DFP special report - Part 1 of 5 - Sexual assaults on female inmates went unheeded

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http://www.freep.com/article/20090104/NEWS06/901040419

SPECIAL REPORT | CHAPTER 1
Sexual assaults on female inmates went unheeded
BY JEFF SEIDEL • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • JANUARY 4, 2009
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First of five parts

For years, rights groups warned that male guards were sexually assaulting female inmates in Michigan prisons. For years, those warnings went unheeded. Now, state taxpayers may pay a price too. More than 500 women are suing. They stand to collect $50 million so far, with more trials to come. This is their story.



Toni Bunton heard the guard coming down the hallway. He wore cheap cologne, and his breath smelled like cigarettes.

He scuffed his boots against the floor and opened the door to her cell in Scott Correctional Facility, a women's prison in Plymouth Township.

"Come here," he ordered.

The guard pulled Bunton into a bathroom. She wore jogging pants, a T-shirt and socks.

She was the guard's prized possession, a pretty young thing, as he said, "just the way I like 'em," -- short and cute with brown hair, brown eyes and porcelain skin.

"Shhh!" he demanded.

He yanked down her underwear and pushed her against the sink.

"No!" she screamed in her head. "No, please, no!" But she was scared to death, and the words wouldn't come out. "I'm choking, please, stop, I'm going to die," she thought.

And he raped her.

Bunton said nothing. It would become the theme of her life, a way to survive the next 16 years in prison.

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1. SPECIAL REPORT | CHAPTER 2 | WITH VIDEOS -- Stakes were high as prisoners' rape trial finally began

http://www.freep.com/article/20090105/NEWS06/901050349

SPECIAL REPORT | CHAPTER 2 | WITH VIDEOS
Stakes were high as prisoners' rape trial finally began
BY JEFF SEIDEL • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • JANUARY 5, 2009
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Second of five parts

The story so far
Toni Bunton landed in a Michigan prison after being convicted for participating in a drug deal that led to a murder. She and other female inmates say they became victims there, helpless to defend themselves against male guards’ sexual advances.



Last January, one day before her civil lawsuit went to trial, Toni Bunton sat on the top bunk in her prison cell at Scott Correctional Facility, a place she had lived almost half her life.

The place where she said she was raped, over and over, by prison guards.

She cried and prayed and wrestled with old doubts that swirled through her head.

Should she stand up in court and tell the world what happened to her? Should she risk her freedom at a time when she was seeking to have her 25- to 50-year sentence commuted? Or should she keep her mouth shut, once more, and hope that her silence was the key to getting out?

She felt trapped.

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