30+ women accuse Rikers medical staff of sex abuse

Most of the women say it happened during routine medical exams [View this email in a browser.]( Gothamist relies on your support to make local news available to all. Not yet a member? [Consider donating and join today.]( [Women held at Rikers say they were sexually assaulted during routine medical exams]( [first image]( [Today's newsletter is curated by James Ramsay]( Weather: ☁️ Cloudy, chance of showers, highs in the upper 60s. Warning: This story contains descriptions of sexual assault. Jennifer Levine thought she knew what to expect when she arrived at Rikers Island in 2002. She had cycled in and out of jail. She knew how the process worked. But this time, when Levine went to the clinic for an intake physical, she said, the routine deviated. Levine remembered that a doctor removed his blue medical glove and told her he was going to perform a vaginal exam. “Why would I need a gynecological exam?” she wondered. Levine said the doctor then prodded his bare hand so deep that she could feel nearly his whole forearm inside her pelvis. She said she tried to wriggle upright on the examination table but the doctor held her down. More than 700 women recently filed lawsuits against New York City under the Adult Survivors Act alleging they were sexually abused while detained at Rikers. [The claims previously reported by Gothamist]( span nearly five decades and primarily identify jail guards as the perpetrators. But guards were not the only jail employees accused of abuse. In at least 32 cases, including Levine’s, the accused perpetrators are medical professionals hired to treat detainees. Medical staff allegedly committed rape, forcefully penetrated women's vaginas with their hands or medical devices, forced women to perform oral sex, or groped their breasts, according to the lawsuits analyzed by Gothamist. [Read the full story here](. 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