A former corrections officer at a federal prison in Lexington has admitted to sexually abusing three women who were under the prison’s care.
According to the federal plea agreement, Jacob Salcido assaulted three women at the Federal Medical Center between September and December 2020. Separate lawsuits filed by two of the women also accuse the prison, which houses nearly 1,300 prisoners, both male and female, who require medical care, of failing to address longstanding problems of sexual assaults.
Salcido received a sentence of more than eight years in prison, will be supervised for life upon release, and must pay the victims a total of $63,000, according to the plea agreement. He will also register for life as a sex offender.
Salcido resigned from the Federal Bureau of Prisons on July 26, 2024, according to a spokesperson with the Federal Medical Center.
“The FBOP takes seriously our duty to protect the individuals entrusted in our custody, as well as maintain the safety of correctional employees and the community,” FMC said in an emailed statement. “We make every effort to ensure the physical safety and health of the individuals confined to our facilities through a controlled environment that is secure and humane.
“Additionally, for privacy, safety, and security reasons, the FBOP does not comment on matters which could be pending before the court.”
Salcido’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Salcido raped, assaulted women prisoners, lawsuits state
Before the criminal case was filed against Salcido, two women filed civil lawsuits in recent years claiming Salcido sexually assaulted them at the prison. Those suits, which are pending while the criminal case is being resolved, detail the allegations against Salcido.
One victim, identified as “C.J.” in court documents, filed suit on February 10, 2023, against Salcido and the U.S. government, claiming federal officials failed to hold their employees accountable.
and claimed they were negligent in holding their employees accountable.
C.J.’s lawsuit alleges Salcido was known by management and investigative agencies at the prison to be a sexual predator. He was investigated numerous times for sex crimes against inmates, the suit claims.
The Bureau of Prisons denied a records request made by the Herald-Leader that sought Salcido’s personnel file, complaints filed against him, or any disciplinary actions taken against him.
Despite Salcido’s reputation, the suit claims, the facility allowed Salcido unrestricted and unsupervised contact with the women during work details.
Management at the facility instituted a policy where prisoners who complained of mistreatment were moved to a county detention center or special housing unit — intentionally suppressing complaints of misconduct — the suit claims.
In September 2020, C.J. was in a 21-day quarantine pending her release. While isolated, Salcido was working extra shifts to monitor the women’s quarantine area due to staffing shortages.
C.J. reported to a corrections counselor that Salcido had made sexual comments to her, the suit says, but the counselor downplayed the accusations and told her she was “imagining” it.
Then, while Salcido was working in the women’s quarantine unit, he entered C.J.’s cell around 3 a.m., grabbed her by the wrists and began to rape her on a cot, according to court documents.
When C.J. reported the rape to other prisoners, she was told reporting the rape could delay her release from prison.
C.J. reported the rape to a nurse employed by an outside contractor to provide COVID care, and the nurse then reported the rape to prison staff, according to the suit.
Another former prisoner, with the initials A.R., filed suit in August 2022 claiming she was sexually assaulted multiple times by Salcido.
A.R. was working as an orderly in the prison’s COVID unit when Salcido began making sexual comments toward her, according to the suit.
The comments escalated to Salcido grabbing, touching, and pressing his body against A.R. , according to the suit. He would tell her not to cross him, or she would not receive access to her medications.
In September 2020, Salcido told A.R. he needed her assistance in the hair salon, where he later forced her to perform oral sex on him and raped her, according to the suit.
And for more than 18 months, according to the suit, the Bureau of Prisons denied her a medical procedure related to injuries suffered during the rape.
‘Sanctuary’ for sexual assault against women prisoners
In addition to claims against Salcido, the civil lawsuits accuse the federal government and the Bureau of Prisons of systemic failure to protect women from sexual assault by prison guards.
“Contrary to its mission statement, (Bureau of Prisons) has created and maintained a sanctuary for male correctional officers to sexually assault and abuse female inmates,” the lawsuit claims. “The sexual abuse of female prisoners in the care and custody of BOP is epidemic and largely unchecked as a result of cultural tolerance, orchestrated cover-ups, and organizational reprisals of inmates brave enough to report sexual abuse.”
BOP employees sexually abused female prisoners in at least 19 of the 29 federal prisons that held women between 2012 and 2022, according to report from a U.S. Senate subcommittee on investigations.
The report identified at least 134 instances of sexual assault of female prisoners by BOP employees over the 10-year span.
And the U.S. House of Representatives, in a nine-page government oversight report released in 2004, found that misconduct by federal prison officials is “largely tolerated or ignored altogether.”
Other findings included: The bureau has not systematically analyzed complaint data under the 2003 Prison Rape Elimination Act; the Office of Internal Affairs has a backlog of 8,000 cases, which includes hundreds of sexual abuse claims, and its annual reporting is “confusing” and “obscures” its backlog.
The case against Salcido is at least the fourth case in as many years involving allegations of rape or sexual assault by staff members against women prisoners.
In 2021, two separate lawsuits were filed against FMC employees Christopher Brian Goodwin and Hosea Lee for raping women detainees. Both victims were later transferred to a prison camp in West Virginia.
Two years later, Gregory Barrett, a former senior officer, pleaded guilty to sexual abuse of an inmate.
Salcido is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 13 at 9 a.m.
