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December 15, 2006
Calling sex consensual insult to women who are incarcerated
Letter to the Editor:
(Springfield Republican)- December 15, 2006
Calling sex consensual insult to female inmates
In spite of Hampden District Attorney William M. Bennett's reference to sex between the four indicted Hampden County Correctional Center officers and two women prisoners as "consensual" in The Republican, it is unquestionably a case of sexual exploitation and victim-blaming. ("Guard, 3 former guards, indicted, Dec. 6).
Any thinking adult would have to know that women who are incarcerated are powerless and treated as property of the state. Sexual contact by paid employees of HCCC is inherently exploitive, violent and abusive.
Bennett's statement is an insult to the sensibilities and intelligence of the community and could destroy any element of fairness when the cases go to trial. Although Sheriff Ashe refers to this crime as "an aberration," the sexual violation of women prisoners in jails and prisons is not. Sex with a woman prisoner is on the continuum of abuse that most of the women have endured since childhood. Incarcerated women suffer disproportionately from mental illness and addiction, and recovery is barely possible in that setting. Bennett's assertion is reiterated: "While investigators discovered the alleged sexual encounters were voluntary, jail guards are barred from sex with inmates under any circumstances, [Sheriff Michael] Ashe said." It is clear that those who wrote and passed the law barring guards from having sex with prisoners knew that those who have a vested interest in protecting their positions will maintain that sex between a guard and a prisoner can be consensual.
The comments of Bennett and Ashe undermine the indictment of the grand jury and demonstrate the necessity for state law that supersedes the opinions of some of our elected officials.
Ellen Miller-Mack
Northampton, MA
Posted by lois at December 15, 2006 10:10 AM