Idaho lawmakers order investigation of sexual assault in women’s prisons

As a result of InvestigateWest reporting that exposed sexual abuse of women by Idaho prison staff, lawmakers ordered an independent probe into the state’s handling of those allegations.

During a meeting Friday, March 13, bipartisan members of the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee directed Idaho’s Office of Performance Evaluation to assess the state’s prevention, reporting, investigations and response to allegations of staff sexual misconduct, and to provide recommendations for improvement. 

The decision comes five months after InvestigateWest’s October reporting, which revealed sexual misconduct allegations against dozens of women’s prison guards that were inconsistently tracked, frequently dismissed without a thorough investigation and rarely prosecuted. 

“The reporting suggests systemic failures across all of Idaho's women's correctional facilities,” according to a letter from five lawmakers requesting the review. 

Sen. James Ruchti, D-Pocatello, presented the request to committee members at Friday’s hearing. InvestigateWest’s “Guarded by Predators” series was the “genesis” of the request, he said.

Ruchti said he heard from constituents who read the articles and were “very alarmed.” The independent evaluation, he said, does not seek to investigate individual allegations against prison staff, but to determine: “Do we have a problem or don’t we?”

“Let's just make sure we don't have a problem with our reporting, with how we train people, all the things we're supposed to be doing because it is a vulnerable population,” Ruchti said. “If we're not doing it right, we need to know it.”

The committee’s vote comes after a mixed response from Idaho state leaders and agencies. Internal emails obtained by InvestigateWest reveal how Bree Derrick, the Idaho Department of Correction director, emailed several lawmakers including Ruchti a few days before the articles were published to make sure they were not “blindsided” and were “armed with talking points should constituents reach out,” according to records obtained by InvestigateWest. In the email, she argued that the “gist” of the reporting was not true. Although the department later issued a statement defending its process of responding to abuse allegations, it has not identified any factual errors in the reporting.

Idaho Gov. Brad Little’s office also advised state police to withhold information from InvestigateWest reporters about investigations into misconduct by prison guards ahead of publication of the series. Through interviews with victims and documents obtained through public records requests, InvestigateWest identified discrepancies in the Department of Correction’s tracking of staff sexual misconduct complaints. When asked about the missing reports, the department either could not find or withheld them from reporters. After InvestigateWest published its findings, the Department of Correction and the Peace Officer Standards and Training Council, which certifies correctional officers, began concealing information about officers’ employment history that reporters used to expose misconduct, making it more difficult to hold accused officers accountable. 

But leaders have also taken steps to address problems highlighted in the articles. In November, the prison system reopened a case featured in the series to reverse a previous finding. The department also updated its sexual misconduct policy and has backed a bill that passed out of the House that would close a gap in the state’s prison sexual abuse law.  

Rep. Steve Berch, a Democratic member of the oversight committee, asked the Office of Performance Evaluation’s director, Ryan Langrill, if his staff would be able to conduct a thorough audit given the state’s lack of transparency and “fair amount of secrecy” around these issues. 

“We have the right to access any records controlled by the Department of Corrections, and if we face resistance then we have the authority to issue subpoenas to get that information,” Langrill said. “Hopefully we don't get to that stage, but we have that option.”

The Office of Performance Evaluation is a nonpartisan office that serves the state Legislature. Its mission is to promote accountability in state government by determining “whether state government programs and agencies are operating efficiently and cost-effectively and are achieving intended results,” according to its website. 

Any lawmaker can request an evaluation of a government program or process. Each spring, the eight-member committee — which consists of two Republican and two Democratic representatives and two Republican and two Democratic senators — reviews those requests and assigns a handful of them to state evaluators. 

This year, committee members ordered four evaluations, including the one looking at staff sexual misconduct in women’s prisons. That review will require the most time and resources, Langrill said during the Friday meeting. Evaluators will also probe the factors driving the high prison population in Idaho, which incarcerates women at a higher rate than any other state in the nation and triple the national average, according to U.S. Department of Justice data released in September. Fueled by harsh drug sentences and probation and parole violations, the population of imprisoned women increased by 50 times since 1980, far outpacing population growth in the state, which doubled in that time.

Idaho also is among the states leading men’s incarceration. When combined, Idaho’s incarceration rate for men and women is fifth in the nation, according to the data. 

Two other probes will evaluate the impact of housing development on Idaho farmland and agricultural economy, and county-based programs struggling to serve adults in need of guardians or conservators. 

Evaluators will produce public reports for each of the reviews with details about how they conducted the probe, presenting their findings and recommendations for improvement to the joint legislative committee. The lawmakers who requested the review said the report on sexual assault in prison will help the Legislature “make informed decisions about correctional oversight policy and the protection of individuals in state custody.” 

A similar audit report released in June found gaps in state oversight of youth treatment homes leaving Idaho children at risk. The audit was prompted by another InvestigateWest series that revealed years of child abuse and neglect at youth homes was met with little to no punishment from state regulators. The investigation found that state regulators had never revoked a youth treatment home’s license despite serious issues, including one facility where a girl was raped by a staff member. 

Lawmakers referenced that audit in their request to review the state’s oversight of sexual abuse inside women’s prisons. 

“(The Office of Performance Evaluation’s) recent evaluation of the state's oversight of children's residential care identified similar systemic concerns in a different institutional setting, including gaps in investigation processes, insufficient monitoring, and the absence of an independent complaint mechanism,” the request states. “An evaluation of the correctional system would build on that work and help the Legislature determine whether comparable reforms are needed.” 

Evaluations will likely begin after the end of the legislative session, which is targeted for March 27.