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Cross-Gender Supervision In Prison And The Constitutional Right Of Prisoners To Remain Free From Rape, Flyn L. Flesher

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

A variety of state, federal, and international laws theoretically prohibit sexual abuse of prisoners by the guards hired by the state to oversee them. Nevertheless, sexual abuse of female prisoners by male prison guards is a rampant phenomenon that the law has thus far failed to remedy. Cross-gender supervision policies exacerbate the problem by placing women in situations in which they have no escape from their attackers. These policies, which are as dangerous for some prisoners as they are humiliating to all prisoners, have generally withstood scrutiny in courts.

This note attempts to reframe the arguments challenging crossgender supervision policies …