A lawsuit against a Corrections Officer and New York City has been filed after two women claim to have been repeatedly raped. According to reports, two women told prison officials that they were being raped by an officer named Benny Santiago but no action was taken. Click to more to check out the full story!
Two unnamed women are alleging that an officer at Rikers Island Prison repeatedly raped them and after notifying prison doctors, they received no help. Reports say that the officer’s actions were well known through this particular section of the prison but other officers decline to tell about the wrong doings of Santiago. Also according to reports, at one point, when one of the women complained about what was going on, they were rushed by other inmates for snitching.
One of the victims, who is known as Jane Doe, reported that Santiago approached her and told her that he watched her family from the parking lot and this was supposed to be taken as a threat so she would allow the rapes to continue. Santiago has been placed on modified duty where he is not directly interacting with inmates.
Though Santiago is the only named officer involved in the alleged rapes, there are eight other officers that are said to be involved as well. There are even accusations among them that some female inmates were dragged into a janitor’s closet and another woman ended up pregnant as a result of the rapes.
A representative, Seymour W. James, of the Legal Aid Society admits that sexual violence at Rikers is hitting record numbers after 5.9% of inmates say they have been sexually victimized by Rikers staff. How crazy is that? Rikers is undeniably living up to its reputation of being one of the most violent prisons in the nation.
Source: CNN
