Females Convicted of Violent Crimes Like Murder & Manslaughter in Florida Sent to Lowell Prison Were Guards Known to Rape, Beat and Murder Prisoners

INVESTIGATION OF THE LOWELL CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION – FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS (OCALA, FLORIDA). United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division United States Attorney’s Office Middle District of Florida. Specifically, the United States provides notice that the State of Florida, through the Florida Department of Corrections (FDOC), fails to keep female prisoners at Lowell prison safe from sexual abuse by staff. FDOC has documented and been aware of a pattern or practice of staff sexual abuse of Lowell female prisoners since at least 2006 through 2024. Despite being on notice of this sexual abuse, FDOC and Lowell prison failed to take timely action to remedy the systemic problems that have enabled corrections officers and other staff to continue to sexually abuse Lowell female prisoners.

As documented in this Notice, Lowell female prisoners have suffered harm from sexual abuse and are at substantial risk of serious harm because existing systems discourage prisoners from reporting sexual abuse and fail to effectively detect and deter sexual abuse. Between 2017 and the present, Lowell prison sergeants, corrections officers, and other staff have committed notorious acts of sexual abuse, including rape, against prisoners. For example, in July 2020, a sergeant was arrested and charged with sexual misconduct after he admitted to engaging in oral sex with a Lowell female prisoner in the maintenance room of a prisoner dormitory as recently as April 2020. That same sergeant had been accused in 2017 of sexually abusing a different prisoner, causing lesions on the prisoner’s throat from oral sex, and then retaliating against the prisoner when she refused his sexual advances. Even though FDOC verified the prisoner’s injuries, FDOC never completed the investigation for the 2017 incident, and the Lowell officer remained employed until his arrest in July 2020. 

It is common for Lowell officers to grope prisoners, including their buttocks and breasts; bribe prisoners with contraband including drugs, cigarettes, food, and makeup in exchange for sex; comment on prisoners’ bodies using crude sexual language and names; compel prisoners into ongoing abusive sexual “relationships;” watch prisoners as they use the toilet or shower, and when changing clothes, without justification; and threaten Lowell female prisoners with solitary confinement if they report sexual abuse. A 2019 incident in which a lieutenant at Lowell prison “accused repeatedly of sexually abusing multiple prisoners” allegedly slammed inmate Cheryl Weimar to the concrete floor and kicked her, leaving her paralyzed with a broken neck. “In August 2020, (the Florida Department of Corrections) settled a lawsuit related to the prisoner’s paralysis for $4.65 million.” In 2010, the Lowell Correctional Institution Annex completed a (1) 240-bed secure-cell housing unit. This dormitory houses inmates that the department has classified as security risks and require housing in cells instead of dormitory bunks.

UNSOLVED MURDER AT LOWELL; Bernadette Gregory was getting out of prison in eight months and planning her wedding when she was found hanging in a cell at Florida's Lowell Correctional Institution. Prison authorities say Gregory, 42, tied a double knot in a sheet, twisted it several times around her top bunk, looped the other end around her neck and hanged herself. Despite relying on a wheelchair to get around, she did all of this in 11 minutes - while she was handcuffed, a detail the Department of Corrections' investigative summary mentions only in passing. Gregory's 2009 death is one of many that don't seem to add up but that have nevertheless been tucked away in the department's files, categorized as suicides, homicides, accidents or natural deaths. Bernadette Gregory (G05707) died on July 22, 2009 at Lowell Correctional Institution after having been threatened by guards. She had filed a complaint four days before her death re a beating by a Captain Greer. Linda Thompson, who was a fellow prisoner at Lowell, said that Gregory, who was confined to a wheelchair via handcuffs, was beaten and kicked by guards on the day of her death.

Miami Herald Sept 2022: Warden ignored staff rapes of female inmates.  At Lowell Correctional Institution, where the systemic rape of female inmates by male guards has been documented over years by the Miami Herald and drawn a sharp rebuke by the Justice Department, a newly filed lawsuit says the sexual abuse is as pervasive as ever. The inmate lawsuit, dated Sept. 1 and citing a litany of specific incidents, targets Stephen Rossiter, Lowell’s warden, as a defendant. It does not claim he engaged in sexual misconduct but that he exhibited “deliberate indifference to a widespread pattern of sexual and physical abuse.” Ongoing Allegations of Female Prisoner Abuse at Lowell Correctional Institution, Prison. Lowell Correctional “Hell Hole” in Ocala Fl. There are multiple allegations male correctional officers (CO's) at Lowell C.I. of which about 65% are male are using threats of loss of gain time to coerce the female inmates into sex acts in the bathroom areas, claims private investigator Bill Warner. "I am no advocate for prison reform nor do I have any objections to Florida Judges imposing the harshest and longest prison time to fit the crime, but when those empowered to watch over and care for the incarcerated females become predators running a "good ole boy CO network" within the prison, it is time for a full blown investigation, said private investigator Bill Warner. The Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Middle District of Florida spent 2 1/2 years producing their Dec. 22, 2020 report, which alleged that “sexual abuse of women prisoners by Lowell corrections officers and staff is severe and prevalent throughout the prison.” What will prison be like for convicted murderer Ashley Benefield, who was thought to be a flight risk after her conviction? Lowell Annex: Houses close security and death row inmates, as well as an inmate reception center.

Florida Phoenix December 21, 2022: Two years after a Dec. 22, 2020 report revealed “notorious acts of sexual abuse, including rape, against prisoners” at the state’s largest and oldest women’s prison, federal officials made a return visit last week at Florida’s Lowell Correctional Institution to see if conditions have improved. The answer was no, according to prisoner rights advocates and attorneys who closely follow events at Lowell. “There are still instances of sexual abuse, and sure they’re aware of it. Are they turning their heads? Sure, they’re turning their heads,” says Laurette Philipsen, who served more than eight years at Lowell Correctional for grand theft and continues to stay in touch with current inmates there. She also is a volunteer member of Florida Cares, a prisoner rights advocacy group. “The (U.S.) Justice Department needs to come down hard on them, without a doubt. It’s two years since this report was published and still nothing has changed,” Philipsen told the Florida Phoenix in a phone interview.

December 3rd, 2024, Florida Statutes Convicted at trial, Ashley Benefield aka Ashley Byers aka "Christina Alessia", of Manslaughter with a Firearm 1st Degree she would most likely will be sent to Lowell Women's Prison near Ocala Fl for violent offenders to serve her 20 year sentence. Ashley Benefield will be subject to 10 years of State Felony Probation after she is finally released in 2044 from State prison. December 5th is Ashley Benefield's birthday, she will be about 53 years old when she is released from State prison. Florida’s cesspool: is Lowell Correctional, where guards get a pass for raping women. The Justice Department excoriated Florida Corrections, having found that officers at Lowell, one of the largest women's prisons in the nation, have “raped, sodomized, beaten and choked female inmates.


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