Compensation for Prison Sexual Assault

Prison Assault can have profound consequences such as impacting the victim’s physical, sexual, emotional, and psychological welfare.

Legal Framework

There are limitations on claims and legal rights of incarcerated individuals. Obtaining adequate and correct information can be difficult. There can be resources available to victims of prison assault.

1. Claims

Victims held at Bayview Correctional Facility, Rikers Island, Bedford Hills, and other prisons across the state have filed claims. One explains, “The officer first befriended me. And after the sexual assaults occurred, he let me know in no uncertain terms that we share the same borough and that if I would tell, that I would reap the repercussions,” a sexual abuse survivor said. Her lawsuit was brought under the Adult Survivors Act, which created a window for survivors to sue for civil damages regardless of the statute of limitations.

Some of the sexual assaults go back as far as the 1980s. Many women have suffered in silence for not just years but decades. They point to a 1985 report detailing the abuse of the female inmates at Bayview.