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At My Texas Prison, Solitary Confinement All But Guarantees Sexual Exploitation by Guards
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of The Marshall Project
Posted: April 17th, 2025
https://www.themarshallproject.org/2025/03/10/solitary-confi...
Of the 17 years that I’ve been incarcerated for killing an abusive boyfriend, I spent eight — from 2016 to last May — in what the state calls “restrictive housing,” but I call “solitary confinement” or “the hole.” In women’s prisons, sexual intrusion, harassment, coercion and violence are daily realities. And in solitary confinement, this conduct is so routine that many women — particularly the younger ones — don’t even think of it as abuse. They believe it’s simply an inevitable part of their incarceration. In 2023, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TCDJ) reported over 700 allegations of staff-on-prisoner sexual abuse and harassment to the PREA Ombudsman, an independent office that tallies up and investigates complaints. Almost 90 of those cases involved sexual harassment, nearly 150 were categorized as voyeurism, and a little more than 500 were classified as sexual abuse. Of the 505 abuse claims, only 20% met the prison system’s onerous criteria for sexual assault or “improper sexual activity with a person in custody.” On the outside, fewer than half of sexual violence cases are reported to police. Given the power dynamics of prison, underreporting is likely more severe here. Guards use a variety of methods to retaliate against women who complain about their abuse. They can write bogus disciplinary infractions that can lead to ... a longer sentence. Officers can also turn off the electricity and running water in women’s cells and refuse to serve them meals.
Note: For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on prison system corruption and sexual abuse scandals.
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