Sexual assault is one of the most underreported crimes in the United States. Tragically, sexual assault of people in prison by prison staff is tragically an all too common experience. And it becomes a form of state-sanctioned violence when those in power fail to take action to stop it, and survivors face retaliation for coming forward. The physical and emotional trauma of this violence is long-lasting, and compounds the existing trauma criminalized survivors are already experiencing.
The Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) was signed into law more than two decades ago with the goal to eradicate rape in jails and prisons across the country and to mandate a zero-tolerance policy for sexual assault, including by compelling prisons to officially document every reported sexual assault. Despite PREA, sexual assault remains a horrifyingly common experience among people in prison.
The Illinois Department of Corrections is part of this violence. Just this week, seven women came forward to file federal lawsuits in the Central District of Illinois, exposing an ongoing crisis of sexual assault, harassment, and institutional retaliation at Logan, Illinois’ primary women’s prison. Uptown People’s Law Center, Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation, and five major law firms serve as their counsel. The complaints contain allegations of disturbing sexual misconduct by multiple Logan prison staff, as well as repeated failures by prison leadership to protect women in custody. Survivors who were brave enough to report were met with rampant retaliation, including disciplinary tickets, solitary confinement, loss of critical privileges, access to job assignments, “good time” credit that would have reduced their time in prison, and even access to medical and mental health care.
Despite laws prohibiting any staff-prisoner sexual contact, the filings show Logan officials and staff who were assigned to ensure compliance with PREA rarely enforced protections, instead creating a culture of silence. From 2021-2025, 85 complaints regarding staff-on-prisoner sexual abuse were filed at Logan with Internal Affairs, but only 6 resulted in any disciplinary action. Even fewer resulted in criminal prosecution or removal. These findings underscore how this lack of accountability, plus power imbalance between correctional officers and people in prison, puts prisoners at high risk for sexual abuse. This reality is especially acute for women, who are three times more likely than men to be sexually victimized by prison staff.
The time for immediate and swift action against custodial sexual abuse is now. That’s why we at UPLC are on taking on this coordinated challenge to the pervasive culture of sexual abuse at Logan. We demand that the administration stop silencing and retaliating against people who speak up, and demand the implementation of real and meaningful structural change. Equal Justice Works Fellow Maggie Bourke, who just joined UPLC in September, will lead this effort on behalf of UPLC. But fighting this system of silence, predation, and power takes all of us.
