The Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) has agreed to pay $450,000 to a man punished and humiliated by prison officials after he reported his Logan Correctional Center cellmate had sexually and physically assaulted him.
The James Fontano v. Godinez settlement, which was announced Friday, is believed to be among the largest payments made for a prison retaliation case. Fontano was represented by attorneys from the Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center and the Uptown People’s Law Center.
“Whether in prison, in the Catholic church, in a school or anywhere else, any person who reports a sexual assault deserves to be treated with concern and respect,” said Locke E. Bowman, Executive Director of the MacArthur Justice Center. “Those in charge must investigate the allegations fairly and aggressively. Sexual predators must be brought to justice.
“The response of prison officials to James Fontano in this case is a model of what not to do,” Bowman said. “Instead of concern, James was met with derision and disbelief. The investigation was designed to cover up the rape, not to hold the perpetrator accountable. We need to ask: Just how prevalent is rape within Illinois’ prisons?”
Fontano, who was imprisoned in IDOC for eight months on a minor drug offense, served the majority of his sentence at the Logan Correctional Center in Lincoln.
Fontano was celled with an older, physically larger and stronger prisoner serving a lengthy sentence for armed robbery. In August 2011, shortly before Fontano’s scheduled release date, Fontano’s cellmate repeatedly raped Fontano over the course of two nights while he and Fontano were locked together in the cell they shared.
Fearing that the assaults would escalate and with nowhere else to turn, Fontano reported the assaults to prison authorities. Although Fontano’s report was detailed, graphic and credible, prison officials responded by punishing Fontano, not his assailant. Fontano was forced to spend the rest of his prison sentence in segregation, purportedly because he had lied about being raped.
Eventually, Fontano’s report was corroborated by a finding that his cellmate’s DNA was present on the rear inside panel of Fontano’s underwear. Even with this information, prison officials refused to rescind Fontano’s punishment.
Fontano sued Alex Dawson, the former warden of Logan Correctional Center, and Kevin Standley, the IDOC investigator who recommended that Fontano be disciplined. The suit, filed in the federal court in Springfield, claimed that Dawson and Standley retaliated against Fontano for exercising his First Amendment right to report the rape.
“Men in prison learn quickly there are two things you don’t want to be known for,” said Alan Mills, Executive Director of the Uptown People’s Law Center. “First, if other prisoners believe you are a snitch, you are in danger of being beaten, stabbed and worse. Second, if you are viewed as a weakling and easy mark to be used for sex by another man, you will always be in danger of a sexual assault. Those are the reasons – fear of being known as a snitch and weakling – James endured two sexual and physical assaults and decided to seek help when he could break away during the third attack.”
“Immediately after James reported the rapes, prison officials punished James, threatened him with extra time in prison and pushed him to withdraw his report,” said Sheila Bedi, an attorney with the MacArthur Justice Center. “Enduring this kind of punishment for reporting his rape came at a great cost to James.
“This settlement should serve to motivate IDOC to change its practices,” Bedi added. “IDOC needs to do all it can to end sexual assault behind bars, to protect the men and women locked in state prisons, and to encourage victims to report sexual assaults.”
A living hell.
I’m glad they settled this case. Let’s hope this stuff is never repeated again.
- Tommydanger - Friday, Sep 2, 16 @ 12:42 pm:
Despicable!!
And why is a minor drug offender being celled with a violent offender??
- AlfondoGonz - Friday, Sep 2, 16 @ 12:50 pm:
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Do I have to? Ug. While it is easy to think along the lines of “well, they’re just laying in the bed they made,” it is important to remember that these are real people, some innocent, who will be rejoining us on the outside. I can’t imagine being beaten and raped makes one better able to function in society.
- Quad City Gal - Friday, Sep 2, 16 @ 12:52 pm:
Utterly unacceptable. Glad he won and I’m glad to see “former” in front of that warden’s name. These two should never have been housed together.
It is hard enough for survivors of sexual assault to come forward outside of prison. That he had the courage to do so in prison is admirable and he should have been believed, not punished. $450,000 does not sound like enough to me.
- BarneyFife - Friday, Sep 2, 16 @ 1:01 pm:
Maybe the response from the Agency wasn’t correct after all. https://capitolfax.com/2013/04/18/what-the-heck-is-going-on-at-the-prisons/
- Carhartt Representative - Friday, Sep 2, 16 @ 1:11 pm:
This is pretty horrible. I’m glad he won.
- anon - Friday, Sep 2, 16 @ 1:30 pm:
This case illustrates why so few victims report their assaults in prisons. They get victimized again, this time by the authorities.
- Patty T - Friday, Sep 2, 16 @ 1:33 pm:
As if being repeatedly assaulted is not bad enough, to get retaliated for trying to make it stop is horrible. I don’t know how the prison officials live with themselves. Talk about rape culture.
- Responsa - Friday, Sep 2, 16 @ 1:37 pm:
Fontana was right and very brave to push this. Prison rape is no laughing matter even though many people try to make jokes about it. The IDOC does not look good here on so many levels. Also there’s just no justification for a minor drug offender to be celled with a violent physical offender. I hope some changes are made in the system as a result of this, but I doubt it.
- anon - Friday, Sep 2, 16 @ 1:43 pm:
I wonder how many other rapes the IDOC investigator dismissed as lies? If the victim had been a woman, I suspect the award would’ve been higher.
- Fred - Friday, Sep 2, 16 @ 2:43 pm:
And the consequences for the investigator and warden?
- NoGifts - Friday, Sep 2, 16 @ 2:52 pm:
Because this could be any of our children.
- some doofus - Friday, Sep 2, 16 @ 3:01 pm:
Can Dawson or Standley be charged with anything? Continuing the punishment after the DNA was found seems like it could raise this to the level of criminal behavior.
- Shytown - Friday, Sep 2, 16 @ 3:15 pm:
This is sick. Our correctional system is a farce. Shameful.
- Amalia - Friday, Sep 2, 16 @ 3:37 pm:
Am I missing the name of the rapist?
- Anonymous - Friday, Sep 2, 16 @ 4:25 pm:
==Am I missing the name of the rapist?==
==And the consequences for the investigator and warden==
Illinois Times posted a copy of the lawsuit and says investigator was promoted, warden retired and the rapist walked.
http://illinoistimes.com/article-17651-former-inmate-collects-from-state.html
- Payback - Wednesday, Sep 7, 16 @ 8:34 am:
In the Cap Fax post from Tuesday, Aug. 23, titled “AFSCME claims IDOC is “allowing” assaults on guards “without any kind of penalty” there is a comment from “skeptic” which laments the good old days when prison staff could get away with punishing inmates extrajudicially. So this is what extrajudicial punishment really looks like.
Consider whether this guy was put in the cell with the rapist as punishment by staff in the first place? While it’s good the victim was compensated, the money should be levied from IDOC investigator Kevin Standley’s salary for the next twenty years, not from the taxpayers.