Female prison guards often behind sex misconduct

Written by Janet

Michael Murphy is a prison inmate, and for a long time  he sought out out female guards and prison workers that he knew would be easy to charm.  He started by seeking a small favor, which could lead to a kiss or love letters. In at least five cases, he convinced women to have sex with him or perform other significant illegal favors.

And yet, he was the victim in these cases, as inmates aren’t allowed legally to consent to sex.  In each of those cases, the female corrections employees were caught, shamed and forced out of a job.  

The women officers described Murphy as the aggressor, even as the predator. But that makes no difference in either state or federal penitentiaries, where prison employees – male or female – are the violators if they have sex with inmates.

A Justice Department study shows that cases like Murphy’s are common: Female staff are more often implicated than their male counterparts in prison sexual misconduct. While many cases could be considered consensualincarceration experts and female prison guards say the problem is much more complicated than that.  Many of the women reported that they couldn’t say no to the inmate out of fear, or were afraid to go to a co-worker out of shame at what had happened, that one small mistake led to something else.

There’s a culture of silence in prisons in which it’s very difficult for female guards to come forward with problems before they spin out of control. But they also cite a double standard in which female guards are treated less harshly when their transgressions come to light.  Murphy’s liaisons show he persuaded at least five Montana female prison employees to break the rules over several years. He even convinced his therapist to have sex with him, and was able to arrange one-on-one meetings with her even though prison officials knew of his past success in conniving favors out of female workers.

Charges were filed against one of the female prison workers. Murphy, 36, faced no charges.  The affair cost one female employee her marriage, her career and any chance at a real job.  

Murphy claimed, in letters to newspapers and in a request to the ACLU of Montana, that some of the women sexually assaulted him. No sexual assault charges were filed at the time due to lack of evidence.  But a confidential and lengthy internal investigation tells a far more complicated tale about how an inmate manipulated prison staff.

The man who once ran New York City’s corrections department has little sympathy for female prison workers who see themselves as victimized in these cases.  now a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Martin Horn says female workers who have sex with inmates are often treated less harshly by officials than male worker who do the same.

“As long as we have a double standard we are going to see these kind of behaviors,” Horn said. “It is a very slippery slope we go down if we say we are not going to hold female officers to the same standard.”

Montana corrections officials said they have cases dating back to 2003 where two female workers at the state prison in Deer Lodge were disciplined for some sort of undisclosed involvement with Michael Murphy. That same inmate in 2008 then again rocked the prison when it was learned three more had become involved with him.

The prison launched a lengthy internal investigation.

Prison officials say an ongoing investigation seems to implicate Murphy in the case of a female food worker caught smuggling contraband into the prison.

Montana State Prison Warden Mike Mahoney said 41 percent of the system’s employees are female. He said it is impossible to separate female staff from any particular inmate, even one who has proven skilled at compromising workers.

He said the prison always stresses with workers not to get involved with inmates in even the smallest way, and to never reveal personal details of any type. The warden said Murphy’s case, though, will likely provide lessons to improve the training.

• Posted in: Crime & Punishment
• Tagged: female staff, Michael Murphy, prisons