Commissioner: Big risk of misconduct in prisons; 3 guards accused of sex assault, rape

Measures are desperately needed to combat sexual misconduct in women’s prisons in the Netherlands. Mariette Hamer, the Government Commissioner for Sexual Misconduct and Sexual Violence, said that in advice to parliament on the same day that the Public Prosecution Service (OM) announced that it would prosecute three prison guards for sexual assault. One is also accused of rape.

The sexual assault and rape happened in the women’s prison in Nieuwersluis, Utrecht, between February and June 2022. “Following reports and subsequent investigation, the OM has decided to prosecute three men for sexual offenses,” a spokesperson for the OM confirmed to NU.nl on Wednesday. The victims are four women imprisoned there at the time. Two guards are charged with attacking two women.

It is not yet clear when the men will appear in court. The spokesperson added that women in the prison also filed three other reports that did not lead to prosecution. “Two reports were dismissed for lack of evidence. A third did not lead to an investigation because the report did not lead to the suspicion of a criminal offense.”

Also on Thursday, Hamer sent a report to parliament saying that there was a great risk of sexual misconduct in women’s prisons due to the power relationship between employees and detainees and the internal hierarchy, many one-on-one work situations, and dependence on individual assessments. “Detainees in women’s institutions also have an above-average rate of mild intellectual disability and traumatic experiences, which makes them vulnerable to sexually transgressive behavior,” Hamer said.

Hamer advocated for a culture change so that victims are more willing to speak out. She wants prisons to make it easier for detainees to report inappropriate behavior. There must be clear information about who to turn to to make a report, which should happen out of sight of the prison staff. And prisoners must be able to trust that their complaints will be handled independently and without bias.

“In conversations with detainees, I heard that employees made jokes about detainees or threatened them with a ‘one-way ticket to ISO,’ the solitaire sell. The detainees I spoke to let me know that these comments have a major impact on them because of the power of the employees.” She advised creating more predictability in the relationship between employees and detainees, including by limiting prison employees’ powers to grant privileges to prisoners.

Hamer added that prison employees also face transgressive behavior from detainees. “The response from employees must always be to act with integrity, no matter how difficult it may be. Retaliation for physical or verbal violence or consent to sex is not allowed.”

The government commissioner stressed that sexual contact between a prison employee and a detainee is punishable by law, partly due to the power imbalance. “Whether the detainee consents is, therefore, irrelevant,” she said.