Lawsuit: Prison Guards Fed Inmate Dog Food, Had Sex On The Clock

As part of a lawsuit alleging workplace discrimination at a Missouri prison, a former guard claimed his colleagues mistreated prisoners, among other offenses. John Dominguez’s lawsuit accused his co-workers and superiors at the Women’s Eastern Reception Diagnostic and Correctional Center of racial discrimination, especially after he reported fellow guards of heinous workplace offenses, the Kansas City Star reported.

According to Dominguez, he was treated unfairly while he was a corrections officer at the women’s prison. He said the discrimination came because of both his race and disabilities; he has a lower back degenerative disease and adult ADD. When he took unpaid leave for health reasons, he was told to justify it, which went against prison policy, per the Star’s report.

In the lawsuit, which Dominguez filed days after being fired, he also claimed he was treated worse after reporting his co-workers for abusive practices. Per Dominguez, one corrections officer mixed dog food in with an inmate’s food, for which the officer only received a one-day suspension. Another officer also received the same minimal suspension after verbal and physical abuse of an inmate.

One employee pleaded guilty to assault, had sex with other officers and was only demoted rather than fired. Lastly, Dominguez claimed a supervisor who admitted to assault was kept on for a full decade afterward.

Dominguez’s lawsuit alleged that none of these offenses, which were worse than anything he did by reasonable standards, resulted in termination for other officers. He, however, lost his job for far more minor offenses, he claimed.

Inmate abuse by prison guards is said to be a prevalent problem in America’s prisons. 21 percent of male inmates said they had been assaulted by those assigned to monitor them, according to Mother Jones. The same report indicated that female inmates are disproportionately the victims of sexual offenses despite only being seven percent of the American prison population.