Sexual abuse

Barrilee's Story

WARNING: this video includes description of sexual harassment and abuse that you may find disturbing.

Barrilee was incarcerated in Oregon in the 1990s, before Coffee Creek Correctional Facility opened in 2001. Due to overcrowding at the previous women's prison, she and others were sent by the State of Oregon to Arizona, to a private prison run by Corrections Corporation of America. At that prison in Florence, Arizona, she experienced intimidation, sexual harassment, and sexual abuse at the hands of guards. Barrilee returned to custody in Oregon but her troubles did not end there. 

In 2012, four percent of state and federal prisoners reported having experienced some type of sexual victimization. The intention of incarceration is to hold people accountable for the crimes they commit, yet many finish their sentences with new abuses and traumas to contend with on the outside.