[Pnews] Rampant Sex Abuse at Tallahassee Federal prison where Ghislaine Maxwell is Held

[Prisoner News]

theappeal.org 
<https://theappeal.org/fci-tallahassee-sexual-abuse-women-prison-ghislaine-maxwell/> 



  ‘Rampant’ Sex Abuse at Federal Prison Where Ghislaine Maxwell Is Held

Silja J.A. Talvi Apr 25, 2023
April 25, 2023
------------------------------------------------------------------------


    Issues of mismanagement and sexual misconduct have put federal
    women’s prisons in the spotlight. But one scan­dal-plagued
    facility—FCI Tal­la­has­see—has es­caped serious scru­tiny, even as
    an Appeal investigation reveals an ongoing his­to­ry of sex­u­al
    vi­o­lence, re­tal­i­a­tion, and oth­er con­sti­tu­tion­al abus­es
    that have left prisoners living in fear.

An overhead view of Federal Correctional Institution, Tallahassee.

Prison Insight via Flickr

------------------------------------------------------------------------

/Content warning: This story con­tains graph­ic de­scrip­tions of 
sex­u­al abuse./

The word spread like wild­fire in July 2022 through­out FCI 
Tal­la­has­see, a low-se­cu­ri­ty fed­er­al women’s prison in Flor­ida: 
Ghis­laine Max­well had ar­rived.

In a matter of days, me­dia out­lets in the UK and U.S. were awash in 
sen­sa­tion­al ac­counts of how Max­well, age 61, the pro­cur­er, 
groomer, and sex traf­fick­er for de­ceased bil­lion­aire Jef­frey 
Ep­stein, would be spend­ing her days in the ease of a fa­cil­i­ty in 
which she reportedly could teach yoga, study Russ­ian, watch movies, and 
try her hand at art, baking, and cosmetology. Paparazzi have since been 
able to circle in on the recreation yard in or­der to snap photos of 
Maxwell. The prison has done lit­tle to push away the scav­engers, 
per­haps be­cause their tabloid-driven coverage distracts from the far 
more se­ri­ous is­sues playing out be­hind the ra­zor wire.

The pop­u­lar me­dia ac­counts of Max­well’s life be­hind bars, 
sup­plied by the Zoukis Consulting Group 
<https://federalcriminaldefenseattorney.com/>, a boutique federal prison 
consultancy, follow a trend of reporting that has often portrayed 
certain federal prisons as a sort of “Club Fed”—cushy facilities where 
the most privileged serve out shorter sentences in relative safety and 
comfort. Those depictions have both amused and en­raged many of the 
rough­ly 750 women who have spent years, even decades, en­dur­ing an 
abusive, predatory, and retaliatory en­vi­ron­ment inside FCI Tallahassee.

“Sex­u­al abuse is ram­pant here,” said Rachel Padgett, 41, who arrived 
at FCI Tal­la­has­see in 2017 and received her paralegal degree while 
she was incarcerated. “Abuse of fe­male in­mates by male staff is out of 
con­trol.”

Documented re­ports of guards terrorizing, threatening, and stalking, as 
well as mentally, physically, and sexually abusing prisoners at FCI 
Tallahassee go back at least as far as 2002, some six years after the 
facility officially became a women’s prison. Since 2012, the Federal 
Bureau of Prisons (BOP) has received more than 130 complaints alleging 
staff-on-prisoner abuse at FCI Tallahassee, according to documents 
obtained by The Appeal, one of the highest rates among federal prisons.

But the abusive and retaliatory environment at FCI Tallahassee has only 
spi­raled further out of con­trol in recent years, according to several 
incarcerated women who communicated regularly with The Ap­peal over the 
course of an expansive yearlong investigation into the conditions there. 
The Appeal reviewed more than a dozen civil and criminal cases filed 
against FCI Tallahassee staffers over the past decade, which contained 
disturbing allegations consistent with the incarcerated women’s 
accounts. Sources provided nearly uniform descriptions of the climate at 
the prison, often sharing painful details about the experiences of their 
fellow prisoners.

Over the past two years, reporting by the Associated Press 
<https://apnews.com/article/politics-crime-prisons-covid-only-on-ap-5a8ea69610ff8995463f2e620760bc54> 
and a U.S. Senate subcommittee has uncovered a pattern of shocking 
neglect across a handful of BOP facilities. In January 2022, the AP 
investigations helped force the resignation of the agency’s director, 
Michael Carvajal. In December, the Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on 
Investigations released a scathing report 
<https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/imo/media/doc/2022-12-13%20PSI%20Staff%20Report%20-%20Sexual%20Abuse%20of%20Female%20Inmates%20in%20Federal%20Prisons.pdf> 
on sexual abuse at federal women’s prisons ahead of a bipartisan hearing 
on Capitol Hill 
<https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/subcommittees/investigations/hearings/sexual-abuse-of-female-inmates-in-federal-prisons-/>. 
Among its findings, investigators concluded that the BOP’s “management 
failures” had “enabled continued sexual abuse of female prisoners” by 
the agency’s employees. They also reported that the BOP’s Office of 
Internal Affairs was sitting on a backlog of 8,000 employee misconduct 
cases, “including at least hundreds of sexual abuse cases.”

But the harshest criticism stemming from this recent scrutiny has almost 
completely overlooked a culture of impunity and widespread abuse at FCI 
Tallahassee and centered instead on other prisons. At FCI Dublin in 
California, for example, former warden Ray Garcia was recently convicted 
on eight counts 
<https://www.motherjones.com/crime-justice/2022/12/dublin-california-women-prison-warden-sexual-abuse-rape/> 
of sexual abuse and lying to the FBI for his involvement in a so-called 
rape club at the prison. A prison chaplain was also convicted.

Incarcerated sources say FCI Tallahassee’s recent ability to remain out 
of the spotlight is not a reflection of better conditions. Instead, they 
attribute it to a brutally efficient system of retaliation and cover-up, 
which employs a dizzying variety of tactics to protect perpetrators of 
sexual assault and keep their victims silent.

Tiffany Arnold, 52, and Clothera Peak, 51, are both serving life 
sentences without the possibility of parole. Neither committed violence 
<https://theappeal.org/how-the-violent-felon-label-can-unfairly-brand-people-for-life/>, 
and neither was even accused of having drugs or weapons on her person or 
in her home. They have now exhausted their appeals, while a succession 
of prison wardens and judges have denied their requests for 
compassionate release. Arnold’s mother was recently diagnosed with 
terminal stage 4 cancer, and Arnold says she fears she will not see her 
mom before she dies.

Arnold and Peak are among the very few lifers remaining at FCI 
Tallahassee. Their uncommon position—feeling they have little to lose, 
knowing prison might be their only home for the rest of their lives—has 
empowered them to speak out more candidly on issues that many other 
incarcerated women fear to touch.

“They violate our human rights like crazy,” said Peak, who, after 28 
years in prison, has been incarcerated for most of her life. She became 
a grandmother last year. Due to COVID restrictions, the prison was 
routinely on modified lockdown—“red” status—for nearly three years, 
which made it impossible to meet her grandchild until visitation opened 
this year.

Over the past two decades, officials at the prison have largely ignored 
or effectively silenced the steady stream of horrific com­plaints by 
women in their custody, according to sources and lawsuits filed by women 
at the prison. This suppression has persisted at FCI Tallahassee long 
after it first grabbed headlines in 2006 
<https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna13415618> as the site of one of the 
nation’s most notorious prison sexual assault scandals—a chapter that 
culminated in a deadly shootout 
<https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/2006/oct/15/attempted-arrest-of-federal-prison-guards-in-florida-turns-deadly/> 
between a disgraced guard and federal agents in the facility’s 
courtyard. It continues today, even amid a period of intense public 
scrutiny around issues of abuse in federal prisons.

Under this regime, two prison staffers at FCI Tallahassee have been 
convicted of rap­ing female pris­on­ers in recent years. Others have 
faced serious allegations in civil suits that have not previously been 
reported on. BOP has set­tled many of these lawsuits out of court, 
allowing officials to avoid admitting cul­pa­bil­i­ty. The Appeal’s 
investigation found that one medical official has kept his job at the 
prison even as numerous women have accused him of sexual assault in 
multiple lawsuits spanning several years. He now works at the male 
detention center at FCI Tallahassee, a BOP spokesperson confirmed.

Incarcerated women say outside communications, including calls to rape 
crisis hotlines, are closely monitored. Prisoners have faced abuse and 
retaliation simply for mentioning abuse by guards to a family member by 
phone, according to Padgett. She said this can take a variety of forms, 
including threats of violence against them and their family members, 
further sexual abuse, or being sent to solitary confinement—widely 
feared in prisons as one of the worst forms of punishment.

Despite the pervasiveness of these violations, FCI Tallahassee has 
routinely received high marks in independent audits under guidelines of 
the 2003 federal Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), which was supposed 
to provide protections for prisoners reporting abuse.

In interviews with The Appeal, incarcerated women also reported inhumane 
conditions extending far beyond sexual violence, all of which have 
contributed to a broader sense of despair at the prison. Spoiled food 
and meager portions were an everyday reality for several years, they 
said, even after one woman nearly died after eating food contaminated 
with E. coli. Safe drinking water has been highly unreliable and 
sometimes nonexistent. They also reported being forced to endure 
freezing cold showers during winter months, nicknamed the “polar plunge.”

As the situation has gotten worse, prisoners at FCI Tallahassee—known 
colloquially as Tally—have become increasingly desperate to draw 
attention to their suffering. But help hasn’t come, despite their best 
efforts.

“No one really seems to care,” said Padgett. “You start to feel like our 
issues must not be bad enough.”

When reached by The Appeal, a spokesperson for FCI Tallahassee declined 
a request for an interview. A BOP spokesperson provided a written statement.

“The BOP is committed to ensuring the safety and security of all inmates 
in our population, our staff, and the public,” said Benjamin O’Cone of 
the BOP Office of Public Affairs. “Allegations of staff misconduct are 
referred for investigation, as warranted.”

tiffany arnold and clothera peak
Tiffany Arnold, 52, and Clothera Peak, 51, are both serving life 
sentences without the possibility of parole, even though neither 
committed violence.

Courtesy of Tiffany Arnold


      A ‘Breeding Ground’ for Sexual Abuse

On June 21, 2006, just before 8 a.m., federal agents walked into FCI 
Tallahassee with plans to arrest six prison guards. Five of the guards 
had been indicted on charges that they had raped incarcerated women. The 
sixth was accused of discouraging prisoners from cooperating with the 
investigation. The agents didn’t know that the leader of this group, 
Ralph Hill, had sneaked his personal firearm into work that day. When 
they encountered Hill in the facility’s lobby, he opened fire. Special 
Agent William Sentner with the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of 
the Inspector General was killed in the ensuing shootout, and a BOP 
lieutenant was injured. Hill was fatally shot in the courtyard. The five 
other guards were arrested.

In the aftermath, officials revealed that the six guards had been 
investigated for providing prisoners with drugs and other contraband in 
exchange for sex while extorting money from the families of their 
victims. Authorities began referring to this as a “sex for contraband” 
scheme, thereby asserting a level of consent that does not exist in 
federal law, which prohibits any sexual contact between prison staff and 
incarcerated people.

Tiffany Arnold came to FCI Tallahassee in March 2004 and had been there 
for only two weeks when she was approached in the middle of the night by 
a guard who asked her to accompany him to “talk”—a euphemism for trading 
in sexual favors. Arnold declined, but other women did not, or perhaps 
felt they could not.

That guard, E. Lavon Spence, was among the group of men eventually 
indicted in the ring. Under the original charges, each faced up to 20 
years in prison. But in the end, all of the guards were convicted for 
less severe charges, including bribery and mail fraud. All five received 
one-year sentences. Spence got a year of home detention with no prison 
time due to a medical condition, an accommodation rarely afforded to 
civilians. In 2010, a federal jury ordered Spence to pay $2.16 million 
in a civil suit filed by Myra C. Solliday, another incarcerated woman 
he’d raped. But when Spence later filed for bankruptcy, a judge ruled 
that he did not have to pay the damages awarded to Solliday.

A woman formerly incarcerated at FCI Tallahassee told Prison Legal News 
in 2006 
<https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/2006/oct/15/attempted-arrest-of-federal-prison-guards-in-florida-turns-deadly/> 
that the sort of sexual misconduct outlined in these cases was far more 
widespread than investigators had shown and that the list of 
perpetrators “should probably be three times longer.”

Now, more than 15 years later, women held at FCI Tallahassee say 
staffers at the prison are still using similar tactics to manipulate and 
abuse prisoners. In many cases, guards use “coercion and real or 
perceived special treatment,” including promises of real relationships, 
fast food, or drugs—including opioids—to groom women for sexual abuse, 
Padgett explained. She called the prison a “breeding ground for these 
types of situations.”

According to data from a recently released report 
<https://bjs.ojp.gov/sites/g/files/xyckuh236/files/media/document/sisvraca1618.pdf> 
by the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), women are more than three 
times as likely as men to be sexually victimized by prison staff. 
Research over the past few decades has shown that an incredibly high 
percentage of incarcerated women 
<https://www.aclu.org/other/prison-rape-elimination-act-2003-prea> and 
girls 
<https://genderjusticeandopportunity.georgetown.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/The-Sexual-Abuse-To-Prison-Pipeline-The-Girls%E2%80%99-Story.pdf> 
have experienced past physical or sexual abuse—a factor that can make 
them more vulnerable to further abuse behind bars.

Many women in prison suffer from “low self-esteem” and haven’t had 
positive, healthy relationships, Arnold explained.

“It’s changed a lot over the years—the women that come in now are so 
much younger than when I was first incarcerated,” she said. “You can see 
that they have never had anyone care for them.”

Padgett said she had witnessed predatory behavior by staff members in 
prison before, when she was incarcerated in an outpatient mental health 
unit at FMC Carswell 
<https://theappeal.org/for-women-at-a-federal-prison-hospital-in-texas-fear-that-coronavirus-will-spread-like-wildfire/>, 
a federal women’s prison in Texas 
<https://theappeal.org/death-of-new-mother-at-federal-prison-hospital-prompts-calls-for-accountability-in-texas/>.

“My bunkie, who had also just arrived … was sexually assaulted by our 
case manager,” Padgett said.

Although Padgett was not yet a paralegal, she was always trying to help 
other women stuck in situations from which they saw no way out. “I 
helped my bunkie get transferred to another institution because some of 
the other women were shaming her and blaming her for having their case 
manager fired,” she said.

But it was not until Padgett arrived at Tallahassee that she “realized 
just how big of a problem” sexual abuse really is, she said.

Once women are trapped in an abusive situation with a guard, it becomes 
almost impossible to escape. Those who attempt to discuss sexual 
violence in phone calls or emails to loved ones on the outside have 
faced retaliation and threats from their abusers, according to Padgett.

“The men­tal and emo­tion­al im­pact of rape is made worse be­cause male 
staff mem­bers mon­i­tor our calls and pass on the in­for­ma­tion to 
oth­er COs,” she said.

Concerns about surveillance at FCI Tallahassee have potentially made 
women scared to call the toll-free rape crisis hotlines, which give 
prisoners a way to receive support and information about reporting 
abuse, according to Starlet Kizer, who has been incarcerated at the 
prison since 2012.

“There are flyers hanging in several areas with information about how to 
report sexual violence,” Kizer said. “Women know how to report … but the 
real question is, do they?”

When women at Tally do come forward to formally report abuse, prison 
officials often respond first by placing them in the Security Housing 
Unit (SHU), according to federal lawsuits against the prison. The 
SHU—pronounced “shoe”—is one of many terms for the solitary confinement 
units that exist in nearly all federal and state prisons. According to 
BOP policy, this step is ostensibly taken to protect the accuser. But it 
can also serve as a form of punishment that dissuades victims from 
reporting abuse.

“We keep these women locked up where they are easily victimized. And 
once abused, the prison system compounds the trauma by putting women in 
solitary confinement for their ‘protection,’ or allowing their abusers 
to coerce them into silence,” said Ariel Goode, communications director 
for the National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated 
Women and Girls.

Officials at other BOP facilities have echoed the accounts of women at 
FCI Tallahassee. During Senate testimony last year, Cynthia Townsend, a 
clinical psychologist who previously served as clinical director and 
trauma treatment coordinator at FCI Dublin in California, explained that 
incarcerated women who complained or filed a report of sexual abuse had 
faced extreme retaliation, including nearly a year in solitary 
confinement. This sort of response appears to violate PREA standards, 
which are intended to limit procedures that may trigger 
retraumatization, including the use of solitary confinement.

    Most perpetrators are simply transferred or allowed to retire once
    the system is no longer able to cover up the abuse. Ariel Goode,
    National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women
    and Girls

Only in extremely rare cases have sexual predators on staff at FCI 
Tallahassee faced criminal liability—albeit after years of alleged 
misconduct.

In August 2021, Phillip Golightly, a BOP correctional officer until he 
was indicted and fired, was sentenced to two years in prison 
<https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndfl/pr/former-bureau-prisons-correctional-officer-sentenced-24-months-federal-prison-sexually> 
for the sexual abuse of one prisoner at FCI Tallahassee. Golightly 
abused at least five women at Tally, according to complaints filed in 
federal court. He initially faced two counts of sexual abuse of a ward, 
charges that carried a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison 
<https://www.wctv.tv/2020/07/09/federal-correctional-officer-indicted-for-sexually-assaulting-inmate/>. 
The victim in the criminal case also filed a separate civil suit against 
Golightly, which accused a second FCI Tallahassee guard, Adam Shepherd, 
of similar abuse. The case was settled out of court in 2022.

Then, in March 2022, Jimmy Lee Highsmith was sentenced to four years in 
prison 
<https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndfl/pr/former-tallahassee-federal-correctional-officer-sentenced-forty-eight-months-federal#:~:text=TALLAHASSEE%2C%20FLORIDA%20%E2%80%93Jimmy%20Lee%20Highsmith,Federal%20Correctional%20Institution%20in%20Tallahassee.> 
for sexual abuse. His indictment referred to abuses committed from 2014 
to 2018. BOP hired Highsmith as a correctional officer in 2007 and he 
began working at FCI Tallahassee in 2010.

Highsmith was indicted on charges involving several prisoners. But a 
jury ultimately convicted him on only one count of sexual abuse of a 
ward. There was overwhelming evidence surrounding the rape in question, 
including eyewitness accounts from staff and prisoners alike and video 
surveillance documenting an assault in a staff bathroom, which was so 
violent that the woman was taken to the emergency room.

A string of civil suits filed against Highsmith between that time and 
his eventual charging in 2021 point to a broader pattern of relentless 
abuse and stalking of women at FCI Tallahassee. Two separate 
prisoners—identified in case documents only by initials, J.C. and 
J.P.—say Highsmith’s rapes were so brutal that they were taken to the 
emergency room of a local hospital for treatment. In the case of J.P., a 
doctor called the prison warden directly to report the woman’s injuries, 
but nothing was done, according to the complaint.

Plaintiff J.C. accused Highsmith of repeated assaults, intimidation, and 
stalking. According to a civil suit filed in federal court, another 
guard disrupted one of the attacks and brought Highsmith and J.C. to the 
lieutenant’s office. J.C. was taken immediately to the SHU. Plaintiff 
J.P. was also taken to the SHU after reporting her assault, according to 
her complaint. While she was in the solitary confinement wing, Highsmith 
was granted a request to work in the isolation unit where she was being 
held, the suit states.

“Defendant Highsmith is a serial sexual abuser of BOP inmates. 
Highsmith’s practice of raping inmates in FCI Tallahassee’s custody has 
been documented, ignored, and/or covered up by the BOP and by officials 
and guards at FCI Tallahassee since at least 2014,” the lawsuit filed by 
J.C. states.

The civil suits involving both J.C. and J.P. were settled out of court 
for undisclosed sums.

At the time those suits were filed, Highsmith had already been the 
subject of a joint probe between the FBI and the DOJ’s Office of the 
Inspector General in 2014, which had determined that Highsmith had 
“likely sexually abused inmates,” according to J.C.’s complaint. 
Investigators collected physical evidence and interviewed multiple 
alleged victims, in addition to Highsmith and other officers. The 
findings were given to FCI Tallahassee’s warden, and Highsmith received 
a 10-day suspension. In 2019, he was given a promotion and quietly 
transferred to FCC Yazoo City, a federal prison in Mississippi. Among 
other new responsibilities, he was tasked with ensuring that complaints 
and grievances filed by staff and prisoners were thoroughly investigated.

This sort of response is par for the course in the federal prison 
system, according to Goode.

“Most perpetrators are simply transferred or allowed to retire once the 
system is no longer able to cover up the abuse,” she said.

In 2012, Corlis Ranew, a guard at FCI Tallahassee, pleaded guilty to two 
counts of “sexual abuse of a ward.” He was sentenced to three years of 
probation and six months of house arrest. Ranew never saw the inside of 
a prison cell, other than those he presumably visited to target his prey.


      ‘Turning a Blind Eye to Abuse’

Shaquila Bumpass ar­rived at FCI Tal­la­has­see in 2018 after being 
transferred from FPC Al­der­son, a federal women’s prison in West 
Virginia. While at Alderson, Bumpass was among a group of women who had 
been sexually assaulted by BOP captain Jarrod Grimes, who was convicted 
and sentenced in 2019 
<https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdwv/pr/former-federal-prison-official-sentenced-sex-offenses> 
on multiple rape and sexual assault charges.

Shortly after Bumpass’s arrival at FCI Tallahassee, her nightmare would 
be repeated. In late September 2018, a physician’s assistant named Paul 
Rolston ordered Bumpass down to the medical unit and informed her that 
she was to be given a pelvic exam and Pap smear, according to 
allegations contained in a 2021 lawsuit filed against Rolston and 
Nakamoto Group Inc., a federal contractor that has been named in a 
series of lawsuits over the past decade alleging neglect in its 
inspections of detention facilities across the country. Bumpass said she 
had not requested this testing and insisted she did not need it.

Rolston proceeded to perform a standard Pap smear with a speculum. But 
then he “shoved two fingers into Ms. Bumpass’ rectum without warning,” 
states the complaint, which has not been reported on publicly before. He 
then “abruptly proceeded to conduct an unconsented breast exam,” which 
consisted of “pinching her nipples while rubbing his erect penis against 
her right arm.” When Rolston noticed that Bumpass was crying, “he asked 
her if she had psychiatric problems,” according to the suit. Rolston 
also asked if she had been sexually assaulted in the past—seemingly an 
assertion that Bumpass was overreacting to his violations because of her 
own mental instability. This appears to follow a well-known gaslighting 
tactic employed by sexual abusers, which they use to shift blame onto 
the victim.

Bumpass was one of four plaintiffs named in that 2021 suit against 
Rolston. Each woman offered eerily similar descriptions of his alleged 
abuse. One of the women reported that she “flashed back to sexual abuse 
she suffered as a child” during the attack. This sort of “triggering” 
response often causes traumatized individuals to regress and revert to 
old survival patterns, such as dissociating from their bodies or going 
into a primal fight, freeze, or flight mode, which may have helped them 
survive earlier attacks.

Research has found 
<https://www.nsvrc.org/sites/default/files/publications_NSVRC_ResearchBrief_Sexual-Revictimization.pdf> 
that perpetrators of sexual abuse often take advantage of these 
tendencies by seeking out victims who have suffered past abuse, in hopes 
that they will be easier targets, or less likely to fight back or report.

In 2022, attorneys in the women’s lawsuit against Rolston and Nakamoto 
reached a settlement agreement. Although Nakamoto settled for an 
undisclosed monetary sum, Rolston was not found culpable. But this 
wasn’t the first time he had faced these sorts of allegations. Rolston 
has been named in at least four civil suits involving allegations of 
sexual misconduct dating back as far as 2014.

Starlet Kizer, who is currently incarcerated at FCI Tallahassee, told 
The Appeal that she’d also had one encounter with Rolston, in which he 
insisted on giving her a Pap smear even though she was seeking treatment 
for an ear infection. Although Kizer did not believe the procedure was 
necessary, she said it didn’t feel like an assault, and that Rolston 
eventually gave her antibiotics for her ear.

Plaintiffs, along with supportive testimony from other prisoners and 
even nurses named in the lawsuits against Rolston, describe his alleged 
attacks as becoming more violent and brazen over time. In later cases, 
incarcerated women claim Rolston would not even hesitate before shoving 
two unlubricated fingers into their rectums, sometimes clawing or 
digging at the insides of their vaginas or rubbing their clitorises—an 
act with no possible medical purpose. The actual medical issues for 
which the women sought assistance were rarely or never addressed, 
according to the complaints.

One suit alleged that Rolston was allowed to continue working around his 
victim “as a security officer with a loaded gun” even after she had 
officially reported his abuse.

The nature of Rolston’s attacks became so widely known that women 
developed a specific hand code for him, which mimicked the fashion in 
which he would penetrate women in his exam room, according to one suit.

James V. Cook, a Tallahassee-based civil rights attorney, represented 
Bumpass and the other women in their 2021 suit. He also represented a 
prisoner named Ashley Barnett in another civil suit against Rolston in 
2020 brought by five named women—and several other unnamed 
prisoners—whom he had allegedly abused while they were incarcerated at 
FCI Tallahassee.

In the complaint for damages in Barnett’s suit, Cook alleged that FCI 
Tallahassee officials were “well aware of numerous other sexual assaults 
on inmates by prison employees.” But the prison “had an informal policy 
of turning a blind eye to abuse and leaving suspected abusers in a 
position to continue their abusive conduct,” the lawsuit claimed.

By 2020, Rolston and former BOP guard Jimmy Lee Highsmith had each 
“sexually abused roughly a dozen known women,” according to the lawsuit. 
But Cook told The Appeal that the number of victims could easily be higher.

Over the course of nearly 20 years, Cook said he and his law partner 
Rick Johnson have taken on more than a dozen different lawsuits 
involving allegations of sexual abuse by staff at FCI Tallahassee, 
including cases against both Rolston and Highsmith. One of Cook’s first 
cases, in 2003, involved a woman who was raped by Officer Jeffrey 
Linton. Linton was criminally convicted but received only probation.

In these cases, Cook says, it is common for additional women to come 
forward to support allegations even when the two-year statute of 
lim­i­ta­tions for them to file legal complaints has passed—meaning they 
are not eligible to seek compensation themselves. But others likely 
choose to remain silent, either because they have not yet processed 
their own trauma or because they determine it is not worth risking 
ongoing retaliation by going public.

Over the past year alone, Cook and Johnson have won roughly $1 million 
in settlements for women at FCI Tallahassee. Like the cases against 
Rolston, most have been settled out of court, Cook said, which has 
allowed the government to avoid admitting harm. Some settlements 
involving private entities have also included nondisclosure agreements 
that bar victims from speaking out publicly.

Incarcerated women say Rolston’s ability to skirt more meaningful 
accountability speaks to the broader culture of cover-up at FCI 
Tallahassee. Some describe this as a function of a “green wall” of 
silence in federal prisons, similar to the “blue wall” 
<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/03/learning/editorial-winner-breaking-the-blue-wall-of-silence-changing-the-social-narrative-about-policing-in-america.html> 
seen in policing—prison guard uniforms were traditionally green. In some 
cases against Rolston, for example, female staff and nurses testified 
that he had acted in a professional manner and did not abuse women 
during treatments. In one trial, jurors ruled against the plaintiffs 
after this sort of testimony.

Indeed, under BOP regulations, a woman staffer must be present when a 
male provider performs breast or pelvic examinations, except in 
emergency situations. But federal women’s prisons operate under a “sense 
of patriarchal entitlement,” said Cook. He recalled encountering this 
environment as far back as 2003, during his first suit against BOP.

“Barriers between guards and women prisoners were illusory. Women who 
came forward were treated badly. Investigations were halfhearted. 
Whistleblowers had their careers sabotaged. Nothing changed,” Cook said.

Despite the lengthy list of allegations and lawsuits against Rolston, he 
remains employed at FCI Tallahassee, but has since been moved to the 
male facility, according to a BOP spokesperson.

us capitol building
Last December, U.S. senators on the Permanent Subcommittee on 
Investigations hosted a hearing on Capitol Hill into sexual abuse at 
federal women’s prisons.

Louis Velasquez via Unsplash


      ‘Something Has to Change’

In a July 2021 Prison Rape Elimination Act audit 
<https://www.bop.gov/locations/institutions/tal/TAL_prea.pdf>, FCI 
Tallahassee received stellar marks from a contractor with PREA Auditors 
of America, an LLC that has since rebranded as Corrections Consulting 
Services. The facility had met or exceeded all 45 standards established 
under PREA, the auditor concluded. Under federal guidelines, FCI 
Tallahassee will not be audited again until 2024.

Although the most recent report noted that “the facility had zero 
grievances of sexual abuse” filed during the previous year, it did 
document a total of six allegations of sexual abuse in that time. Three 
complaints were found to be unsubstantiated, according to the report, 
meaning investigators did not find enough evidence to prove or disprove 
the allegation. The auditor documented three ongoing criminal 
investigations into staff abuse of prisoners, all “related to a class 
action lawsuit against one staff member.” Due to the active status of 
the probes, however, the report provides little information about the 
nature of these allegations or whom they were against.

The 2021 audit is, in essence, a complete whitewash, according to 
accounts from incarcerated sources. But FCI Tallahassee did not get away 
totally unscathed. Among other issues, the report documented 
deficiencies around processes for prisoners to report sexual assault. In 
random interviews with 34 incarcerated people, the auditor concluded 
that “none were aware of the outside reporting entity”—the Office of the 
Inspector General. The auditor gave the facility a passing grade on this 
standard, however, writing that “this information is posted throughout 
the unit, found in the inmate handbook and is on the inmate computer 
system.”

There was also confusion around the “level of confidentiality” prisoners 
could expect in calls to the toll-free rape crisis hotline numbers 
posted around FCI Tallahassee. While most interviewees reported that 
“they believed that any contact with these services would be 
confidential,” the auditor clarified that under BOP policy, 
“confidential is not the same as privileged communication and as such 
communication is monitored consistent with security practices.” 
Additional “information related to limits of confidentiality” was not 
available, according to the report. In other words, while calls to these 
outside agencies are officially considered “confidential,” they are 
still monitored—likely unbeknownst to some callers.

In a written statement to The Appeal, a BOP spokesperson said that while 
all “general phone calls” are subject to monitoring, prisoners “may 
request an unmonitored telephone call through their unit team staff that 
would allow them to call either their attorney or [a rape crisis 
hotline] directly.” But this assumes prisoners are aware that they would 
have to specifically request an unmonitored call in order to avoid 
surveillance.

The failure of the latest PREA audit to capture problems of sexual 
assault at FCI Tallahassee reflects a much longer-standing issue at the 
prison. Before 2021, the facility had contracted with Nakamoto Group for 
its PREA auditing services. Nakamoto has been named in a string of 
lawsuits over the past decade alleging neglect in its inspections of 
detention facilities across the country. The 2021 civil suit filed by 
four FCI Tallahassee prisoners against Rolston also named the Nakamoto 
Group, accusing the company of “consistently fail[ing] to conduct 
thorough examinations of critical facility functions” during audits 
dating back to at least 2014.

Even when sexual abuse by staff is identified in federal prisons, 
individuals are rarely held accountable. According to the most recent 
data from the BJS, prison staffers identified as “perpetrators” of 
sexual misconduct ultimately pleaded guilty or were convicted, 
sentenced, or even fined in only 6 percent of cases. The study, which 
covered substantiated incidents in state and federal prisons between 
2016 and 2018, appears to point to a pattern of impunity around issues 
of sexual violence.

Last December, U.S. senators on the Permanent Subcommittee on 
Investigations hosted a hearing on Capitol Hill during which they 
unveiled the results of a bipartisan eight-month probe into the abuse of 
women in federal prisons.

“Our findings are deeply disturbing and demonstrate, in my view, that 
the BOP is failing systemically to prevent, detect, and address sexual 
abuse of prisoners by its own employees,” said Senator Jon Ossoff, the 
Georgia Democrat who led the investigation, during opening remarks.

The event featured chilling testimony 
<https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/subcommittees/investigations/hearings/sexual-abuse-of-female-inmates-in-federal-prisons-/> 
from three survivors of sexual violence in various BOP facilities who 
recounted being targeted, manipulated, and raped by staffers who left 
them feeling traumatized and powerless.

“Because of his position, my attacker could and did access my personal 
history files, recordings of my telephone calls, and personal emails, 
giving him additional leverage to extract sexual favors and threaten my 
safety,” testified Linda De La Rosa, who was among at least four women 
who faced sexual assault at the hands of a correctional officer at FMC 
Lexington, in Kentucky.

The event set the stage for the passage of a bill requiring BOP to 
upgrade and repair surveillance camera systems at federal prisons, which 
President Joe Biden signed into law in late December. Broken prison 
cameras are “enabling corruption, misconduct, and abuse,” Ossoff, the 
bill’s sponsor, said at the time 
<https://www.ossoff.senate.gov/press-releases/sen-ossoffs-bipartisan-bill-to-strengthen-security-at-federal-prisons-becomes-law/>.

While the focus on cameras may strike some as a commonsense measure to 
improve transparency in federal prisons, the legislation appears to 
follow arguments similar to those made in favor of police body cameras 
over the past decade. Yet the proliferation of these devices appears to 
have done little to slow police violence and misconduct, with law 
enforcement killings reaching at least a 10-year high 
<https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jan/06/us-police-killings-record-number-2022> 
in 2022. Critics often note that police ultimately have control over 
whether cameras are turned on during critical incidents. They’ve also 
expressed concern about the lack of independent oversight around 
recorded footage—an issue that seems likely to arise in prisons as well.

The DOJ has also stepped up its response amid the Senate investigation, 
announcing in November 
<https://www.justice.gov/dag/page/file/1549051/download> that it was 
taking “immediate action to crack down on sexual misconduct by federal 
prison employees and improve handling of complaints.” A month before, 
the DOJ inspector general went so far as to issue a warning 
<https://www.justice.gov/dag/page/file/1549051/download> expressing 
concerns that the BOP was “regularly excluding inmates’ testimony in 
administrative misconduct investigations.”

Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco has also supported//the early 
release of incarcerated women who have endured sexual assaults behind 
bars and made other recommendations, including pushing BOP to establish 
stricter policies to prevent sexual harassment both by and against staff.

Women at FCI Tallahassee say they welcome the recent attention in 
Washington toward sexual abuse in federal prisons. But some remain 
highly skeptical of whether the resulting action will come close to 
meeting the scale of the problem. There was only a fleeting mention of 
FCI Tallahassee in the Senate report. The subcommittee investigation 
identified only four BOP facilities in the past decade where “multiple 
male BOP employees sexually abused multiple female prisoners under their 
supervision,” and FCI Tallahassee was not listed among them.

Ultimately, the endemic sexual violence and coercion in women’s prisons 
is just one symptom of the much broader culture of desperation, fear, 
and repression that these facilities cultivate.

In the month before the Senate hearing last December, The Appeal tried 
to locate Rachel Padgett at FCI Tallahassee to discuss the current 
situation at the prison. After days of silence, another incarcerated 
woman was able to confirm that Padgett had been granted a sudden release 
from the prison in September under the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, 
and Economic Security (CARES) Act 
<https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2022/06/21/2022-13217/home-confinement-under-the-coronavirus-aid-relief-and-economic-security-cares-act>. 


While the CARES Act has allowed Padgett and thousands of other 
minimum-security prisoners to serve out portions of their sentences on 
home confinement or in halfway houses, her release came with a major 
caveat: no contact with the media without approval from BOP. Considering 
the high degree of surveillance at FCI Tallahassee, it seems possible 
that Padgett’s conversations with The Appeal about sexual abuse may have 
contributed to her rapid release, which barely gave her a chance to say 
goodbye to her friends.

Although Padgett’s printed communications with The Appeal took place 
before the media ban, while she was still incarcerated at FCI 
Tallahassee, it is clear that BOP’s threats have served their intended 
purpose. The BOP has sought to punish 
<https://www.forbes.com/sites/walterpavlo/2021/02/06/inmate-on-home-confinement-spoke-out-on-bureau-of-prisons-policy-and-ended-up-back-in-prison/?sh=3a13acc855ba> 
at least one other CARES Act beneficiary for exercising her First 
Amendment rights to free speech while out on home confinement, and 
Padgett has understandably been worried about anything that could land 
her back at Tally.

“The Bureau of Prisons is rife with misconduct, corruption, violence, 
and abuse, which has been well-documented by recent congressional 
hearings and media investigations,” said Liz Komar, sentencing reform 
counsel for The Sentencing Project. Komar called attention to a host of 
other issues organizers and advocates raised to BOP Director Colette 
Peters in an open letter 
<https://www.sentencingproject.org/advocacy-letter/formerly-incarcerated-people-and-advocacy-organizations-urge-reform-of-us-bureau-of-prisons/> 
last September.

Without intervention, women say it is unlikely that officials at FCI 
Tallahassee will turn around its oppressive and unlawful environment of 
their own volition.

“The conditions keep deteriorating at the federal facilities, staff are 
overworked, they can’t afford to feed us humanely, prices at commissary 
are so high that most are a burden to their families,” said Tiffany 
Arnold, who is currently pursuing her next compassionate release 
petition in hopes of obtaining relief from the two life sentences she is 
still facing.

“The system is broken and so many would have benefited from 
rehabilitation, not imprisonment,” she added. “Something has to change. 
Things cannot continue to decline at this rate.”

/Correction: A previous version of this story misattributed a quote to 
Liz Komar of The Sentencing Project./

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