I submit respectfully, and not only because of Donald, but because of his fiancé, their young child and the fact that they look to him for their support, I would respectfully ask the Court to consider that," Buffalo attorney Joseph M. LaTona said. Judge James P. Munch quickly agreed, giving Donald 60 days of weekends in jail and 10 years of probation. The judge said the rape wasn't violent and the inmate wanted it. "There was no force used here," he said. "And Mr. LaTona is absolutely right: There is only so much empathy you can have for an inmate who wanted to have relations with you." In a recent survey of correctional facilities across the nation, the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics found that three New York State prisons ranked among the top 11 participating facilities in the rate of inmate reports of staff sexual abuse. The outcome of Donald's case illustrates what critics say is a major obstacle to reducing staff sexual abuse in New York State: the tepid response of the criminal justice system. The New York State Department of Correctional Services, or DOCS, which operates 67 state correctional facilities where some 56,000 inmates are currently incarcerated, doesn't refer all potential cases of sexual abuse to its own inspectors. But even when DOCS pursues criminal charges in connection with substantiated incidents of sexual contact, the punishment that could be meted out to prison staff may be mitigated or overruled by other parties. Critics say that prosecutors impose lenient charges and negotiate sweetheart plea deals; juries exonerate the suspects despite solid evidence; and judges show undue mercy. "The DA did not prosecute this as a rape in the first degree, which it should have been. The State Police, every time they looked at the case, they went into a coma," says Terrence Kindlon, the attorney for Donald's victim. (Donald declined, through a relative, to comment for this story. Brenyah's attorneys did not respond to requests for comment.) Read More. |
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