This is Where Gorgeous Ballerina Ashley Benefield is Now Inside Her Prison Cell at Lowell Where Guards Known to Rape and Beat Female Inmates

My independent investigation into atrocities at Lowell woman's prison in Ocala Fl where Dr. Ader Benoit and Guards known to sexually abuse female inmates, see the Miami Herald Lowell Expose. "Lowell Florida Inmate Found Dead After Reporting Threats By Guard"; Bill Warner, a private investigator who has probed several cases at Lowell, said the female inmates who are raped or sexually abused by male guards rarely report it out of fear that they won’t be able to see their children. 161 sexual abuse investigations at Lowell. About 65 percent of female inmates are mothers, and the prison also houses a population of pregnant inmates, he said. “Everyone I talked to — it’s always the same story. There are beat-downs, and they are subjected to indignities like males strip-searching them,” PI Bill Warner said. Cheryl Weimar was an inmate at Lowell Correctional Institution who was beaten by guards and rendered a paraplegic. She sued the state and received a $4.65 million settlement.

UPDATE Aug 10, 2026 Florida prison gynecologist Dr. Ader Benoit at Lowell correctional and his employer agreed to pay five women $100,000 after they filed a lawsuit alleging the doctor sexually assaulted them while they were incarcerated. The women allege Dr. Ader Benoit fondled, penetrated, injured and demeaned them during gynecology appointments at Lowell Correctional Institution between 2019 and 2021, according to the federal lawsuit, which was filed in 2024. Benoit worked for Centurion of Florida, a company contracted by the state to provide medical care in prisons. He resigned from his position at Lowell, the nation’s largest women’s prison, in June 2024, about three months after the women filed suit, court records state. Andrea Costello and other attorneys from Florida Legal Services and the Florida Justice Institute represented the women free of charge. Costello told the Times she sees reason to celebrate the outcome. “It raises public consciousness about the fact that people are suffering every day inside these institutions,” she said. This incident mimics the expose published in the Miami Herald Oct 8th, 2014, same story just different names.

Gorgeous Ballerina Ashley Benefield aka Ashley Byers Went From Glam to Sham. 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.”

MAY 7, 2026, Ashley Benefield is serving her 20-year manslaughter sentence at Lowell Correctional Institution in Ocala, Florida. She was transferred to this facility, often referred to as "Lowell Hell Hole," after a February 2026 incident involving an alleged assault on a correctional officer at the Homestead Correctional prison, which placed her in disciplinary confinement. Former swimsuit model Ashley Benefield, known as the Black Swan case, has been sent to Lowell Correctional Women's Prison to serve out her 20 year sentence for manslaughter. Ashley Benefield, the Lakewood Ranch woman convicted of manslaughter for killing her husband.

Manatee County judge denied Benefield’s request for release on bond, ruling that she must stay in custody during the appeals process, according to court records. In an eight-page ruling, the judge determined that Benefield’s legal team did not meet the legal criteria to be approved for a bond release. Benefield, 33, sought bond while her appeal is pending after being sentenced in December to 20 years in prison for fatally shooting her husband, Doug Benefield, at her Lakewood Ranch home in September 2020.

Ashley Benefield will be subject to 10 years of State Felony Probation after she is finally released in 2044 from State prison. Miami Herald Oct 8th, 2014, Florida’s cesspool: Women's 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.

Miami Herald Oct 8th, 2014, Bill Warner, a private investigator who has probed several cases at Lowell Prison, said the female inmates who are raped or sexually abused by male guards rarely report it out of fear that they won’t be able to see their children. About 65 percent of female inmates are mothers, and the prison also houses a population of pregnant inmates, he said. “Everyone I talked to — it’s always the same story. There are beat-downs and they are subjected to indignities like males strip-searching them,’’ Bill Warner said. Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/florida/article2564576.html#storylink=cpy

Miami Herald Oct 8th, 2014 Allegations of Female Prisoner Abuse at Lowell Correctional Institution Florida Prison and Homestead Correctional. 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 in 2014. 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.”

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.” 

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