Female Vermont Guard Receives Only Misdemeanor for Illegal Sex with Male Prisoner

by Derek Gilna

Prisoners’ rights cynics have often noted that both state and federal correctional officers are rarely disciplined or severely punished when their transgressions cannot be ignored. Recent events in Vermont, the last state to outlaw sex between prison guards and prisoners, seem to prove cynics rights.

After an investigation, female Southeast State Correctional Facility guard Leanne Salls finally admitted entering into a consensual sexual relationship with James Ingerson, while he was confined for burglary, resulting in her giving birth to the prisoner’s child. The Vermont guard was only charged with a misdemeanor, though she was technically guilty of a felony sex crime that carries a five-year maximum prison sentence.

That put the Windsor County prosecutor in a tough spot, forcing him to confront the fact that one of their own had violated a law initially designed to protect female prisoners from the unwanted advances of male prison guards. However, in an instance of rare prosecutorial indulgence with a clearly-guilty offender, the felony charge was reduced to a charge of “prohibited acts,” which did not require the female guard from having to register as a sex offender.

The relationship came to light after one of Ingerson’s fellow prisoners turned over an incriminating letter to prison superintendent David Bovat in 2011. In 2012, a Windsor County circuit judge issued a search warrant to obtain a DNA sample from Ingerson, Salls, and the newborn baby, and the match confirmed that Ingerson was the father.

The Vermont bill prohibiting sexual contact between guards and prisoners was clearly designed to protect vulnerable female prisoners, similar to laws prohibiting relationships between teachers and students. “It seemed like a no-brainer. You can’t have a teacher…using their position of power, authority and access to have a sexual relationship. The same thing applies to prison guards. That had to be illegal. I’m glad we joined the rest of the nation, because you can’t have a person with power over another having consensual sex,” said Vermont State Representative Kurt Wright.

Although the county prosecutor maintained that this was an isolated and special circumstance, it is noteworthy to contemplate what would have happened if the genders had been reversed. Unfortunately, unwanted sexual conduct is all too common, on both the federal and state level, between female guards and male prisoners, and in most instances results only in the employee resigning without formal criminal charges even being filed.

Source: www.7dvt.com