------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Aug. 29, 2002 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
PA. RULING: GUARDS MAY ASSAULT WOMEN PRISONERS By Betsey Piette Philadelphia Women members of the MOVE 9 currently incarcerated at the Pennsylvania State Correctional Institute at Cambridge Springs are protesting an Aug. 5 ruling that allows male guards at Cambridge Springs to "pat search" women prisoners. Under the policy, already in effect at other women's prisons in the state, male guards can run their hands over all parts of women prisoners' bodies, including vaginal searches, any time they want to. A statement from the MOVE 9 women--Janet, Janine and Debbie Africa--issued Aug. 12 notes that there have already been instances of sexual misconduct by employees. In August 1997, Cambridge Springs prison was under investigation by state representatives for misuse and abuse of authority and sexual misconduct. At that time four officers were found guilty of sexual harassment and fired. Their statement points out that there is an adequate number of women officers at Cambridge Springs--a minimum-security facility--to make any searches by male guards unnecessary. The MOVE women are challenging the Aug. 5 ruling as a violation of the prison rulebook policy DC-ADM 008 on sexual harassment, which defines it in part as "the intentional touching, either directly or through clothing, of the genitalia, anus, groin, breast, inner thighs, or buttocks of any inmate." In their view, allowing a male guard to touch a woman prisoner's vagina as part of a "pat search" is not just sexual harassment, it amounts to rape, and they fear it will only encourage more molestation of women prisoners. In response to the ruling, on Aug. 14, a delegation consisting of lawyers and scholars from Spain traveled to the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections head office in Camp Hill, Pa., to meet with the head superintendent of the Department of Corrections. The delegation voiced opposition to the ruling. A demonstration for prisoners' rights is being planned in Pennsylvania in early October. Time and location will be announced. Calls to demand that this policy be repealed statewide should be made to Secretary Jeffrey A. Beard of the Central Office for Pennsylvania Prisons at (717) 975- 4859. Calls should also be made to Cambridge Springs Warden Brooks--herself a woman--at (814) 398-5400 to explain that allowing this policy to go into effect would constitute her endorsement of violence against women. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Support the voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
