Pennsylvania ruling
Guards may assault women prisoners
By Betsey Piette
Philadelphia
Women members of the MOVE 9 currently incarcerated at the
Pennsylvania State Correctional Institute at Cambridge Springs
are protesting an Aug. 5 ruling that allows male guards at
Cambridge Springs to "pat search" women prisoners.
Under the policy, already in effect at other women's prisons
in the state, male guards can run their hands over all parts of
women prisoners' bodies, including vaginal searches, any time
they want to.
A statement from the MOVE 9 women--Janet, Janine and Debbie
Africa--issued Aug. 12 notes that there have already been
instances of sexual misconduct by employees. In August 1997,
Cambridge Springs prison was under investigation by state
representatives for misuse and abuse of authority and sexual
misconduct. At that time four officers were found guilty of
sexual harassment and fired.
Their statement points out that there is an adequate number
of women officers at Cambridge Springs--a minimum-security
facility--to make any searches by male guards unnecessary.
The MOVE women are challenging the Aug. 5 ruling as a
violation of the prison rulebook policy DC-ADM 008 on sexual
harassment, which defines it in part as "the intentional
touching, either directly or through clothing, of the
genitalia, anus, groin, breast, inner thighs, or buttocks of
any inmate."
In their view, allowing a male guard to touch a woman
prisoner's vagina as part of a "pat search" is not just sexual
harassment, it amounts to rape, and they fear it will only
encourage more molestation of women prisoners.
In response to the ruling, on Aug. 14, a delegation
consisting of lawyers and scholars from Spain traveled to the
Pennsylvania Department of Corrections head office in Camp
Hill, Pa., to meet with the head superintendent of the
Department of Corrections. The delegation voiced opposition to
the ruling.
A demonstration for prisoners' rights is being planned in
Pennsylvania in early October. Time and location will be
announced. Calls to demand that this policy be repealed
statewide should be made to Secretary Jeffrey A. Beard of the
Central Office for Pennsylvania Prisons at (717) 975-4859.
Calls should also be made to Cambridge Springs Warden
Brooks--herself a woman--at (814) 398-5400 to explain that
allowing this policy to go into effect would constitute her
endorsement of violence against women.
Reprinted from the Aug. 29, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
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