Catherwood LibraryILR School

Federal female prison employees have faced harassment and demeaning working conditions long before the #MeToo movement lifted the curtain on the pervasiveness of sexual harassment. In a 2010 Equal Employment Opportunity Commission report, it was found that the Bureau of Prisons, which employs over 10,000 female employees, had fumbled the ball on harassment claims and that retaliation was high; women who report problems can find themselves stalled on career opportunities. In one extreme case, a case manager who had been raped was charged with raping her attacker. In 2017, the Bureau of Prisons agreed to pay a $20 million settlement to female employees at the Coleman prison complex in Florida, with plaintiff awards higher than any other Title VII gender discrimination settlement in the ten past years. Managers at Coleman had ignored complaints about inmates masturbating - "gunning" - in front of female employees, and male officers who favored inmates treated gunning as a reward.