The state employees who got it on with female prisoners working at a mental hospital face 31 months in prison.
Three male employees at Dorothea Dix Hospital lost their jobs Thursday as the State Bureau of Investigation was asked to look into allegations they had sex with female prisoners working at the state mental facility.
A fourth employee left her job under suspicion that she had a personal relationship with an inmate that did not include sex.
Officials concluded that the employees enabled the inmates to set up bank accounts, access e-mail and make unauthorized phone calls, said Renee McCoy, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Health and Human Services.
Inmate advocates say it is not rare for guards and other state employees to get caught having sex with prisoners, even though the potential criminal penalties are steep.
“It’s very, very commonplace,” said Michele Luecking-Sunman, a staff attorney for N.C. Prisoner Legal Services. “In our experience, they don’t always fire the guards unless someone makes an issue of it.
“Otherwise, they kind of sweep it under the rug and transfer the officer to another prison or allow that person to resign.” News researchers Brooke Cain and Lamara Williams contributed to this report.
Read the rest of this Charlotte Observer article here.
This article appears in Apr 14-21, 2009.
