Category: JDI in the News

Incarcerated women tell NGO they are desperate for help

  • Unathi Mahlati and Prince Nare
  • August 30, 2019
  • GroundUp

“Please help us!” This plea from an incarcerated woman — said to me and my colleague at Just Detention International-South Africa (JDI-SA) during a Women’s Month event at a facility in Limpopo on 23 August — summarises the sense of desperation among incarcerated women we have spoken with. So it was disappointing that this Women’s

Prison Rape: A Survivor Tells His Story

  • Eusebius McKaiser
  • July 19, 2019
  • The Eusebius McKaiser Show

“Eusebius spoke to a survivor of prison rape, Isak Sass, about his story, and also to Just Detention International (South Africa) who does important work on injustices in correctional services and within the justice system more generally.”   Listen to the interview here.

He’s charged with sex crimes. His defense: the alleged touching was not consensual.

  • Katie Moore
  • July 23, 2019
  • The Kansas City Star

A former Kansas prison employee accused of sexual misconduct claims the charges aren’t valid because state law cites consensual touching — and his alleged interactions with the women weren’t consensual. Tomas Co, who taught women how to make dentures at Topeka Correctional Facility, is charged in Shawnee County District Court with five felony counts of unlawful sexual

Hawaii has a prisoner rape problem. Here’s how to stop it.

  • Lovisa Stannow
  • June 11, 2019
  • Honolulu Star-Advertiser

Prisoner rape is a devastating crime that occurs with staggering frequency. Every year, roughly 200,000 people are sexually abused in U.S. prisons, jails, and youth detention facilities. It may be tempting to dismiss this violence as a problem that primarily afflicts states with large prison systems, like California, Louisiana, and Texas. But states that lock

‘A punch in the gut’: Kansas Department of Corrections officials ignored warnings about dental lab instructor

  • Sherman Smith
  • May 7, 2019
  • The Topeka Capital-Journal

The warden of the state-run women’s prison doesn’t know why Kansas Department of Corrections officials retained until December a dental lab instructor who sexually harassed an inmate in her facility two years ago. Warden Shannon Meyer recommended firing the instructor, Tomas Co, following an internal investigation into problematic behavior reported by an inmate in January