PW: ‘So tell me how P.R.E.A. has changed life for women in prison. It was created to stop the rape of female inmates.
“It didn’t do a damn thing. Women are still subjected to sexual assault here. I read where something like 80% of female prisoners have been sexually abused before they got here, so they’re sort of conditioned to it. My fellow guards make sexually charged remarks like, ‘Your ass is sweet, can I take a bite outa it?’, ‘Eat my dick’, and other suggestive remarks. Other guys take their aggressions out on them verbally, ‘Get in your cells bitches.’ ‘You’re all a bunch of c**ts’. Of course, this strips them of any kind of dignity, which is why they do it. And absolutely nothing stops them from enjoying looking at the girls while they’re taking a shower. The gals put Kotex on the window to discourage that, but the guards rip them off right away……they say it’s for ‘security reasons ‘. What B.S. that is! They want their peep show back! “
PW: ‘Do these guards ever get disciplined?’
“Naw, unless there’s DNA found. When one of the women makes a complaint, there is an ‘investigation’, but nothing happens to the guy. If it’s really bad he’ll be transferred to another prison, but usually, they get transferred to the mailroom (laughs). They are running Santa Cruz on 30% staff, we are so short guards that nobody is getting fired.”