Formerly incarcerated female victims of sexual abuse testified before a Senate committee on Tuesday, detailing the horror that many experience behind bars. 

Along with the hearing, a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee put out the findings of a bipartisan investigation, which was started in April of this year, regarding the abuse.

The report was the culmination of interviews with top Federal Bureau of Prisons authorities, sexual abuse victims, and whistleblowers. It explained that the subcommittee discovered that Bureau of Prisons workers sexually abused female inmates in at least 19 out of the 29 federal jails that have housed women over the past ten years.

The report also discovered that the agency “failed to prevent, detect, and stop recurring sexual abuse in at least four federal prisons, including abuse by senior prison officials,” noting that the former warden and chaplain at a facility in Dublin, California, both took part in sexually abusing female inmates. Seventeen past or current workers at the facility were being investigated for sexual abuse as of May. Last week, the former warden was convicted on eight criminal charges for his assaults of three female prisoners.

The report announced that the Bureau’s Office of Internal Affairs’ investigative procedures “are seriously flawed,” and there are 8,000 internal affairs cases that have piled up. Of those cases, there are “at least hundreds of sexual abuse cases.” The Bureau, it added, did not hold workers responsible for “misconduct.”

Authorities at the Justice Department are thinking about letting female inmates out of prison early who suffered under the warden of the California prison and other employees at the prison.

“I am open to this consideration that is a very complex issue, which is why it’s under pretty significant review,” Bureau of Prisons Director Colette Peters told USA Today this week. “I think we’re concerned about consistency, I think we’re concerned about fairness, and so I think that each case is unique.”

The New York Times reported that people close to the situation said the Justice Department wants to increase the ability to let abused women out of prison early due to the assaults.

Deputy attorney general Lisa O. Monaco has pushed leaders at the Bureau to put together a list of prisoners who might be able to get out of prison early under the compassionate release program.

Linda De La Rosa was one of the sexual abuse survivors and testified to the committee that her “life was a living hell.” Her abuser is now in prison on a 135-month sentence, but she pointed out that the man had been accused of sexual attacks in the past while he was abusing her.  

Briane Moore, who used to be an inmate at a facility in West Virginia explained through tears how a captain raped her several times while saying he could keep her from moving to a prison near her family. 

“While he was raping me, he was raping other women,” Moore said. “I’m still suffering. This has changed the course of my life.”

Another woman, Carolyn Richardson, described how an officer who sexually abused her would threaten to keep food and medical services from her as her vision health worsened. 

The ability to abuse women in correctional facilities has also been a reason that many are pushing to keep men who identify as women out of women-only facilities. 

Democrat megadonor Sam Bankman-Fried faces spending the rest of his life behind bars after an eight-count indictment was unsealed Tuesday against him in federal court.

A Manhattan federal grand jury charged Bankman-Fried, 30, with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit commodities fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and conspiracy to defraud the Federal Election Commission and commit campaign finance violations, the Department of Justice said in a statement.

Prosecutors allege that Bankman-Fried misappropriated billions of dollars of customer funds deposited into the cryptocurrency exchange that he founded, FTX, and lied to investors and lenders about the company and about his cryptocurrency hedge fund Alameda Research.

Bankman-Fried and his co-conspirators were deceiving and conning customers of FTX from the inception of the company, prosecutors said. He allegedly used billions of dollars from customers for his own personal use, to repay loans owed by Alameda Research, and to donate millions of dollars to political campaigns. Bankman-Fried was the Democrats’ second largest donor this last political cycle, donating tens of millions of dollars to Democrat candidates and left-wing groups.

Bankman-Fried also defrauded lenders to Alameda Research and equity investors in FTX by hiding his misuse of customer deposits, prosecutors alleged. Bankman-Fried tried to conceal the millions he gave to politicians by making his co-conspirators make the contributions under their names, say prosecutors.

Bankman-Fried faces up to 115 years in prison if convicted of the following crimes:

Count One: Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud on Customers; up to 20 years in prison if convicted. Count Two: Wire Fraud on Customers; up to 20 years in prison if convicted. Count Three: Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud on Lenders; up to 20 years in prison if convicted. Count Four: Wire Fraud on Lenders; up to 20 years in prison if convicted. Count Five: Conspiracy to Commit Commodities Fraud, up to 20 years in prison if convicted. Count Six: Conspiracy to Commit Securities Fraud, up to 5 years in prison if convicted. Count Seven: Conspiracy to Commit Money Laundering, up to 5 years in prison if convicted. Count Eight: Conspiracy to Defraud the United States and Violate the Campaign Finance Laws; up to 5 years in prison if convicted.

A judge denied Bankman-Fried bail due to him being a “great” flight risk.

“The Justice Department has filed charges alleging that Samuel Bankman-Fried perpetrated a range of offenses in a global scheme to deceive and defraud customers and lenders of FTX and Alameda, the defendant’s crypto hedge fund, as well as a conspiracy to defraud the United States government,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “We allege that the defendant conspired to defraud customers by misappropriating their deposits; to defraud lenders; to commit securities fraud and money laundering; and to violate campaign finance laws. As this indictment demonstrates, the U.S. Department of Justice will aggressively investigate and prosecute alleged criminal wrongdoing in the financial system and violations of federal elections laws. We will continue to work to ensure U.S. capital markets operate honestly and with the integrity that investors, lenders, and the American people are entitled to.”