Woman claims new Missouri prison policy puts female workers at risk

A new lawsuit against the state’s Department of Corrections claims a new policy puts female corrections officers at risk of harm.

The suit, filed by Savana Atkisson, claims a DOC policy introduced in February requires female guards to announce their gender when they enter a housing unit in the Jefferson City Correctional Center. The prison is one of the state’s all-male maximum-security facilities.

DOC policy before February only required guards to announce that both men and women were working a shift before entering one of JCCC’s four housing units. The announcement, though, would only happen at the beginning of a guard’s 8-hour shift.

Twice an hour, corrections officers would patrol the units randomly. The new policy, according to the lawsuit, requires women to announce, “female in the wing,” every time they enter.

“Announcing that a female officer is entering a housing unit wing immediately results in catcalls and other sexually inappropriate actions by the offenders in that wing,” reads the lawsuit, written by Columbia attorney Andrew Hirth. “Following the announcement that she is entering a housing unit wing, (Atkisson) has been propositioned for sex, asked to show her breasts or otherwise ‘prove’ that she is a woman, and subjected to misogynistic slurs.”

The lawsuit claims the new policy also requires female corrections officers at JCCC to “log every time they enter or leave a wing of a housing unit.” Male employees are not required to make an announcement or log their entrances and exits.

The announcement process also opens up female employees to a greater risk of assault, the lawsuit says, because it “creates an opportunity for multiple offenders to plan and execute coordinated attacks on the officer, pulling her into a cell beyond the view of (security) cameras.”

DOC spokesman David Owen did not comment on the lawsuit, but said the policy in question comes from the state’s compliance with the Prison Rape Elimination Act. Missouri’s policy, signed in December 2016 by former director George Lombardi, requires staff members to announce their entrance if they are the opposite sex of the inmates in the housing unit. Signs are also required, to notify any hearing-impaired inmates of the presence of an officer of the opposite sex.

The department was criticized by numerous employees earlier this year. Issues of workplace harassment and whistleblower intimidation came to light in hearings by the General Assembly, and in May, a subcommittee recommended some changes. Lombardi stepped down when Gov. Eric Greitens took over after signaling his departure last December. Anne Precythe, nominated by Greitens, was confirmed by the Missouri Senate in February.

The lawsuit also claims the new announcement policy makes it harder for female employees to discover contraband and stop inmate misconduct.

“Other female employees may not appear as effective as their male counterparts when they discipline fewer incidents of offender misbehavior over the course of the year,” the lawsuit said.