PORT ANGELES — Clallam County Sheriff Bill Benedict said the FBI will not investigate allegations made in a federal study that said the Clallam County jail had a high rate of staff-on-inmate sexual misconduct because no victim has come forward.
“They consider it a closed matter,” Benedict said.
“They essentially require a victim to investigate.”
A $13 million Bureau of Justice Statistics report ranked the jail third out of 286 in the nation for highest per-capita instances of staff-on-inmate sexual victimization.
Four inmates out of 75 who took the survey in March 2009 reported staff-on-inmate sexual victimization.
Allen Beck, Bureau of Justice Statistics senior statistician and author of the August report “Sexual Victimization in Prisons and Jails Reported by Inmates, 2008-09,” said that one woman said she had been victimized by a jail staff member.
The other three inmates, according to the author, were men — a claim that Benedict termed “just bizarre.”
Benedict, Undersheriff Ron Peregrin and Jail Superintendent Ron Sukert strongly denied the allegations. They said it was likely that a small number of respondents lied to RTI International survey takers.
Beck stood by the findings.
After the results appeared in local newspapers, Benedict called the FBI to investigate his jail.
Stands by findings
He also issued a statement, which was published in the Peninsula Daily News on Sept. 15, responding to the allegations:
“I can unequivocally state that the survey’s finding of 6.1 percent of survey inmates having experienced sexual misconduct by the jail staff is a complete fabrication by several inmates who intentionally misled the interviewers with false answers,” he wrote.
Peregrin had said then that, if the FBI decided against an investigation, then the Sheriff’s Office would seek another third party — perhaps a law enforcement agency from outside the county or the state Department of Corrections — to check out the jail.
Benedict said Tuesday that no victim has come forward.
In the statement published Sept. 15, Benedict asked anyone who had been subject to sexual misconduct by jail staff to phone him or the FBI office in Poulsbo at 360-394-8150.
Benedict said the FBI has kept its phone line open and no one has called to complain.
‘Dead subject’
“It’s a dead subject,” Benedict said.
“Where’s the proof? Somebody come forward. I would love to meet a victim.”
Jail officials said there are state and local rules in place to prevent all forms of sexual misconduct in the jail.
Two corrections officers are required to conduct cell checks at the same time, and female guards are not allowed to supervise male prisoners.
“I don’t know what else I could do,” Benedict said.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
