Former corrections officer sues Pa. prison for sexual harassment

A former corrections officer at a Pennsylvania state prison has filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit, claiming she became the target of a brutal campaign of gender discrimination and sexual harassment after allegedly angering coworkers by taking time off to deal with an injury.

The workplace environment to which 34-year-old Amanda Kulkin was subjected became so intolerable, she was eventually forced to resign from her job at the State Correctional Institution-Mercer, according to a complaint filed Friday in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.

"It was every day, consistent harassment until I just couldn't go to work," Kulkin said in an interview Friday. "I had complete anxiety even walking into that place."

A spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections said the DOC does not comment on matters of litigation.

Kulkin, a U.S. Army veteran who began working at SCI-Mercer in 2006, claims the bullying began in June 2012, when she took leave from her job as a yard officer after suffering a non-work-related knee injury.

Days later, someone posted a mock news article on a password-protected website for state corrections employees lambasting Kulkin for taking time off and calling her "a festering wound in the taxpayers' side," the suit alleges.

When Kulkin returned to work that July, she was reassigned to "a variety of less desirable positions" and frequently moved around mid-shift, the lawsuit claims.

"I would come into work and on the roster they would have me working a post, and maybe an hour later they would switch me and have me somewhere else," Kulkin said.

Though she attempted to complain to a supervisor in charge of scheduling, "when I approached him, he said, 'I wouldn't press the issue or I'm going to give you all the s---t spots,'" Kulkin said.

About a month after her return, Kulkin claims she learned that someone had submitted a bogus transfer request in her name asking that she be moved to the State Correctional Institution-Cambridge Springs.

"I feel this is being done as sexual harassment because I am a female officer and whomever submitted my name for transfer did so to an all female institution," she wrote in a complaint to the prison's human resources department, a copy of which is attached to the suit.

Around the same time, Kulkin claims, someone began posting insulting signs around the prison that could be readily seen by both coworkers and inmates.

One featured a graphic of a tombstone bearing Kulkin's name with the epitaph, "On said day began the downfall of Ms. Kulkin and began the demise of her fragile emotional wellbeing. She leaves behind a shattered ego and shed tears that have so far gone unclaimed," the suit states.

Also posted around the prison, according to the lawsuit, were copies of an incident report altered to read "hurt feelings report," with sections of inquiry including "whiner's name," "date feelings were hurt," "name of real man / woman who hurt your sensitive feelings," and "is there permanent feelings damage?"

Kulkin was further subjected to a daily barrage of crass, sexually charged taunts from coworkers and supervisors, the lawsuit claims.

On one occasion, a lieutenant allegedly approached Kulkin from behind and licked her ear; on another, a fellow officer is accused of saying to her, "Kulkin, want to see what's in my front middle pocket?"

"She spoke to her supervisors about this conduct and how it made her uncomfortable," said Kulkin's attorney, Elizabeth Pollock-Avery, of Pittsburgh firm Kraemer, Manes and Associates. "Her supervisors were very clearly aware of it."

Still, no one was ever disciplined in connection with any of the incidents, Kulkin maintains, prompting her to take leave Sept. 30, 2012 and resign Nov. 27.

"As far as the harassment and how my coworkers and supervisors treated me, it made me feel as though if something were to happen, that they would not come to my assistance, if I needed help," she said.

She has since moved to Florida and taken a lower-paying position as a private security officer.

Kulkin is asking for more than $75,000 in damages to compensate her for lost wages, legal fees, humiliation and "severe emotional and psychological distress."

She also hopes the state DOC will reevaluate some of its policies dealing with employee complaints. "They shouldn't turn their cheek to what's going on," she said. "It's putting people in danger who are there to protect the public."

Pollock-Avery pointed out those concerns are particularly timely in light of an unrelated lawsuit filed by a State Correctional Institution-Rockview clerk who was raped by an inmate in July 2013 after prison officials allegedly ignored her previously-voiced complaints about inmates entering her office area.

"I think that, together with this case, really calls into question how dedicated the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections is to taking a good, hard look at the culture in their prisons, which seems to be anti-woman, and to looking at these women's issues," Pollock-Avery said.

"We call them 'women's issues,' but they don't just affect women – harassment and rape can happen to anybody. I really think the DOC may be well-suited to analyze how they're handling these problems in the future."