In a civil suit, Alexis Giraldo contends that prison officials were negligent in their duties as she was assaulted and raped daily for months in 2006.
Thankfully, state supreme court judges have upheld an overruling by local appelate judges of a San Francisco jury's decision to toss Giraldo's emotional distress claim against the jail's staff.
Prison officials had placed Giraldo in an all-male prison facility because she had yet to undergo gender reassignment surgery.
While the trial judge in the initial case argued that jailers have no legal responsibility when it comes to prisoner welfare, the First District Court of Appeals in San Francisco begged to differ.
Hence, Giraldo will be able to pursue negligence claims in civil court against prison officials.
A law passed in 2003 by congress admits of the American justice system that, "Most prison staff are not adequately trained or prepared to prevent, report, or treat inmate sexual assaults."
The same bill asserts on the record that thirteen percent, or over 200,000 inmates, have been or will be sexually assaulted among the American prison population.
Giraldo's case sets a welcome precedent that courts are unwilling to tolerate apparently willful ignorance of abuse by institutional authorities. I hope.
Jackson West sees absolutely nothing romantic in the social vengeance nostalgia engendered by penitentiaries like Alcatraz.
