Wisconsin prison officials investigated more than 100 complaints of correctional officers and staff sexually abusing or harassing inmates in one year, state records show.
Among the allegations reviewed, Department of Corrections officials found enough evidence to prove just 11 percent of the claims, or 15 cases involving correctional staff in positions of power creating intimate interactions or relationships with inmates they were charged with supervising, according to documents released under the state open records law.
The prison staff — including one guard trained in preventing such behavior — are accused of having sexual intercourse and forging romantic relationships with inmates, spanking them and making sexually harassing comments, among other allegations.
In one case, a male prison nurse is accused of having sexual intercourse and sexual contact with a female inmate multiple times in an exam room. In two other cases, female prison staff developed romantic relationships with male inmates by touching or kissing and writing romantic and sexual letters back and forth.
