commentary by Patrick H. Moore
We all know that prison rape is as American as the Dallas Cowboys. The stronger inmates rape the weaker inmates with disturbing regularity and in recent years, it’s become more and more evident that in numerous penal institutions around the country, the guards rape the inmates, both male and female. A small ray of hope is the fact that to date, I have not heard of any prison wardens raping either the inmates or the guards that work for them. Never say never, though, sooner or later it’s liable to happen. (If I recall correctly, it did happen in the movie, Bonnie and Clyde, when Bonnie favored the warden with her body in return for springing Clyde.)
In January, a new and particularly nasty category of prison rape reared its ugly head in the Eyman, Arizona state prison when a teacher, who was administering the time-honored Graduate Equivalency Exam (GED), was stabbed and raped by a convicted sex offender who apparently felt he had a little reward coming after finishing the exam.
Bob Christie of the AP writes:
A teacher at an Arizona prison was alone in a room full of sex offenders before being stabbed and sexually assaulted by a convicted rapist, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press about an attack that highlighted major security lapses at the facility.
The attack occurred Jan. 30 at the Eyman prison’s Meadows Unit, which houses about 1,300 rapists, child molesters and other sex offenders. The teacher was administering a high school equivalency test to about a half-dozen inmates in a classroom with no guard nearby and only a radio to summon help. The Department of Corrections issued only a bare-bones press release after the attack, but the AP pieced together what happened based on interviews and investigatory reports obtained under the Arizona Public Records Act.
The rapist, a young man named Jacob Harvey, cleverly waited until the other inmates had finished their exams and left the testing area before swinging into action. The records show that Harvey then asked the teacher is she could open up the bathroom and then attacked her, stabbing her in the head with a pen before forcing her to the ground and raping her.
The teacher told investigators that she screamed for help, but none was forthcoming. After completing the act, Harvey chivalrously tried to use her radio to call for help. (This is odd but is reportedly what happened.) The teacher’s phone had apparently been switched to an inactive channel, so Harvey let the woman use another phone, perhaps one there in the classroom.
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So what are we to make of this? Teaching inmates at a state prison is hardly a glamorous position and probably doesn’t pay that well. To be rewarded for your efforts by being raped is truly a low blow.
Carl ToersBijns, a former deputy warden at the prison, said the assault highlights chronic understaffing and lax security policies that put staff members at risk.
“Here you’ve got a guy that commits a hell of a crime … and he’s put into an environment that actually gives him an opportunity to do his criminality because of a lack of staffing,” said ToersBijns, who was deputy warden at the Eyman prison in Florence until retiring in 2010 and oversaw the Meadows Unit for 19 months.
The state prison officials, however, are apparently unconcerned. They say assaults of this nature come with the territory when your job is to oversee violent prison inmates (even apparently in a teaching capacity).
A cursory glance at Jacob Harvery’s history reveals that he was in the first year of a 30-year sentence for raping a Glendale, AZ woman in November 2011. Only 17 at the time, he had knocked on the female victim’s door in the middle of the day and asked for a drink of water, then forced his way inside, where he repeatedly raped and beat her while her 2-year-old child, who was in the apartment, no doubt cowered in fear. Harvey then fled naked when the woman’s roommate arrived home.
His arrest resulted from DNA evidence that connected him to the crime, and led to a guilty plea.
In Arizona violent felons are classified from Class 1 (least dangerous) to Class 5 (most dangerous). Harvey started out in Class 4 and was kicked down a notch six months later, despite violating prison rules at least once.
According to Department of Corrections spokesman, Doug Nick, classrooms at prisons across the state are having cameras installed. He stated, however, that no administrative investigation was launched after the teacher’s rape because there was no need. Nor was there any need for anyone to be disciplined. He also said that all prisons are dangerous places and that staff are trained accordingly.
“This is an assault that reflects the fact that inmates in our system often act out violently, and it is the inmate suspect who is responsible for this despicable act.”
Well of course the inmate rapist is responsible but it does seem that if individuals are going to be called on to teach these “animals”, they should be protected while carrying out their duties, shouldn’t they?
Nick also pointed out that not having a guard in classrooms or nearby “follows accepted corrections practices nationwide.”
Carolyn Eggleston, a professor at California State University, San Bernardino, who worked as a prison teacher in several states and is now director of the university’s Correctional and Alternative Education Program, disagrees with Spokesman Nick:
“I have to say, I don’t find that consistent with standards. In a sex offender unit, especially, they should be counting the people leaving the classroom. They just should. And there should be somebody, not in the class … but there should be somebody in proximity so they can help monitor that.”
Fortunately, the victim teacher was not critically injured. She has filed a worker’s compensation claim against the state and did not want to comment on case.
Although the Arizona prison officials appear to quite blasé about the whole matter in their public statements, internal emails obtained by the AP show that prisons Director Charles Ryan ordered all non-corrections officer staff at prisons statewide to be issued pepper spray and trained in its use just days after the attack. Furthermore, an internal memo sent right after the attack ordered guards at another nearby prison to begin checking on civilian staff every hour.
Nick, however, said the pepper-spray order was in the works before the assault.
Carl ToersBijns believes several factors put the victim instructor at risk:
1) Understaffing
2) No video cameras in the classroom
3) Insufficient guard presence
4) An outmoded classification system that misidentified Harvey as a relatively low-level threat
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As for the perpetrator, Harvey, he seemed quite unconcerned about the whole matter. After all, he’s already serving a 30-year sentence so he doesn’t have much to lose. He was calm when confronted by officers in the classroom, refused to make a statement and asked for a lawyer. He was charged last month with sexual assault, kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon and pleaded not guilty at his arraignment.
Harvey was convicted at a prison administrative hearing of sexually assaulting the staff member. Three weeks later, he assaulted another prison employee. At this point the details of that assault are not available. His security classification has been kicked up to Level 5.
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This is disturbing. I have at least six relatives who have taught at one time or another at various levels, as have I. Based on this incident, I would strongly advise anyone I know to not even consider teaching in a custodial environment, unless there were guarantees that the most rigorous safety measures would be in place. And even then, I would be very wary.
Although I am generally in favor of trying to rehabilitate our prisoners, when it comes to violent sexual predators, I’m not so sure. Harvey and people of his ilk are, in some respects, worse than animals, as he proved beyond the shadow of a doubt when he threw that poor woman to the ground and sexually assaulted her.