
The National ACLU, ACLU of Illinois, and a number of partner organizations that advocate for people who are incarcerated, survivors of gender-based violence, or both filed an amicus brief in the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in the case Doe v. Burke.
The plaintiff Jane Doe was repeatedly sexually assaulted by the counselor who controlled her access to phone calls with her daughter while she was incarcerated in the Illinois Department of Corrections. She sued for violation of her rights under the 8th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. After a jury found in her favor and awarded her damages, a number of the state defendants appealed the case to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.
The amicus brief filed by the ACLU of Illinois and other organizations urged affirmance of the lower court’s decision in favor of Ms. Doe. The brief emphasized that evidence of an incarcerated person’s purported consent to sexual contact with a member of prison or jail staff is not relevant to an 8th Amendment claim of custodial sexual abuse under contemporary standards of decency. It also explained the power inequities between custodians and incarcerated individuals and the coercion that is inherent in carceral settings. The amicus brief was the result of a collaboration between the ACLU of Illinois’ Corrections Reform Project and Women’s and Reproductive Rights Project.
The other organizations who joined this amicus brief were Ascend Justice, the Chicago Alliance Against Sexual Exploitation, the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual Assault, the Illinois Prison Project, Just Detention International, Life Span, Resilience, and the Women’s Justice Institute.