A 34-year-old correctional officer has been taken into custody on charges of sexual misconduct involving an inmate at an Alabama prison, which has been monitored by federal authorities for similar offenses since 2015.
Sgt. Laquentin Brantley is currently in custody at Elmore County Jail in Wetumpka, Alabama, with a bond set at $15,000. He faces charges related to first-degree sodomy and custodial sexual conduct, as indicated by online booking records.
According to charging documents referenced by various sources, a prison supervisor is accused of coercing a female inmate at Julia Tutwiler Women’s Facility in Wetumpka into performing sexual acts whenever he desired, threatening her with disciplinary action that could prevent her from returning home to her children.
An unnamed inmate claimed that Brantley approached her on the morning of October 18 while she was wearing a tank top without a bra and insisted, “Let me see ‘em,” referring to her breasts. “Let me see ‘em,” meaning her breasts. “Let me see them or you’ll never go home,” reported AL.com from the charging documents.
The inmate complied with the sergeant’s commands, and it is claimed that he made contact with her chest and genital areas. In the early hours of Oct. 19, Brantley reportedly compelled her to perform oral sex.
In 2015, federal prosecutors submitted a civil complaint – examined by PEOPLE – against Alabama and its corrections system, highlighting their on-site inspection of Tutwiler. The findings indicated that the prison staff “engage in a pattern or practice of deliberately disregarding known or serious risks of harm from sexual abuse and sexual harassment of Tutwiler prisoners.”
Federal prosecutors revealed that they “suffer serious harm from sexual abuse and sexual harassment by staff, including rape, fondling, voyeurism, and sexually explicit verbal abuse” and that they were “subjected to the high risk and threat of sexual abuse by staff.”
On the same day the legal team submitted the complaint, they also presented a comprehensive 44-page settlement agreement – examined by PEOPLE – detailing a referral and investigative framework aimed at “ensure that all allegations of sexual abuse and sexual harassment are promptly, thoroughly, and objectively investigated” and disciplinary action for abusive staff.
Under the terms of the agreement, the facility, equipped with an advanced camera system, will have the placement of cameras evaluated at least once a year to confirm they effectively enhance oversight.
At that time, the then-Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta from the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division remarked that the agreement aimed to tackle and eradicate the longstanding culture of abuse experienced by women prisoners at Tutwiler.