Woman says female prisoners were ‘sexually humiliated’

LIHUE — A female inmate is suing the Kauai Community Correctional Center warden on grounds that a prison warden sexually shamed her and other female inmates while she was incarcerated.

Alexandria Gregg filed suit Jan. 31 against Hawaii’s Department of Public Safety, its director Ted Sakai, and Kauai Community Correctional Center Warden Neal Wagatsuma, according to a copy of the complaint.

Gregg was incarcerated at the facility at various periods from March to November 2011.

The suit states that female prisoners were “harassed and sexually humiliated” at the facility, as well as unfairly discriminated against based on gender and “subjected to a pattern of sexual psychological humiliation, invasion of privacy and psychological violence.”

“During open public meetings of male and female detainees in front of KCCC staff members, defendant Wagatsuma repeatedly forced plaintiff and other class members to stand at a podium and speak about their private, intimate and traumatizing sexual experience,” the complaint states. “Wagatsuma asked plaintiff what kind of drugs she used, whether she had sex while on drugs, and how many partners plaintiff previously had sex relations with.”

It claims that the warden ordered Gregg to elaborate on previous incidents of rape as well as sexual preferences. The public questionings were videotaped by male detainees, the suit states, while Gregg and other alleged victims were instructed to stand at the podium during the “public shamings.”

“Defendant Wagatsuma would often film these public sexual shamings. Typically, the detainees selected for filming were young attractive women,” the complaint reads.

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