Last month, several Idaho Department of Juvenile Corrections (IDJC) employees filed a revised whistleblower lawsuit alleging staffers at the Nampa Juvenile Corrections Center had sexual relations with incarcerated youth.
Six additional staffers were added as lawsuit plaintiffs after attorney Andrew Schoppe - who filed the first lawsuit on behalf of seven employees in a U.S. District Court in Boise a week prior - was contacted. The staffers claim that events similar to those alleged in the original complaint have transpired at the detention center, stating that management failed to take action when incarcerated juveniles had sexual relations with one another. In the lawsuit, Schoppe said that staffers may have even had sexual relations with members of the incarcerated population.
“In at least two mind-boggling incidents, female IDJC staff members are believed to have been involved in unlawful sexual relationships with male juvenile offenders in their custody,” the filing reads. “In one instance, a female IDJC staff had relationships with an incarcerated male juvenile and moved in with him after his release.”
Rhonda Ledford, one of the employees filing the lawsuit, told the Associated Press that although she and her coworkers were told to report incidents to supervisors, she didn’t know if any of the supervisors ultimately reported the incidents to the police.
“Typically, what you’re told here is, ‘You don’t talk to anybody about it, don’t mention it, we’ll take care of it,’” Ledford told The Idaho Press-Tribune. “I don’t believe they reported it.”
IDJC officials, in a report filed with the federal court, have denied the allegations.