An Arizona security guard has been sentenced to 13 months in federal prison for the sexual abuse of an inmate under his care in a residential re-entry center. The sentence will be followed by 10 years of supervised release, the defendant will also have to register as a sex offender.
Morris Gary Hibbitt, 51, of Avondale, sexually abused a female inmate while on duty as the Security Supervisor at Behavioral Systems Southwest (BSS) in Phoenix. The abuse happened on May 21, 2023, per the District of Arizona U.S. Attorney's Office.
Details of the abuse were not immediately available. The victim's identity was also kept hidden in the case's official press release. It is also not clear how long Hibbitt served as a security supervisor at BSS.
BSS is a residential re-entry center contracted by the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to help inmates transition back into the community while completing their prison sentences. To be transferred into BSS, inmates have to first obtain an employment opportunity and pay up to 25% of their gross income to offset the cost of their incarceration. Inmates usually reside in BSS anywhere from four to six months before being moved to home detention.
According to federal law, all sexual relations between staff and inmates are considered abuse , even if a sexual act would have been considered consensual if it occurred outside of a prison.
In a written statement found on BSS's website, the center encourages victims to report any form of sexual abuse using its third-party notification system. "The residents and staff have a right to be free from retaliation for reporting sexual abuse and sexual harassment," the statement reads.
A 2023 DOJ report revealed that staff sexual misconduct was underreported by inmates in the U.S. federal prison system. Only about a quarter of incidents were reported by the victims, and nearly 20% of the substantiated incidents were uncovered during an investigation or monitoring. For these substantiated and reported incidents, legal action against the staff perpetrator only occurred in 38% of the sexual misconduct cases and in less than 5% of sexual harassment incidents.
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