On Tuesday, newly appointed Director of the Bordelais Correctional Facility (BCF) Hilary Herman told reporters that investigations were ongoing into the alleged physical assault of a female inmate by three male inmates. Herman said that the incident in question occurred on Monday afternoon near the medical and female units. While both male and female inmates have access to the medical unit, Herman said the proper procedures were not adhered to.
The assault victim, a 16-year-old, is on remand for murder. Although male and female inmates are kept apart in most cases, Herman said that there are exceptions such as during classes and church. Herman says that the female victim will undergo medical tests in relation to the assault, results of which will be provided later. The three male inmates have been segregated from the general population as police investigations take place.
However, the mother of the victim has given a different version of events. On Wednesday Nadia Germaine recalled that her daughter told her the incident occurred not on Monday, but Sunday evening. The mother says she spoke to a probation officer on Monday night, who told her that the inmates broke into the cell. The officer said the victim did not state that she was raped. Germaine was advised to visit the facility the next day, which she did.
While there, she said authorities seemed clueless as to what had transpired. Eventually, she was able to speak with her daughter: “As soon as I entered she just held me and fell on me and said, ‘Mommy, they raped me. They made me feel like a dog. They raped me. I’m feeling so dirty. I’m feeling like a dog.’ And she started crying.” She says that her child slept in the very cell where the incident had taken place.
Addressing the mother’s statements, Herman told the STAR that the victim has given different versions of the event, so the investigation will determine what day the incident occurred, and how it happened. He confirmed that the victim did sleep in the same cell following the incident but said that an officer was present. “Keep in mind there’s very few options here. She should not be in the prison at all; she’s a juvenile and we don’t have a juvenile facility. We can’t put her in any adult units,” said Herman. “Anywhere else you put her would have actually exposed her to worse. So the choice was to make her stay there but have company 24/7. It’s unfortunate but that’s what we have to work with.”
Herman says that a review of the prison’s own policies and procedures is ongoing, with an aim to strengthen them. “I know that procedures were not followed, so we now have to look into why it was not followed and ensure that it does not happen again,” he said. “I think we’ve become complacent. I think there’s a lot of revamping to do to go back to standard policies and procedures.”
At press time, results from the victim’s medical tests were still pending.
