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Guards Fired in Massachusetts Sex Abuse Cases
Four guards were fired from the Suffolk County House of Correction in Boston in August and October 1999 on charges that they had sexual contact with female prisoners. One of the prisoners became pregnant in what was described by the Boston Globe as a "guard-inmate drugs-for-sex ring." The charges rocked the Suffolk County Sheriff's Department and spurred multiple lawsuits, and prompted investigations by the FBI and Suffolk County District Attorney's Office.
In November 1999 guard union members, who had remained shamed and largely silent as four of their own lost their badges, erupted in outrage after Lieutenant Alvin Boudrow was fired in connection with the scandal. According to union officials and Lt. Boudrow's attorney, he was fired after he jokingly used the phrase "tip of the iceberg" in a conversation with a superior.
In an interview with the Boston Globe, Suffolk County Sheriff Richard J. Rouse defended the firing. He said that the manner in which Lt. Boudrow conveyed the comment--saying it twice to Special Sheriff Brian Byrnes as they passed the women's unit of the jail where the sex abuse occurred--indicated that he knew about other possible instances of abuse. When Rouse asked Boudrow to file reports about any further misconduct he knew about, he said the Lt. refused to elaborate.
Also in November 1999 a guard at the state prison for women in Framingham, Mass., was charged with raping two prisoners after DNA evidence from one of the alleged victims matched a sample of his blood. On two separate occasions in October 1998, MCI Framingham guard Anthony Maddix allegedly had female prisoners released from their cells, saying they were to report to the prison medical ward. Instead, he took them to an isolated area and forced them to perform oral sex, a Middlesex County prosecutor told the Boston Globe.
A spokesman for the Massachusetts DOC called the arrest an "isolated" event despite reports of sexual misconduct at other Massachusetts prisons and a recent report by Amnesty International that asserted that Framingham's women's prison was plagued by increasing numbers of guards trading cigarettes for sex.
"This was an isolated incident," DOC chief Anthony Carnivale told the Boston Globe. "This is the only individual involved. As soon as the matter was brought forward, we investigated." As to the allegations raised by Amnesty International in its March 1999 report, Carnivale called them false and "outrageous".
But Massachusetts lawmakers took the problem more seriously, passing a law in November 1999 criminalizing even "consensual" sex between guards and prisoners. Passed as an amendment to the budget, the law makes any sexual contact between guards and prisoners a felony punishable by up to five years in prison, a $10,000 fine, or both.
Source: The Boston Globe
In November 1999 guard union members, who had remained shamed and largely silent as four of their own lost their badges, erupted in outrage after Lieutenant Alvin Boudrow was fired in connection with the scandal. According to union officials and Lt. Boudrow's attorney, he was fired after he jokingly used the phrase "tip of the iceberg" in a conversation with a superior.
In an interview with the Boston Globe, Suffolk County Sheriff Richard J. Rouse defended the firing. He said that the manner in which Lt. Boudrow conveyed the comment--saying it twice to Special Sheriff Brian Byrnes as they passed the women's unit of the jail where the sex abuse occurred--indicated that he knew about other possible instances of abuse. When Rouse asked Boudrow to file reports about any further misconduct he knew about, he said the Lt. refused to elaborate.
Also in November 1999 a guard at the state prison for women in Framingham, Mass., was charged with raping two prisoners after DNA evidence from one of the alleged victims matched a sample of his blood. On two separate occasions in October 1998, MCI Framingham guard Anthony Maddix allegedly had female prisoners released from their cells, saying they were to report to the prison medical ward. Instead, he took them to an isolated area and forced them to perform oral sex, a Middlesex County prosecutor told the Boston Globe.
A spokesman for the Massachusetts DOC called the arrest an "isolated" event despite reports of sexual misconduct at other Massachusetts prisons and a recent report by Amnesty International that asserted that Framingham's women's prison was plagued by increasing numbers of guards trading cigarettes for sex.
"This was an isolated incident," DOC chief Anthony Carnivale told the Boston Globe. "This is the only individual involved. As soon as the matter was brought forward, we investigated." As to the allegations raised by Amnesty International in its March 1999 report, Carnivale called them false and "outrageous".
But Massachusetts lawmakers took the problem more seriously, passing a law in November 1999 criminalizing even "consensual" sex between guards and prisoners. Passed as an amendment to the budget, the law makes any sexual contact between guards and prisoners a felony punishable by up to five years in prison, a $10,000 fine, or both.
Source: The Boston Globe
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