Survivor Stories

JDI has made only minor edits for spelling and clarity. Please note that some of these stories are graphic and may be difficult to read.

• Adam

  Louisiana

  Adam is an openly gay prisoner who was gang raped and sexually assaulted by detainees at the New Orleans Parish Prison over a period of two months in 2009. During those two months, Adam filed repeated emergency grievances and requested protective custody, but was denied. He agreed to have this testimony read at the Department of Justice’s Review Panel on Prisoner Rape in 2011.

• Ivory

  Texas

  While working as a porter at a Texas state prison, Ivory was repeatedly sexually assaulted by a female corrections officer. He attempted to report the abuse, but was told that there was nothing that could be done since she was an officer and he was an inmate.

• Diamond

  Diamond

  It started with a call from a California police station. I was ordered to come in to talk to a detective. When I arrived, an officer put me in a room and told me that a man had made a complaint against me. The officer also told me that he would “get rid of it” if I granted him a “favor.” I said, “Okay,” and he let me go.

• Meagan

  Kentucky

  At the age of 22, Meagan was sent to prison in Kentucky where she was abused for months by a corrections officer. Despite her fears, she reported the abuse, and was raped by two other corrections officers in retaliation for speaking out.

• Dwight

  Louisiana and Texas

  One day in 1986, in the Louisiana town where I grew up, a police officer drove up beside me as I was walking home from my grandparents’ house. The officer asked me a series of questions. Then he asked me if I would like a ride home. He said I could sit in the front seat. I knew his entire family, and I had never been in a police car before, so I didn’t feel I was in any danger. At that time my perception of police officers was positive.