Speaking of sexual harassment....
November 15, 2017 8:52 AM   Subscribe

The Unique Sexual Harassment Problem Female Prison Workers Face The sexual harassment began in 1994, Paula Purdy says, shortly after she started work as a corrections officer at the Denver County Jail. Colleagues made demeaning comments about her body. One male captain made her so uncomfortable she avoided him. But the worst abuse came from inmates, who would make sexual remarks and masturbate at her as she did rounds in their housing areas. Purdy says she reported the behavior to her bosses, but there were few consequences. “I would get emotional at work several times a day,” she said.
posted by strelitzia (6 comments total) 9 users marked this as a favorite
 
A similar story just recently broke the news here in Canada. Hope you don't mind my piggybacking on top of your post, since its obviously related.

Prison guards accused of using inmates as weapons to cover up alleged sexual harassment [CBC]
“Over the course of a year, CBC News interviewed a total of seven past or present EI employees who say they have direct knowledge of sexual harassment, threats and intimidation by male staff against female employees at the facility. They say it's been happening for several years. CBC News has agreed not to reveal their identities because they say they are afraid for their safety. An eighth person withdrew from participating in this story, even anonymously, because she said she believed her life was in jeopardy. The sources say female staff in general — and female prison guards in particular — are targeted by some male co-workers for degrading comments, jokes, gestures and sexual advances.”
posted by Fizz at 9:08 AM on November 15, 2017 [2 favorites]


I didn't realize how naive I was; I guess I just sort of assumed that female COs only worked with female prisoners. I shouldn't watch so many old movies.

“If I wrote an incident report every time, I would literally write hundreds a day.”

Not hundreds, but I've certainly been in workplaces where it would have been a dozen a day. And we're all brought up on “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” and “nobody likes a tattletale,” and so we know that people will take us less seriously the more we complain.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:22 AM on November 15, 2017 [3 favorites]


There is a really complicated set of dynamics when you are a person in a position of relative power working with marginalized populations who are sexually harassing you. I think working for the prison system is pretty unconscionable, but I completely empathize with this problem.
posted by ChuraChura at 9:24 AM on November 15, 2017 [4 favorites]


I can just imagine the comments of 'Well what did you expect?' I mean, I don't expect a lot from convicted criminals, but if the male COs didn't also act that way, and shut that shit down with the inmates when it happened, it would go a long way to making the environment a lot less hostile to women. But it sure is easier to simply blame the women for choosing that job ... ugh.
posted by twilightlost at 10:16 AM on November 15, 2017 [4 favorites]


Working for the prison system is unconscionable, working in a CAFO is unconscionable, mining for fossil fuels on a dying planet is unconscionable. Unfortunately, in some areas of the country no conscionable job prospects exist. Blame for the unconscionable nature of most of US work resides with the fanged and slavering capitalists who have made work unconscionable--and unsafe, unprofitable, dispiriting, debilitating, and demeaning. We should task the owners, not the workers, with making their systems and the worklives of their employees decent.
posted by Don Pepino at 10:20 AM on November 15, 2017 [34 favorites]


Miami Mega Jail was full of horror stories for me. This was just part of it - Louis Theroux Meets The Habitual Jailhouse Masturbator
posted by unliteral at 4:38 PM on November 15, 2017


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