Last fall, InvestigateWest published a series of stories that reported cases of rape and abuse by Idaho's prison guards. It was called Guarded by Predators and alleged the corrections system shields them from repercussions.
Since then, the InvestigateWest team has continued to follow the story as policymakers react and more details emerge. Today, Owen Henderson talks with investigative reporter Whitney Bryen.
This interview edited slightly for clarity and length.
OH: After that first series published, were you able to get back in contact with any of the women who shared their stories for the series? What did they think of the pieces?
WB: Honestly, there's some mixed reviews. Many of the women thanked us for highlighting their perspectives, what was happening to them, taking them seriously.
The issue that we spotted often in our original reporting was that people who were looking into these incidents were often responding to the victims of these assaults as if they were criminals, rather than the victim of these newly reported crimes.
The other piece of it is, you know, many of these women said, well, now it's out there, but nothing is changing. So now they fear retaliation of a different sort. They fear that other inmates are going to be mad at them, because in some cases, inmates are getting things in exchange for these types of relationships. And now maybe that's going to start to subside a little bit. They are concerned that co-workers of some of the people who are being accused will hold grudges and treat them differently. So there is definitely a mix of gratefulness on these women's part, but also fear of retaliation moving forward.
OH: How about policymakers in Idaho? How did they react after the series published?
WB: What we're hearing from lawmakers is that they're very concerned about one aspect of our reporting which they have the most control over, really, which is that Idaho has one felony criminal law these abusers can be charged under.
When a guard does commit an assault and prosecutors decide to charge them, there's this one law that they use to do that. Basically, it only allows charges to be filed for extremely serious assaults. It's required that penetration is involved in some way.
So the reason that is problematic and narrow, according to experts, is we heard a lot of stories about women who were fondled over or under the clothing. But because the law doesn't specifically name that, these guards are often not charged for something that's a bit more minor. It has to really escalate before they can be charged.
What that means for lawmakers is they could change the existing law and expand it to include other types of abuse that could be prosecuted. Washington and Oregon both have systems like this, where there's a misdemeanor law as well that protects inmates. We're hearing lawmakers are working with a local attorney on wording for a bill that would somehow adjust our laws here in Idaho. We don't yet know what that looks like.
OH: You've published now seven stories since the original series came out and those stories range from potential reforms, specific cases of abuse and reopening of investigations, and the roadblocks to tackling this systemic issue. What are some of the other ways that officials want to reform the prison system?
WB: Some of the other suggestions that we've heard are that the Department of Corrections is revisiting its sexual misconduct policy. This is sort of a routine type of review. But in this case, that review happened to coincide with when we published our series.
The Department of Corrections director, Bree Derrick, came out in a public meeting and said, we're going to take some extra time looking over that sexual misconduct policy and ensuring that that policy reflects the culture that we want to present here, which, of course, is one of protecting inmates from abuse rather than allowing it to fester as it seems to have done so far.
So I am hearing that that policy has been updated and that Department of Corrections officers will start to receive training very soon in the changes to that policy. We have not seen the changes yet, so we're not sure what that looks like.
One of the changes that we have seen so far might seem kind of minimal for some of our listeners because it really only affects one of the women that we talked to. But for her, this was monumental change. She had filed some complaints against multiple prison workers that were essentially ignored. Her case was reopened. They found evidence that they believe supported that she was telling the truth. So there is a little bit of movement. There's a lot of talk and we will obviously continue to follow any real changes that occur.
In terms of the roadblocks to making any real change in Idaho, financial blockades, of course, are always things that we're talking about when we're looking at government issues, but especially at the state level. Idaho is in a budget crunch to say the least right now. The legislature is currently meeting and trying to figure out how to fund vital services in the state. And one of the issues that I'm being told is coming up often is there's just not money to do anything new. So Idaho could, for instance, create an ombudsman's office to oversee some of these issues in the prisons at the state level. But that would cost money because it would be a new office that would need funding and that's just not in the budget at the moment.
OH: So your latest piece, which was co-reported with the Invisible Institute, what does this story deal with?
WB: This story looks at a recent change that was made at the state level that is going to impact our ability to report these kinds of stories in the future, and also for the public and other research entities to hold accountable these officers who are accused of sexual abuse and other misconduct in the prison system.
Last year, we were able to request through public records request all the names of officers who had left the Department of Corrections in the past decade. We got their names, we got their positions, what prison they worked at, the date they were hired, the date they left, and very importantly, we got the reason that they left the department. It was vague, but basically told us whether officers were fired, whether they resigned, retired, some left for active military duty.
Now these state officials are saying we're no longer going to release that reason for separation from a state agency.
This information was vital to our reporting last year. It's what helped us learn not only who some of these officers were, but also that they were allowed to resign from the Department of Corrections, leaving no trace in their employment history that they were accused of misconduct.
So when they go and apply for a job in another state at another prison, those departments of corrections, let's say, in Washington, they would rely on public data so that they could call the Department of Corrections in Idaho and say, we have a candidate applying for a job. He left the department last year. We want to know if he was fired or resigned from that position. Well, that information is no longer public to us to do that reporting, nor is it public for these other departments of corrections.
Criminal defense attorneys here in Idaho are saying this is extremely problematic and endangering to the public because they're using this type of information about law enforcement to defend their clients who may have experienced some of that misconduct from an officer.
We're also hearing that this is going to hinder a lot of research that's being done nationally about what's called wandering cops. This is that phenomenon of an officer who commits misconduct at one jurisdiction, leaves that job and then gets a job at another jurisdiction and essentially keeps bouncing around because that misconduct is not being publicly provided.
But the state is saying that their attorneys have reviewed the Public Records Act in Idaho, which has not changed, and that they're reinterpreting a clause to say that that information is not public and should be withheld.
InvestigateWest's series is called Guarded by Predators.
