Idaho lawmakers order independent review of sexual assault in women’s prisons

Summary

Idaho lawmakers have ordered an independent review of how the state responds to allegations of staff sexual misconduct in women’s prisons, directing the Idaho Office of Performance Evaluation to assess prevention, reporting, investigations and response and to make recommendations for improvement.

The order came during a March 13 meeting of the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee, where bipartisan members voted to ask the nonpartisan office to examine the state’s correctional oversight systems for women’s facilities, the Associated Press reported.

Sen. James Ruchti, a Democrat from Pocatello, presented the request to the committee at the Friday meeting, saying the move was prompted by the “Guarded by Predators” series published by InvestigateWest. Ruchti said the articles’ contents alarmed constituents and that the independent evaluation would not seek to investigate individual allegations against prison staff, but instead would focus on whether the state has a broader problem in how it handles the allegations.

The request’s framing also pointed to what lawmakers described as systemic failures in the women’s prisons oversight process, arriving about five months after InvestigateWest’s October reporting. The series, according to the AP account, alleged that sexual misconduct allegations involving women’s prison guards had been inconsistently tracked, frequently dismissed without a thorough investigation, and rarely prosecuted.

In describing why the evaluation matters for a vulnerable population, Ruchti said lawmakers wanted to ensure the state’s own processes—such as reporting systems, training and other procedures—are functioning correctly. He said the review is meant to answer a threshold question: whether Idaho has a problem or does not, and if it does, what improvements are needed.

The AP account also described a difficult response environment surrounding the committee’s work. InvestigateWest, through internal emails it obtained, reported that the Idaho Department of Correction director, Bree Derrick, emailed lawmakers including Ruchti shortly before the articles were published to ensure they were not “blindsided” and were “armed with talking points.” In the email, InvestigateWest said Derrick argued that the “gist” of the reporting was not true. The department later issued a statement defending its process for responding to abuse allegations, the AP said, and it did not identify factual errors in the reporting.

The AP report added that Idaho Gov. Brad Little’s office advised state police to withhold information from InvestigateWest reporters about investigations into misconduct by prison guards ahead of publication. After the series ran, the report said, the Department of Correction and the Peace Officer Standards and Training Council began concealing information about officers’ employment history that reporters had used to expose misconduct, making accountability harder, according to InvestigateWest’s findings and the AP summary.

Ruchti and other committee members also pressed for access and transparency in the forthcoming review. A Democratic member of the oversight committee, Rep. Steve Berch, asked the office’s director, Ryan Langrill, whether his staff would be able to conduct a thorough audit given what Berch described as a lack of transparency and “fair amount of secrecy” around the issue. Langrill responded that committee evaluators have the right to access records controlled by the Department of Corrections, and that if the state resists, the committee can issue subpoenas to obtain information.

Langrill also said the evaluation into staff sexual misconduct in women’s prisons will require the most time and resources among the reviews ordered this year. The committee ordered four evaluations total during the March meeting, including the correctional-system review, and Langrill said evaluators will also probe factors driving Idaho’s high prison population, the AP reported.

The AP account said Idaho incarcerates women at a higher rate than any other state and that the women’s imprisoned population has risen far faster than population growth since 1980, citing U.S. Department of Justice data released in September. It also said Idaho is among the states leading men’s incarceration when men and women are combined, citing the same DOJ data release.

Outside the correctional review, the AP reported that evaluators will also assess how housing development affects Idaho farmland and the agriculture economy, and how county-based programs serve adults in need of guardians or conservators. For each review, Langrill said the office would issue public reports describing how the evaluation was conducted and presenting findings and recommendations to the joint legislative committee.

In addition to ordering the new evaluation, the AP account said lawmakers pointed to previous work that had identified gaps in oversight. The committee referenced a June audit report that found issues in state oversight of youth treatment homes and left children at risk, including the report’s findings about regulators not revoking a youth treatment home’s license despite serious problems. The request states that a correctional system evaluation would build on that work to help lawmakers determine whether comparable reforms are needed.

Lawmakers who requested the review said the evaluation would help the Legislature make “informed decisions about correctional oversight policy and the protection of individuals in state custody,” according to the AP account.

The AP report said evaluators will likely begin work after the end of the legislative session, which is targeted for March 27.