Tragic, True Tale of Sex, Violence Behind Bars Resembles Grade B Movie : Prison: Women inmates report abuses at Georgia institution. Ten employees have been fired, and indictments are expected this fall.

It sounds like a Grade B movie: Women behind bars alleging rape, prostitution, coerced abortions, sex for favors.

But this is not exploitative fiction; it is sordid fact.

At least 70 women have said they were abused by guards and other employees at the Georgia Women’s Correctional Institution. Their attorney expects another 30 to tell their stories soon. Ten employees have been fired and criminal indictments are expected this fall.

The scandal in Hardwick--a fenced compound of sand-colored concrete buildings tucked in the woods 100 miles southeast of Atlanta--”is the broadest and the deepest scandal of this sort that anyone can find a record of,” says Robert Cullen, a Georgia Legal Services lawyer handling the case.

The prisoners are reluctant to discuss the charges with reporters. Details can be culled from six affidavits filed in U.S. District Court in Macon.

“I had no way out of the relationship once it began. He was very demanding of me,” said one woman who first had sex with her supervisor in a bathroom during a lunch break the day she was assigned to his work detail.

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She said the yearlong affair included oral sex, anal sex, sadomasochistic relations and fantasy role-playing.

Another said the state paid for an abortion she didn’t want after she was impregnated by her supervisor.

“I was threatened with a disciplinary report, disciplinary isolation and administrative segregation,” she said in the court document. “I was also given to believe that if I did not consent to the abortion, my eventual parole could or would be negatively impacted.”

One woman said she was warned of an upcoming drug search by her gay lover on the staff.

Another spoke of two gay affairs: “I was vulnerable, so I got involved with the staff when they approached me. I am now alienated from both staff and inmates.”

Cullen has 66 other affidavits of sexual and physical abuse involving more than 25 staff members going back as far as 1972.

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Court documents describe the allegations as rapes, prostitution, pornography, coerced abortion, sexual assault and abuse, sex for favors and retaliation for refusal to grant sexual favors.

They describe excessive use of force, inappropriate use of restraints, drug and alcohol trafficking and “hogtying of inmates with handcuffs and chains for alleged reasons of mental health care.”

“I think very little of this behavior is the women’s fault,” Cullen said.

Because prison employees can control everything of importance to inmates--from whether they wear earrings to whether they keep custody of their children--”they can get most women to do most anything,” he said.

“That may not sound right to a woman in the free world,” he said. “But it’s basically that if that’s what you have to do to get back to your kids, that’s what you do. And that’s not an atmosphere the women create.”

“Allegations don’t mean guilt,” said Andie Moss, the state correction commissioner’s liaison for the courts, the victims and the prison system.

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But since the abuse charges were made in February, correction officials have fired 10 employees, suspended a former warden with pay, replaced top administrators, increased training for employees and taken dozens of other steps to resolve conditions that allowed the scandal to develop.

“We’ve moved immediately on anyone who had a serious allegation against them,” said Moss. “We honestly don’t know the scope of what we’re dealing with here.”

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation in July turned over evidence for as many as 18 cases to the local prosecutor, who is expected to bring them to a grand jury this fall.

At least 70 women are under a protective court order to prevent retaliation. Many are undergoing therapy to deal with the abuse they have suffered in prison and to overcome, for nearly all of them, lifelong histories of incest, sexual abuse and battery.

Although the prison still has only 10 counselors for 770 inmates, the counselors are getting new administrative assistants. Four private consultants have been brought in for individual counseling sessions with inmates.

The 240 employees at Hardwick, meanwhile, are bracing for national media coverage as the scandal moves into criminal court. At least two network shows have inquired and several movie producers are nosing around.

“I don’t think the women need to be portrayed as the stereotypical fallen women. They are very much women with stories,” Moss said. “At the same time, we don’t want the staff to be portrayed as having not been trained or not being professionals. The majority of them have done their jobs very well. The key to our success in responding to this is that we keep perspective.”