PORT ANGELES — The lead author of a federal study that ranked the Clallam County jail high in staff-on-inmate sexual misconduct defended the report and refuted claims of a former inmate who said other women lied on the 2009 survey.
Allen Beck, Bureau of Justice Statistics senior statistician and author of the $13 million report “Sexual Victimization in Prisons and Jails Reported by Inmates, 2008-09,” said the numbers portray a “dark side” of unreported sexual victimization in jails and prisons.
The Clallam County jail ranked third out of 286 U.S. jails for highest per-capita percentage of staff-on-inmate sexual victimization, at 6.1 percent.
That number, Beck said, represented four inmates out of 75 who took the survey in March 2009, with the percentage weighted by other factors.
Beck also said that only one woman said she had been victimized by a jail staff member.
The other three inmates, according to the author, were men.
“Obviously it takes the sheriff and undersheriff by surprise, but again, it’s intended to do so,” Beck said Wednesday after having spoken with Clallam County Sheriff Bill Benedict and Undersheriff Ron Peregrin.
“I had a spirited conversation, and I think a respectful one, with the sheriff and undersheriff just this afternoon. We agreed to disagree.”
Benedict said: “I wasn’t real satisfied with what [Beck] said.”
“He said two or three male inmates complained about male staff members having sex with them,” Benedict said.
“That is just bizarre.”
Benedict has described the survey as “bogus” and “flawed.”
He, along with Peregrin and Jail Superintendent Ron Sukert, argue that a small number of respondents mislead RTI International survey takers.
After news of the results was published in local newspapers last week, Benedict requested an FBI investigation into the allegations.
FBI officials in Washington, D.C., will determine whether to send a task force to investigate the jail.
Benedict expects to hear from FBI headquarters today or Monday.
“You can debate this endlessly,” Benedict said on Thursday, explaining why he wants a third-party investigation.
“You can’t prove a negative.”
The sheriff issued a written public response to the study on Tuesday. His response appeared in Wednesday’s editions of the Peninsula Daily News and is available at www.peninsuladailynews.com.
“I can unequivocally state that the survey’s finding of 6.1 percent of survey inmates having experienced sexual misconduct by the jail staff is a complete fabrication by several inmates who intentionally misled the interviewers with false answers,” Benedict wrote.
About four years ago, the jail implemented a policy that requires two corrections officers to check a cell at the same time.
“The policy is there to protect both the inmates and the corrections officer,” Benedict said.
He said there is no place in the jail for sexual contact to occur.
“There’s just no indication that that’s going on,” Benedict said.
In his response letter, Benedict asked anyone who has been victimized in the jail to phone him or the FBI.
“I haven’t heard a single word,” he said.
A former inmate came forward with on Tuesday with information that other female inmates were joking around with answers they gave to the survey takers.
The inmate, Elizabeth Stallings, told the Peninsula Daily News that “it was a big joke.”
“The problem with that is, it doesn’t show up in the data, because most of the victims are not female,” Beck said in response to Stallings’ information.
“In fact, there’s only one [woman]. It’s a bit challenging to interpret this as a conspiracy or kind of a collaboration among inmates to make false reports.”
Beck said it is “totally conceivable” that the women did joke about the survey.
“But what was said to one another doesn’t correspond to what they actually reported in private,” Beck said.
“I think it certainly puts an end to that story.”
Four out of 75 inmates who volunteered to take the survey in the Clallam County jail said they were victimized by a jail staffer, Beck said.
Two said they were victimized by another inmate.
One inmate said victimization was both an inmate and a jail worker.
The weighted statistics show that 6.1 percent of the inmates in the jail reported they were victimized by a staffer, and 4.4 percent reported that they were the victim of another inmate.
Sexual misconduct is considered any form of sexual victimization, including consensual contact.
Beck noted that “at least half” of those reporting sexual victimization across the country said it was willing contact.
“They don’t all rise to forcible sexual penetration,” Beck added.
The study’s author said the response rates are adjusted to take into account the percentage of inmates who participated.
Once adjusted, the statistical range for the Clallam County jail was 3.4 percent to 10.6 percent.
Even on the low end, that’s higher than the national average of 2 percent, Beck said.
“What we’re trying to do is get a sense of sexual victimization that goes unreported,” Beck said.
“It’s not surprising the sheriff is shocked. These are kinds of things that don’t come to the attention of corrections authorities.
“It’s a very slippy slope. It doesn’t mean you take every allegation as truth. … But when it comes to inmates, you have to be careful not to say that all inmate are liars.”
Beck said there is a code of silence in jails and a “fear of being labeled as a snitch” that can suppress reporting of inmate-on-inmate and staff-on-inmate victimization in jails and prisons.
“It’s possible that the allegations may not be entirely true,” Beck allowed.
“Some are proven to be unfounded. There’s no dispute there.”
Beck said jail officials are free to dispute the findings in his study, but are “obligated to try to understand the problem.”
For the jails that came out on the high end, Beck said corrections officials should ask: “Why are the numbers high in my facility not everywhere else?”
“All we can say is every facility had the same protocol,” Beck said.
“Every facility had the same set of questions and these are the outcomes.”
Benedict said there has been one report of inmate-on-inmate sexual victimization in his jail in the last 10 years.
The only reported staff-on-inmate case resulted in the termination, prosecution and sentencing of a former staffer 13 years ago.
Benedict said Beck admitted that the study “certainly isn’t the gold standard for truth.”
For his part, Beck said Clallam County jail officials should “entertain the possibility that there might be a problem.”
“I suppose its possible,” Benedict said.
The August report was the third major National Bureau of Justice Statistics study on sexual victimization in correctional facilities since the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003.
Peregrin argued last week that Clallam County should have been notified sooner if there was a problem in the jail.
Beck countered that there were about 80,000 inmates interviewed, and the data had to be cleaned and inspected before it was published.
“That takes a little time,” Beck said.
“It would be nice if it only took 12 months, but short of that, it’s probably unrealistic. And we can’t report back to sheriffs in ways that put respondents at risk.”
Beck described “absolute assurances” of confidentiality afforded to survey participants.
“We can never take the name of respondents and take them to the authorities,” he said.
“Inmates would never come forward under that condition.”
Short of an FBI investigation, Benedict said it is unlikely that he would hire a contractor to take another sexual victimization survey in the jail.
“I could go back figure out who the 75 inmates were, but at what cost?” Benedict said.
“I don’t know what else to do. I’m open for suggestions.”
Beck said he would work with the sheriff to make sense of the data.
“We will work together to provide a full understanding of what we found,” Beck said.
“He [Benedict] certainly takes this very seriously. I’ve appreciated his passion and commitment to running a good facility.”
________
Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.