Do Sexually Victimized Female Prisoners Obtain Justice in Litigation?

Background:Sexual victimization during incarceration has been declared cruel and unusual punishment. Although the Prison Rape Elimination Act mandated new standards, the problem persists with between 8% and 25% of prisoners affected. Class action litigation has been an alternate strategy to ensure prisoners’ rights are protected. However, even when such litigation is successful, there is little known about the participants’ perceptions of whether justice was attained in the process (procedural) or outcomes (distributive). Neal v. MDOC, a class action settled on behalf of 809 women sexually abused by staff during incarceration, is a landmark case with national implications. Our research questions: 1) Do the women who participated in the litigation perceive that the process and outcomes were fair and just?  2) How do individual and contextual factors effect perceptions of fairness and satisfaction with outcomes?

Methods: With assistance of attorneys, surveys were mailed to all women not currently incarcerated with valid addresses (n=399); 39% response yielded a total of 156 surveys. Respondents had similar demographic (i.e., age, race, employment) and case characteristics (i.e., level of injury, when they joined the case, settlement amount) to the population. Three scales measure procedural/distributive justice: Total Justice (α=.84), Prison Improvement (α=.86), and Financial Benefit (α=.75). A path analysis used explanatory variables as multivariate regressors on the scales (if r = |.13| or above); variables included demographic and case characteristics (n=12), as well as multiple themes derived from coded open ended questions (n=13 themes, such ‘empowerment’, ‘staff retaliation’ etc.) IRR Cohen’s kappa = .85.

Results:  Model fit was very good (χ² (76, N =156) = 93.95, p = .08; IFI = .93; RMSEA = .04). Those who perceived greater total justice were more likely to endorse themes of empowerment, and ‘doing the right thing’ and less likely to be satisfied with the settlement amount (including those who received above the median), feel that the perpetrators were punished, or that there was sufficient change. Perceptions of prison improvement were positively related to themes that the corrections department was punished and a greater time since release; negatively associated with staff retaliation. Predictably, women who were currently unemployed and seeking employment had lower scores on the financial benefit scale while those who endorsed themes around settlement security rated it higher.

Conclusions and Implications: Perceptions of justice were most strongly associated with women’s motivations to ‘do the right thing’ and their feelings of empowerment. Due to the intersections of race, class, gender and legal status, incarcerated women are a disempowered group, who rarely have opportunities to be heard and validated. This lawsuit provided an opportunity to tell their experiences and may explain feelings of empowerment as a result of the entire legal process. Importantly, women who were less positive about perceiving justice wanted their individual perpetrator punished – an unattainable goal in a class action. Social workers working within prisons and jails should be aware that sexual assault occurs, know the prevention and reporting mandates within the facility, and provide opportunities for victimized individuals to be empowered to action.