Lowell Correctional Institute

“The women at Lowell Correctional Institution fully recognize that their own actions have resulted in their removal from society, but the persistent sexual abuse they have been subjected to is inhumane and detrimental to the reputation of our state,” Tampa Democratic Senator Janet Cruz wrote in the letter to Gov. DeSantis. “These women deserve better.”

The report said officials were aware of abuses at the Lowell Correctional Institution in Ocala since 2006.

A guard accused in a lawsuit of beating a female inmate so severely she was left paralyzed had previously been accused of trading cigarettes for sex,…