Lawsuit: Sexual Abuse Of Women Allowed To Flourish In New York Prisons

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) --  A lawsuit claims sexual abuse and harassment of women in New York prisons is allowed to persist and flourish and the state's "zero tolerance'' policy is a sham.

The lawsuit filed Thursday in Manhattan federal court asks a judge to force the state to prevent women from being sexually abused by male correction officers by upgrading the reporting, investigation and response to complaints of sexual misconduct.

The lawsuit was brought on behalf of six women as representative of an estimated 2,300 women in state custody.

Veronica Vela at The Legal Aid Society's Prisoners' Rights Project says the state has long failed to take steps it knows would reduce risks for women in prisons.

In a special report from 2011, correctional administrators reported 8,763 allegations of sexual victimization in prisons, 48 percent of these incidents involving staff with inmates.

"A big problem for women's facilities is the presence of male staff in direct contact and supervisory positions with women inmates. There is little supervision of these staff and because of the attitude toward all prisoners, and women inmates in particular. There is a culture of neglect and turning a blind eye," Community and Economic Development Law Clinic Director and Washington College of Law Professor Brenda Smith told CBS DC in an interview last year.

A prisons spokesman says the department takes all sex abuse allegations seriously but doesn't comment on litigation.

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