Colorado Private Prison Guards Settle With Female Co-Workers
The operators of Crowley County Correctional Facility, a Colorado private prison, have agreed to pay $1.3 million to settle a lawsuit alleging that male officers forced female workers to perform sex acts to keep their jobs. The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced the settlement with the Dominion Correctional Services LLC and Nashville, Tenn.-based Corrections Corporation of America this past Tuesday. Crowley County Correctional Facility is located in Olney Springs, Colorado - just outside of Pueblo.
The lawsuit was filed by the EEOC in 2006. The EEOC also alleged that women who worked at the Crowley County Correctional Facility were subjected to comments about their bodies and inappropriate touching. It accused the companies of retaliating against women who complained.
In one case, the EEOC alleged that a female officer who complained about being sexually harassed by a male co-worker was subsequently placed in an isolated location where she was raped by the man she complained about. A female officer also said the prison's former security chief forced her to have sex to keep her job.
The companies didn't admit liability as part of the settlement. CCA bought the prison from Dominion in 2003 and said most of the more serious allegations in the lawsuit dated from the time Dominion operated the prison. In a written statement, CCA spokeswoman Louise Grant said the company settled the claim to avoid the time, expense and uncertainties of a trial.
EEOC acting Chairman Stuart J. Ishimaru told the New York Times that the agency sees many sexual harassment cases but that the allegations in the complaint against the prison were ''shocking.''