This project was conducted with generous support from the Fund for Investigative Journalism.

In 2000, Dori Lewis and Lisa Freeman, two attorneys with New York City's Legal Aid Society, began going to New York State women's prisons in search of inmates who were experiencing sexual abuse.

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May-June 2011:
Behind Bars: Female Inmates, Male Guards, Sex Crimes in New York's Prisons

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Behind Bars: A City Limits Investigation

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Kelly Virella
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Soon after their interviews began, they started to see some patterns. The more inmates talked to Lewis and Freeman, the more the names of certain perpetrators recurred. What made the women's stories all the more credible to them was that many of the repeat perpetrators operated according to a distinctive modus operandi and had a clear preference for women with a particular hair color, stature, shape or other physical feature. "A young woman at reception taken into the laundry room," was one modus operandi. Often, the women had reported these repeat perpetrators. One officer had been reported seven times, Lewis and Freeman found.

The interviewing went on for about three years. They encountered one woman soon after she had been raped at Albion in early August 2001, by an officer that multiple women had allegedly complained to DOCS officials about. The rape resulted in a pregnancy and severe bleeding during bowel movements. The woman reported the incident within a few weeks of its occurrence. The alleged perpetrator—corrections officer Dean S.—pleaded guilty to rape in the third-degree, not forcible rape, in July 2002. (Dean S. served almost three years. He could not be reached for comment.)

Another female inmate had allegedly been raped at Bedford Hills by an officer whom multiple inmates had allegedly identified to prison officials as a perpetrator. In October 2001, she alleges, a correctional officer fondled her, grabbing her breasts. Then later that month, while the inmate was cleaning the kitchen area during a head count, the officer allegedly attacked her again, this time more violently, sodomizing her and raping her, causing her to seek medical attention. In mid-November 2001 he allegedly abused her again, fondling her while everyone else was at a head count. The officer allegedly told her that if she reported him, he' d punish her.

She alleged that when word got back to him that she had been crying in the mess hall, he threatened her again and started locking her in her cell during her free time. Nevertheless, she gathered the nerve to report his alleged transgressions. She says she wrote the superintendent of her prison twice, wrote to her counselor at the Family Violence Program and met with that counselor, told a captain at the prison what had happened, then notified staff from the inspector general' s office. Finally, she says she filed a formal grievance with the New York State Department of Correctional Services. She was waiting for a resolution when she met with Lewis and Freeman. (The officer' s attorney declined to comment, but said via-email "The allegations against [my client] are categorically denied. ") Of the 300 women Lewis and Freeman talked to, 15 initially met their criteria for joining the lawsuit and agreed to participate, including the two alleged victims described above.

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The women filed their suit, Amador v. Andrews, in 2003, contesting DOCS system for hiring, training, supervising, monitoring, investigating and firing officers, alleging that it failed to protect them from sexual abuse. In addition to suing 12 correctional officers from four prisons, the lawsuit (named "Amador" for one of the alleged victims) targets 12 high ranking DOCS officials, including the then Superintendent of the Albion prison, Anginell Andrews. Lewis and Freeman tried but failed to get certified as a class action lawsuit. Two of the original plaintiffs have since withdrawn from the case to pursue separate actions.