NCJ Number
187058
Journal
Intelligence Report Issue: 100 Dated: Fall 2000 Pages: 37-40
Editor(s)
Mark Potok
Date Published
2000
Length
4 pages
Annotation
Prison officials faced with white supremacist employees must act or face potentially expensive court disputes.
Abstract
In most cases where prison guards have been fired for their white supremacist activities, the courts have sided with the prison administration. Despite this fact, many prison officials turn a blind eye to white supremacist activities among their staffs. Whether prison officials do so because they are too timid to act, hope the problem will go away, or are secretly sympathetic to the racist cause, they run the risk not only of creating an explosive situation among the inmate population but also of claims of a "hostile work environment" by other prison employees. Hundreds of correctional officers in at least 13 States have filed hostile-work-environment suits that have alleged racist violence and harassment by their colleagues; more than $5 million has been paid out thus far in such cases. Usually such suits end with out-of-court settlements that contain no admission of guilt on the part of the offending persons, institutions, or departments. It is clear that white supremacist guards can cause serious problems in prisons. Courts have given prison administrators the means to deal with the problems caused by such guards; they can fire them. If prison officials hesitate to do this, they are likely to face expensive legal problems.