A Fort Worth Federal Judge Sentences a Man to One Year in Jail for Allegedly Molesting a Female Prisoner
In November 2017 news, a federal judge in Fort Worth, Texas, sentenced a 39-year-old man from Arkansas to one year in jail. He was found guilty of molesting a female prisoner he was responsible for overseeing. The man had worked as a case manager at Fort Worth’s Carswell Federal Medical Center. According to prosecutors, the man engaged in multiple sexual acts with a prisoner he was supervising. The prisoner was also allegedly forced by the man to perform a sex act on him. The job of the man sentenced to jail time was to evaluate the progress of prisoners and develop their release plans, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Prison rape by jail staff has been recognized as an ongoing problem. Congress unanimously passed the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) in 2003, but it has been determined that it is not having the effective impact hoped for. Any progress made toward implementation of PREA standards has reportedly been painfully slow, leaving prisoners vulnerable to being victimized sexually.
There have allegedly been attempts to weaken the provisions of PREA in Texas, the state with the most prisoner sexual assaults. It has been reported that a U.S. Senator proposed a measure that would have stopped federal financial penalties for four years for states who are non-compliant, even if there is no evidence of moves toward compliance with the federal standards.
Former governor Rick Perry reportedly said that the standards to reduce prison rapes were burdens that were ill-conceived. He is said to have declined implementation of PREA. Current Texas Governor Greg Abbottt has confirmed that Texas would comply with federal provisions wherever feasible.
According to a report by the New York Times, only one Texas prison rape case went to grand jury in 2013, though there were 743 reports of sexual abuse and rape.
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