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Crime & Safety

Another Corrections Officer Arrested for Sexual Assault of Bedford Hills Correctional Facility Inmate

A joint investigation by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, Inspector General's Office, and New York State Police revealed two Bedford Hills Correctional Facility Officers sexually assaulted female inmates.

A Brooklyn man was charged with sexually assaulting a Bedford Hills Correctional Facility inmate, according to New York State Police.

On July 17, 2014 the New York State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation from the Somers barracks charged Kevin R. Fields, 29, of Brooklyn, New York, with Criminal Sex Act 3rd Degree, a Class E Felony.  

The arrest took place following a joint investigation by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, Inspector General’s Office, and the New York State Police. 
 
This arrest comes just just two weeks after former Corrections Officer Richard Rodriquez, also of Brooklyn, was charged with the rape of a female inmate. Bedford Hills Correctional Facility is a maximum security women's prison.

According to a 2013 Times Union report, the federal government found New York prisons to be among the worst in the nation for staff-on-inmate abuse. New York's prison rape problem was exposed when the federal government released a survey of 167 prison facilities in 2010. Three of the 11 prisons ranked as having a "high incidence" of staff sexual misconduct were located in New York.

The survey was done as part of the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003. The Act was created to stop sexual abuse in all types of correctional facilities.

In the case of Kevin Fields, the Department of Corrections Inspector General’s Office contacted the State Police in September 2013 to report alleged sexual encounter between a female inmate and a prison employee. Fields works as a Corrections Officer at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility. The investigation showed that in 2013, Fields engaged in sexual contact with a female inmate at the facility. 

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The Department of Corrections Inspector General’s Office contacted the State Police in the case of former Corrections Officer Rodriquez, who was charged on July 7. He was suspended on May 6, 2014 from the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility after an investigation revealed that in December of 2013, he also engaged in sexual contact with a female inmate. 

Rodriguez was arraigned on July 7, 2014 before the Town of Bedford Court and released on $500 cash bail. He is due in the Town of Bedford Court on September 4, 2014.

Fields was arraigned before the Town of Bedford Court July 18 and released on his own recognizance.  He is due in the Town of Bedford Court on October 2, 2014.

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