The relationship between correction officers and inmates is such an imbalance relationship. And it is very possible for the officers to become vulnerable, due to many reasons. One of which is the fact that they spend the most of their time with these inmates in prison. What happens when a prison staff gets in an affair with an inmate?
Why are prison staff forbidden from having close or sexual affairs with prison inmates?
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A prison officer knows that engaging in a sexual relationship with an inmate risks not only their job, but their safety and ultimately their liberty.
But for some, it appears to be a risk worth taking. There was the case of a prison officer, Rebecca King, from Selby in North Yorkshire, was jailed for three years for helping her inmate lover by putting credit on his phone.
And in 2009, a prison officer who had a baby with an inmate at HM Aylesbury Young Offenders’ Institution in Buckinghamshire was jailed for two-and-a-half years. Female prisoners in England and Wales have been coerced into having sex with both male and female staff in return for favours such as alcohol and cigarettes, according to a report by the Howard League for Penal Reform. Many custodial facilities have implemented anti-fraternization policies that regulate contact between staff and inmates. These policies either limit, or altogether prohibit, interactions between employees and inmates and their families. Correctional employees who are adversely affected by their agency’s anti-fraternization policies most often challenge these polices under the First Amendment, which guarantees the right to freedom of association.
Federal law criminalizes any sexual relationship between officials and inmates because inmates cannot legally give consent. Even if a sexual act would have been considered consensual if it occurred outside of a prison, by statute it is criminal sexual abuse when it occurs inside a prison. Staff-inmate sexual abuse can corrupt prison staff and lead to other dangers, such as staff smuggling drugs or weapons into prison facilities for inmates. The Prison Rape Elimination Act established the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission to study the causes and consequences of sexual abuse. The investigation found rape to be a “widespread” issue in American prisons that the general public viewed as an expected consequence of incarceration, part of the penalty and the basis for jokers. Prisoners are never to be punished for sexual contact with staff, even if the encounter was allegedly consensual. The power imbalance between staff and prisoners vitiates the possibility of meaningful consent, and the threat of punishment would deter prisoners from reporting sexual misconduct by staff.