Idaho lawmakers on Tuesday advanced a bill that supporters said would give prosecutors broader authority to charge prison staff accused of sexually abusing inmates, tightening the state’s criminal law for cases involving people behind bars. House Bill 696 cleared the Idaho Senate and is now awaiting final approval from Gov. Brad Little.
The bill was introduced by Idaho Falls Republican Rep. Marco Erickson, according to the Associated Press reporting distributed through a partnership with InvestigateWest. Erickson’s proposal followed InvestigateWest reporting that it said exposed sexual abuse of women by prison guards in cases where most accused workers “avoided criminal consequences.” The report, as described by AP, found that 37 prison workers were accused of sexual misconduct toward incarcerated women over the last decade, with only three facing criminal charges.
Supporters and lawmakers pointed to a state law that, as described in the AP account, limits the scope of “sexual contact with a prisoner” to contact involving inmates’ genitals or requiring inmates to touch prison staff genitals. The reporting said that older law, which is more than 30 years old, does not cover other forms of contact such as kissing, groping, or grabbing—limitations that proponents argued make charging harder when the conduct falls outside the statute’s narrow definition.
House Bill 696 would instead create a felony for jail and prison staff who have “any willful physical contact, over or under the clothing” with an inmate, when the physical contact is done with intent to arouse, appeal to, or gratify the lust, passion, or sexual desires of the actor or any other person. The bill, as described by AP, would not change the maximum penalty, which is life imprisonment, and it would also not establish a mandatory minimum sentence, leaving sentencing discretion to judges.
The bill passed the Senate with 34 senators voting in favor and one senator absent. If signed by Little, supporters said the updated law would bring Idaho more in line with federal standards under the Prison Rape Elimination Act, which prohibit “all inappropriate touching, harassment and even voyeurism,” according to the AP story.
Sen. Tammy Nichols, a Middleton Republican who sponsored the bill in the Senate, told lawmakers it was needed to address what she described as ongoing sexual misconduct within Idaho’s prisons—particularly involving the state’s female population. Nichols said the bill must be clear about what behavior is prohibited, adding that Idaho’s women’s incarceration rate is the nation’s highest, based on federal data cited in her remarks.
The bill’s backers also described the legal and practical barriers that have limited accountability under the older “sexual contact with a prisoner” standard. AP reported that other state laws can cover sexual touching of parts of the body without consent, but those provisions do not account for the power imbalance in custody, and prosecutors are required to prove that the victim did not consent—an issue proponents said incarcerated people may face when they fear retaliation.
Idaho Department of Correction officials supported the measure, the AP account said. Tina Transue, the department’s government relations adviser, said the department backs House Bill 696 and described it as giving prosecutors “more teeth.”
The governor previously responded publicly to journalists’ findings in October, AP reported, saying he would order the Board of Correction to review the cases in question and that “transparency and the public’s confidence in state government are top priorities.” The Associated Press story said that review was not ordered and has not been forthcoming, according to the governor’s communications director, Emily Callihan, and Callihan did not respond to questions this week about whether Little planned to sign the bill. Rep. Erickson said he was confident Little would approve the measure because there were no opposing votes in the House or the Senate.
House Bill 696’s next step comes after the Senate’s approval as it moves to the governor’s desk, where the final decision could determine whether Idaho’s approach to prosecuting alleged sexual abuse by jail and prison staff will expand beyond the narrower definitions in the current statute.