Reports that a sexual relationship had developed between two escaped New York inmates and a prison employee who has been charged with helping them break out 11 days ago illustrates the difficulties of policing relationships within prisons.
The problem of sex between prisoners and staff is well documented and enough of a concern that New York set up a special statewide office in 1996 to investigate and prevent it.
Joyce Mitchell, 51, was charged this week with providing chisels and hacksaws to convicted murderers Richard Matt and David Sweat, who were found missing from the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York, near the Canadian border on June 6.
State officials have declined to confirm or deny media reports, based on unnamed law enforcement sources, that Mitchell had sexual relationships with Sweat and Matt. The reports do not make clear whether the inmates or Mitchell initiated the alleged relationships, though in either case the law would have viewed Mitchell as at fault in a willing sexual encounter.
But such relationships are far from uncommon and present a management problem for prison administrators, researchers say. A survey of 367 inmates in Texas state prisons by Robert Worley of Lamar University found that about one in seven had admitted to having some type of physical relationship with a staff member.
It is a problem seen at prisons across the country, Worley said.
"You really are scratching your head as to why the business of corrections has not yet professionalized itself," Worley said. "Inappropriate relationships are happening everywhere."
According to a 2013 report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, about 4 percent of state and federal prison inmates said they had had sexual contact with other inmates or facility staff over the past year.
"For female staff members, the majority of incidents involve apparently willing activity between the inmates and the staff," said Allen Beck, lead author of the report. "Obviously it can't be consensual because of the power relationship. Inmates are not in a position to consent, so it's subject to legal consequence."
That would leave Mitchell subject to possible prosecution for a sexual relationship with inmates. Clinton County District Attorney Andrew Wylie declined to comment on whether other charges might be filed against Mitchell. She has already pleaded not guilty to charges of promoting prison contraband and criminal facilitation.
Increased training and oversight led to heightened awareness in prisons across the country and a slight decrease in the frequency of sexual relationships between inmates and staff members in recent years, Beck said.
He said facilities that house more violent inmates, as Clinton Correctional does, have higher rates of staff sexual misconduct.
New York in 1996 became one of the first U.S. states to devote a department to the investigation of sex crimes in prisons, establishing the Sex Crimes Unit within the Office of the Inspector General.
Linda Foglia, a spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, said the unit was created to combat rape in prison.
Worley described inmate-staff relationships as a slippery slope that might begin with a friendship and progress to something more inappropriate.
