Former detainee Corey Donaldson claims CoreCivic staff at McRae correctional facility in Georgia peered at and made video recordings of immigrant inmates

A former detainee at a prison for immigrants in rural Georgia alleges he and other detainees were the victims of sexual harassment and voyeurism by employees of CoreCivic, formerly known as Corrections Corporation of America, one of the largest private prison contractors in the US.

Corey Donaldson, an Australian national, was held at the McRae correctional facility in McRae-Helena, Georgia, for a handful of months of his five-year sentence before he was deported to Australia in July 2018.

Between September 2017 and February 2018, he alleged in a statement to the Guardian: “McRae staff were physically peering upon immigrant inmates in the toilets and showers and knowingly recording video streams of inmates taking showers and using the toilets 24/7.”

Before his removal proceedings to Australia, Donaldson filed multiple informal and formal grievances to CoreCivic, according to documents obtained by the Guardian, citing the Prison Rape Elimination Act (Prea) and its policy on sexual harassment.

Donaldson told the Guardian he had not made these allegations at other facilities during his five years in detention across the US. “Other facilities use guards to roam the shower and toilet areas for security purposes, who zip in and out, which is the norm,” he said.

Explaining why he was highlighting these allegations nearly a year after his deportation, and with no legal recourse available to him, he wrote: “I believe it is my duty to expose what is happening in honor of those immigrant inmates I left behind.”

The McRae correctional facility is one of 11 contract prisons under the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BoP). According to the BoP website: “The majority of BoP inmates in private prisons are sentenced criminal aliens who may be deported upon completion of their sentence.”

The BoP abides by the Prison Rape Elimination Act (Prea) of 2003, which was passed to address issues of sexual harassment in prisons.

In Donaldson’s statement, he claimed, “At McRae C.I. the zoom cameras above the toilets and showers were acutely positioned to maximize the capturing of intrusive footage of immigrant men performing very private bodily functions while taking showers and sitting or standing using the toilets. Images were recorded for a debased data library, and to induce abject humiliation.”

Voyeurism is listed under the Prea definition of sexual harassment as: “[An] invasion of privacy of an inmate, detainee, or resident by staff for reasons unrelated to official duties, such as peering at an inmate who is using a toilet in his or her cell to perform bodily functions; requiring an inmate to expose his or her buttocks, genitals, or breasts; or taking images of all or part of an inmate’s naked body or of an inmate performing bodily functions.”

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CoreCivic did not respond to the allegations levelled by Donaldson individually. But Amanda Gilchrist, the director of public affairs said in a statement: “Corey Donaldson’s allegations of sexual harassment during his period of incarceration at McRae correctional facility were fully investigated and his claims were determined to be unsubstantiated and without merit. His additional allegations are baseless and we strongly refute all claims made by Mr Donaldson.”

CoreCivic, in its latest Prea audit report, from 2017, concludes no sexual harassment claims – substantiated, unsubstantiated, unfounded or pending – were made that year at the McRae correctional facility. The report for 2018 has not been released yet, according to Gilchrist.

“McRae correctional facility operates in full compliance with all applicable federal, state and local laws, regulations, codes and policies, including the Prison Rape Elimination Act. In addition, McRae maintains continued compliance with all ACA standards and Prea policies,” she added.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons did not respond to the Guardian’s questions about Donaldson’s allegations.

Since his deportation, Donaldson has sent his statement and documented written interactions to multiple prison rights campaigners to draw attention to his allegations about McRae.

The Bureau of Prisons has had a history of problems with private facilities housing foreign nationals, Kara Gotsch, director of strategic initiative at the Sentencing Project, said.

“Most of the people who are housed there are non-citizens so there isn’t the sense of urgency from lawmakers to dig into the issues. Also, because these individuals will be deported, she says, they don’t receive much attention,” she said.

Azadeh Shahshahani, legacy and advocacy director at the non-profit organization Project South, said the allegations regarding abusive conditions were not surprising. “As a first step, we need to get private corporations out of the business of imprisoning human beings. The profit motive has no place here,” she explained.

Donaldson first made an informal complaint on 28 December 2017, three months after his arrival at McRae, according to documents seen by the Guardian. In it, Donaldson suggests removing the video cameras pointed into the bathroom and asks CoreCivic to “produce an FBI agent for me to file a report”. He also asked for an “offer of compensation”.

On 9 January 2018 the correctional counselor who responded to Donaldson’s claim in a memorandum said the facility had undergone two Prea audits before his arrival. The officer also wrote, in regard to Donaldson’s request to remove cameras from the toilet and shower areas, that McRae complied with all laws and Prea compliancies. His concern about voyeurism and the possibility of cameras pointing into the facilities is not directly addressed.

On 10 January 2018, the complaint was marked as unresolved.

One day later, Donaldson requested permission to collect signatures from other inmates to corroborate his allegations. He also requested copies of the Prea audits mentioned in the memorandum.

According to publicly available documents, the last Prea audit took place from 31 October to 2 November 2016.

Eight days after his letter, on 19 January 2018, the assistant warden of program/inmate services at McRae correctional facility, Terence Dickerson, responded Dickerson wrote that Donaldson had provided “no specific or credible evidence” to suggest he had been a victim of voyeurism.

When Donaldson replied, he told Dickerson he sent a certified letter to the FBI, along with the tracking number to identify the letter. He also alleged the day after he sent the letter, the wiring and cameras in and around the toilet and shower facilities in the entire facility were removed.

He claims he was put in solitary confinement until he was moved from the facility before his deportation in July.

This is not the first time CoreCivic facilities have faced complaints. In April 2018, at Stewart detention center in Georgia a class-action lawsuit was filed for using “forced labor”. Another similar class-action lawsuit was filed in New Mexico last year.

In 2011, the ACLU of Georgia says it “alerted BoP staff to concerns about medical care, abusive disciplinary practices, and other issues” at McRae.