Florida Legal Services (FLS) and the Florida Justice Institute (FJI) announce that a final judgment for $100,000 has been entered to resolve a lawsuit alleging widespread and persistent sexual abuse at Lowell Correctional Institution, the largest women’s prison in Florida. In the lawsuit, several incarcerated and formerly incarcerated survivors accused a prison doctor of sexually abusing them during several medical appointments. Despite numerous similar complaints from other women, the plaintiffs claimed that Centurion of Florida, LLC (Centurion)—the contracted medical provider—failed to take action to stop it. After the plaintiffs filed the case, the doctor was fired.
The lawsuit, Anderson, et al. v. Centurion, et al., was filed on February 23, 2024, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. Five Plaintiffs brought the case alleging that they and other women at Lowell Correctional Institution complained for years that a prison doctor employed by Centurion unlawfully fondled, penetrated, physically injured, and demeaned them during gynecological appointments while incarcerated. The lawsuit alleged that Centurion failed to take those complaints seriously. Following the lawsuit, and after discovery ended and the Defendants’ summary judgment motions were denied, the Defendants agreed to pay $100,000 in damages to the Plaintiffs, and a judgment for that amount was entered against the Defendants.
Andrea Costello, Director of the Florida Institutional Legal Services Project at FLS said: “This lawsuit and judgment confirms that the people in charge of correctional institutions, and the companies who take taxpayer money to operate them, know that sexual abuse by those with power is happening, but they fail to take the necessary steps to stop it. I admire these brave women who took great risks to stand up and speak out about what was happening and demand safety when trying to access necessary reproductive health care.”
Dante P. Trevisani, Litigation Director of the Florida Justice Institute, said: “These survivors deserved justice after what they went through, especially when those in positions of authority failed to stop it. We are proud to stand with them to get justice.”
During the litigation, the Court denied Centurion’s motion for summary judgment, finding that the Plaintiffs had presented sufficient evidence on which a reasonable jury could conclude that Centurion had an unlawful policy, practice, and custom of failing to protect patients through deliberate indifference to a substantial risk of serious harm from sexual assault in violation of the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. That evidence included testimony and accounts by 14 women who made complaints and formal reports about sexual abuse by the same doctor for over six years. These conditions put Plaintiffs, and other patients at Lowell CI, in an unacceptable and dangerous position: risk sexual assault or forego necessary gynecological care.
This case follows a U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) report in 2020 about sexual abuse at the prison following a multi-year investigation. DOJ found staff sexual abuse of incarcerated people was widespread, the Department of Corrections’ investigation process was inadequate to prevent and respond to the harm, and retaliation happened when people tried to report it.
The Complaint, Judgment, and summary judgment order can be found at those links.
The case is Anderson v. Centurion et al, Case No. 24-cv-00089, in the Middle District of Florida.
Contact: Andrea Costello (407) 801-0332, andrea@floridalegal.org; Dante P. Trevisani (786) 342-6911, dtrevisani@fji.law