I am 46 years old, a right-below-knee amputee. I am incarcerated at the Great Plains Correctional Facility (a private prison) that houses about 900 men.

Since being here, I have observed several assaults, robberies, sexual assault. I have been a victim of several assaults as well as a sexual assault by several inmates. On 11-23-02 I was relaxing reading a book in my cell when my new cellmate and two other inmates entered the cell. Two of them twisted my arms, pinning me in the chair. They tormented my by slapping me in the face, putting a wash cloth over my nose & mouth to the point where I almost passed out from lack of air. Then four other inmates entered the cell & my artificial limb was ripped off and I was tormented further. They took a black magic marker and drew a face on the stump of my right leg, placing my glasses on it, making comments and laughing. Then they raised my legs and pulled down my sweat pants, trying to stick their fingers in my anus. I was then placed face down on my bunk while they drew on my buttocks with the black magic marker. I was slapped on the buttocks several times by these inmates and they spread my buttocks and took turns looking at my anus, making comments and laughing. Then they placed the black magic marker in my anus, raping me by instrumentation.

When they finally tired, they left saying they were just having fun, and I was threatened with violence if I told. On 11-26-02, I talked to a Capt. here on the staff that I felt I could go to & I told him what happened to me and informed him that the inmates who were involved were also involved in raping and forcing other inmates into sexual acts & that I feared it would escalate into further sexual abuse by these inmates, & that I could not give him names of these inmates on account that they belonged to two separate prison gangs & that I feared for my life.

Arrangements were made for me to move to a unit that has no cells (dorm) to keep me away & out of reach of these inmates. I was told that my cell would be watched by officers in the unit control tower the night before I was moved. Not a single officer made rounds that night, and my cellmate rigged the cell door so he could exit the cell during the night. He & two other inmates forced me to give up what little belongings I had. This whole incident shows that officers were not monitoring the unit or they would have seen 7 inmates in a cell that would indicate something was wrong. I am safe for the moment but worry for how long & keep holding on to the thought that some day soon I’ll be cleared of my charges but I worry about how long I will have to live with the memory of what they have done to me & the fact that I will never forget or be the person I once was.