| CASE EXPOSES GAP
IN LAW; MAN FIRED, NOT PROSECUTED - January 22, 2003 - A mentally ill
inmate at Taycheedah Correctional Institution who was impregnated by a
prison guard overseeing her was ordered to serve nearly a year of solitary
confinement as punishment. The guard, Matthew Emery, 24, was fired, but
he cannot be charged criminally: Wisconsin is one of only four states in
the country that does not explicitly prohibit sexual contact between prison
staff and inmates. Angie Hougas, a field organizer for Amnesty International,
said only Wisconsin, Alabama, Oregon and Vermont do not make such actions
a crime. Legislation was introduced several years ago in Wisconsin to change
the law, but the bill died in committee, Hougas said. |
