PORT ANGELES — Still reeling from a national report on staff sexual misconduct that gives a high rating to the county jail, the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office is waiting for the FBI to determine whether it will investigate the claims made by some inmates in the voluntary survey.
A Bureau of Justice Statistics report — “Sexual Victimization in Prisons and Jails Reported by Inmates, 2008-09” — listed the Clallam County jail as having the third-highest per-capita instances of staff sexual misconduct out of 286 jails sampled.
If the FBI decides against the investigation Sheriff Bill Benedict requested on Wednesday, then the office will seek another third party to check out the jail, said Undersheriff Ron Peregrin on Saturday.
Peregrin didn’t know who would be asked to look into it — perhaps a law enforcement agency from outside the county, or perhaps the state Department of Corrections — but he said that “absolutely” the office would seek such a review.
“They have put our character into question, so now we’re going to have to exonerate our good name,” Peregrin said. “We pride ourselves on our transparency, and now we’re going to have to prove that.”
The report, released in August, lists the Clallam County jail as third behind the Caroline County jail in Maryland and the Eastern Shore Regional Jail in Virginia in rates of sexual misconduct, defined as “sexual victimization involving facility staff in the past 12 months.”
The numbers are unclear.
The report gives a figure of 6.1 percent of 75 respondents — or a little more than four and one-half people — in the Clallam County jail who reported, during a five-day period in March 2009, one or more acts of sexual misconduct by staff.
For the Maryland jail, the rate is 10 percent, while the rate for the Virginia jail is 9.9 percent.
Those percentages may be statistically weighted, said Michelle Person, Bureau of Justice Statistics spokeswoman in Washington, D.C., who was speaking in the absence of the study’s authors, who were on vacation and not reachable last week.
A footnote says that “weights were applied so that inmates who responded accurately reflected the entire population of each facility on selected characteristics, including age, sex, race, time since admission and sentence length.”
Person referred questions to the authors of the report.
The report also said that 5 percent said they had been pressured to engage in the acts, 5.2 percent said they had been forced, and 2 percent said they participated without pressure or force.
Each inmate could report more than one allegation or level of coercion, the report said.
The 75 respondents were those inmates out of 132 in the Clallam County jail at the time who volunteered to take the survey.
The study’s authors emphasized that it collected only allegations.
“Because participation in the survey is anonymous and reports are confidential, the survey does not permit any follow-up investigation or substantiations of reported incidents,” the report said.
“Some allegations in the NIS-2 may be untrue,” it added, saying that, on the other hand, some inmates may not have reported misconduct.
“The relative extent of under reporting and false reporting . . . is unknown,” the report said.
The report defines sexual victimization as one or more of the following:
• All types of sexual activity, e.g., oral, anal, or vaginal penetration.
• Manual stimulation of the genitals.
• Touching of the inmate’s buttocks, thighs, penis, breasts, or vagina in a sexual way.
• Abusive sexual contacts.
• Both willing and unwilling sexual activity with staff.
Clallam County corrections officials take issue with the results of the anonymous survey.
Peregrin said he “categorically” denies the alleged misconduct at the jail.
“If I was a betting man, I would put my money on our staff,” Peregrin said.
“I wouldn’t put dime one on this study.”
Benedict hopes that the FBI will investigate.
“If facts are as alleged, I will not tolerate such behavior,” be said.
“I am confident that this investigation will lead to full exoneration of the professional men and women working in the jail.”
Whether the federal investigation takes place is another matter.
FBI officials told Peregrin on Thursday that the request for an investigation must first be approved by FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Peregrin, a former federal agent, said the sheriff’s office must show “an expectation of finding wrongdoing” in order for the FBI to take on the case.
The FBI would not take the case simply to exonerate the jail, Peregrin said.
“We’re hoping they find sufficient smoke to feel like there might be a fire and take a look at it,” Peregrin said.
“We expressed our deepest desire that they do accept the case and take a look.”
Peregrin said he expects the FBI to make a determination sometime this week.
He said the case would be “substantial” because it would involve finding the 132 inmates who were in jail in March 2009 and interviewing each of them.
“At this juncture, the only possible way to validate the information is hunt all of them down, interview them and determine whether there is any validity provided in these surveys,” he said.
The survey itself was conducted by RTI International.
The Bureau of Justice Statistics, a division of the U.S. Department of Justice, compiled the data and published the 92-page study last month.
The survey found that 4.4 percent of inmates experienced inmate-on-inmate sexual victimization.
Chief among Peregrin’s complaints was that t Sheriff’s Office he was not informed about the alleged misconduct before the study was released.
“That means that both the Bureau of Justice Statistics and RTI International allowed it to go on for 18 months without notifying anybody,” Peregrin said.
“How credible is that?
“I would call that near criminal. They were aware of sexual abuse and didn’t say anything? We have laws against failure to report crimes.
“They had, if nothing else, a moral obligation to say ‘You know what? You’ve got some problems in your jail.'”
The Clallam County Sheriff’s Office provided the survey takers with an unsupervised room for five consecutive days to interview the inmates who chose to take the survey.
One of the conditions for permitting this access, Peregrin said, was for the survey takers to notify the jail if there was an indication of a problem “so we could address it, if necessary.”
“There was nothing mandatory about this survey,” Peregrin said.
“We allowed them into this facility because we are transparent and we have nothing to hide.”
Respondents were asked “have you ever…” questions without clear instructions that the question was only referring to their stay in the Clallam County jail, Peregrin contends.
“That’s the first thing that struck me on the questionnaires,” he said.
“I just have a strong sense this is very flawed survey.”
The 40 employees at the 120-bed jail endure an extensive background check, including polygraph and psychological tests, followed by rigorous training at an academy and a year of probationary work, Jail Superintendent Ron Sukert said.
According to jail protocol, two corrections officers must conduct cell checks at the same time.
About 20 percent of the jail staff are women, Sukert said.
Peregrin cited two allegations of sexual misconduct at the jail since he became undersheriff nearly four years ago, saying neither involved accusations against jail staff.
“I have absolute and total confidence in our staff,” said Peregrin, who walks the jail several times per week and occasionally serves meals.
He said he has never heard an inmate complain about sexual misconduct, nor has he heard an inmate tell a defense attorney or phone a friend or family member with allegations of sexual misconduct at the jail.
Peregrin noted that jail staff thwarted six suicide attempts last year alone.
“I am extremely proud of our staff back there,” he said.
“I think it’s the best and most professional staff in the entire state. I would be willing to stand them up against any correctional facility you choose.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.