Six former and current DeKalb County jail employees have filed a federal lawsuit against Sheriff Melody Maddox, accusing her of “acting with deliberate indifference to endemic, well-known sexual harassment of female staff by inmates,” reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The suit alleges that the sheriff’s office leadership has done little to prevent female workers from being exposed to “dangerous and harassing behavior” in the jail.
That behavior, the suit said, has included “inmates constantly ‘popping out’ of cells due to compromised [locks], inmates masturbating within close proximity of female detention officers, and inmates entering communal areas unclothed.” One former employee in the new lawsuit said she worked for three different sheriffs —and that “the sexually hostile work environment was the worst under the current sheriff.”