Overcrowded conditions at George W. Hill Correctional Facility led to the sexual assault of a female inmate sometime in mid-December after guards were told to bring female and male inmates together briefly when they reached an overwhelming number of inmates, several sources told yc.news.
“The phones were cut off and they were locked in because there was a woman raped in there by another inmate,” a source who spoke under the condition of anonymity told yc.news. “I knew a guard that worked there for 11 years and [they] quit because he couldn’t stand the way they treated the prisoners anymore.”
The insider claims the intermingling of the inmates is what sparked the sexual assault.
A female correctional officer who resigned claims it’s a systematic failure that allowed a “history” of gender intermingling in the prison.
“You can pay for conjugal visits — anywhere from a few hundred dollars to a couple thousand. It depends who you know or who it’s with,” the former guard said.
“They allow their officers to sleep with inmates and PUBLICLY advertise it,” a heated former corrections officer said on Indeed.
“I know first hand that they keep some inmates in cells with no water or a sink. They make them sleep on the floor and they had women in the men’s unit because they were overcrowded two weeks ago,” a source told us under the condition of anonymity.
“They treat them less than animals.”
We previously reported five women were rushed to local hospitals on Christmas following a mass-overdose, with at least three others sent on Christmas Eve. Sources close to the investigation previously told yc.news the women overdosed on fentanyl, not heroin, as widely reported by local media outlets. However, the prison refused to provide any comment whatsoever to yc.news – and friends, family and former teachers of Fatima Musa, 27, who died while in custody over the holiday, say the Chester native might’ve unwittingly smoked a laced cigarette or marijuana, but vehemently deny any history of heroin use.
Cameras hold the key to showcasing what really happened. Time-stamped footage from the surveillance cameras will show an understaffed prison in dire need of major assistance, according to the insider.
“The GEO Group has been extremely secretive about what exactly is going on,” an individual close to the situation told yc.news. “But my greatest fear is the truth is going to be buried – just like everything else that happens in that place.”
The merciless prison is owned by Community Education Centers, which was acquired by The GEO Group – a Florida-based company that specializes in privatized corrections, detention, and mental health treatment.
Sources told yc.news 69-year-old George Christopher Zoley – who owns the mega-corporation that purchased the prison, is expected to personally visit the grounds as soon as next week.
“George isn’t someone who visits the prison grounds unless there’s a ribbon cutting or something,” a second person stuck in the sticky situation revealed. “George is a powerful man — he won’t let some locals turn his prison into a circus slumber party.”
“From what I know, he wants to work with the new administration on what he can do make mends for the slop left behind from the local Republican patriarch — John Reilly, Jr.”
The tone for incoming district attorney Stollsteimer’s first few months in office is set before even crossing the courthouse threshold.
“Stollsteimer is upsetting the apple cart, taking on the establishment and a lot of people are angry and have a lot to lose. You’re seeing that play out in rolling resignations,” an insider at the Delaware County Public Defender’s Office previously told us. “The outgoing administration littered the district attorney’s office with conservative ideologues, saboteurs and spies.”
Reilly, a staunch Republican, stepped down in Nov. 2019 following a bombshell investigation released by The Philadelphia Inquirer, outlining a pattern of alleged racism swept under the carpet behind the fortified prison walls.
The GEO Group declined to comment.
Additional Reporting By: Brittany McGeever and Jonathan Lee Riches.
This is an ongoing investigative special. Stay with yc.news for the latest updates. Have a story or news tip? Contact our 24/7 newsroom at 833.336.8013 or e-mail our tip line: [email protected]