Rubio presses Bureau of Prisons for answers on rape scandal at Florida’s Coleman prison

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio is demanding answers of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons over the scandal involving the sexual abuse of female inmates by officers at Coleman federal prison.

In a letter to the bureau’s director sent Thursday, Rubio said he is “deeply concerned” about the failure to protect inmates from sex abuse at Federal Correctional Complex Coleman in Sumter County. He also asked pointed questions about the facility’s handling of a recent audit aimed at reviewing how it handles rape behind bars.

Rubio sent the letter after the Miami Herald, in late August, chronicled the agony of survivors frustrated that no criminal charges have been brought against prison officers for raping and abusing women housed at the women’s facility. One of them, Carleane Berman, died of a drug overdose after her release and her father has publicly pushed for criminal charges against the officers who raped her.

At least six of eight Coleman corrections officers admitted to “sexual conduct” with female inmates at the sprawling prison complex. Seven have resigned or retired. The U.S. government paid out around $2 million in a settlement with 15 women.

In his letter, Rubio takes issue with an audit that was conducted in April. The audit is required under the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), which requires correctional facilities have safeguards to protect inmates from being sexually attacked or abused, whether by fellow inmates or staff members.

Auditors visited Coleman in April, “but no female inmates were interviewed,” Rubio wrote.

“It appears that all female inmates were transferred from FCI Coleman to another prison just two days prior to the on-site audit. This is deeply concerning because it was female inmates who made the allegations of sexual abuse,” Rubio wrote to BOP Director Michael Carvajal.

The women alleged in the lawsuit that prison officials often moved them to solitary housing at a local county jail, to keep them silent or in fear. The suit also said officers took them to “dead spots” around the women’s facility, where surveillance cameras could not capture them being raped.

“The allegations made by inmates at FCI Coleman raise serious questions as to the facility’s compliance with PREA and the conduct of its officers,” wrote Rubio, citing coverage in the Herald and the Tampa Bay Times.

Rubio asked the BOP director to answer “what steps have been taken to investigate and address these troubling allegations of sexual abuse, and why no female inmates were interviewed for the audit.”

“How can you be confident in the findings of an audit that failed to interview female inmates who were held at FCI Coleman?” Rubio asked.

The Bureau of Prisons has declined to comment in the past for media reports on the Coleman scandal. It declined to comment on Rubio’s letter.

“The Bureau of Prisons responds directly to members of Congress and their staff,” a spokesman wrote Thursday afternoon. “Out of respect and deference to Members, we do not comment on our Congressional briefings or share our Congressional correspondence with media.”

Kendall’s Ron Berman, the father of Carleane Berman, said he’s glad that the Bureau of Prisons is getting public pressure, but he wants more elected leaders to demand answers. Ron Berman believes the corrections officers took part in human trafficking.

“The wardens knew about this — and conspired to silence the voices of the women who were remanded into their care,” Berman said.