Alabama Women's Prison Supervisor Demanded Sex From Inmate, Saying 'You'll Never Go Home': Prosecutors

• Sgt. Laquentin Brantley was booked on Nov. 7 on accusations that he had sexually abused a female inmate at the prison where he worked as a supervisor
• The prisoner alleges in the charging documents that he threatened to write her up if she did not comply with his sexual demands “any time he felt like it” 
• The Department of Justice had planned to roll back its oversight of the prison, but it is not clear how these new allegations could affect that decision

A 34-year-old correctional officer has been arrested on sex crime charges against an inmate at an Alabama prison that has been under federal oversight for such crimes since 2015.

Sgt. Laquentin Brantley is being held at Elmore County Jail in Wetumpka, Ala., on a $15,000 bond on charges of first-degree sodomy and custodial sexual conduct, according to online booking records. 

The prison supervisor allegedly demanded that a female inmate at Julia Tutwiler Women’s Facility in Wetumpka perform sex acts “any time he felt like it” or risk getting written up for disciplinary action and not being able to return home to see her children, according to charging documents cited by AL.com, The Wetumpka Herald and WFSA12.

The inmate – whose name has not been released – alleged that Brantley encountered her on the morning of Oct. 18 when she was dressed in a tank top without a bra and demanded, “Let me see ‘em,” meaning her breasts. “Let me see them or you’ll never go home,” AL.com reported from the charging documents.

The prisoner followed the sergeant’s orders, and he allegedly touched her chest and genitals. At around 1:00 a.m. on the following day, Oct. 19, Brantley allegedly forced her to give him oral sex.

PEOPLE could not immediately confirm if Brantley had entered a plea to the charges or retained a lawyer, but the Associated Press reports that the sergeant has been placed on mandatory leave.

In 2015 federal prosecutors filed a civil complaint – reviewed by PEOPLE – against the State of Alabama and its corrections system citing their on-site inspection of Tutwiler and finding that the prison staff “engage in a pattern or practice of deliberately disregarding known or serious risks of harm from sexual abuse and sexual harassment of Tutwiler prisoners.”

Federal prosecutors found that the female prisoners “suffer serious harm from sexual abuse and sexual harassment by staff, including rape, fondling, voyeurism, and sexually explicit verbal abuse” and that they were “subjected to the high risk and threat of sexual abuse by staff.”

On the same day prosecutors filed the complaint, they also filed a 44-page settlement agreement – reviewed by PEOPLE – outlining a referral and investigative system to “ensure that all allegations of sexual abuse and sexual harassment are promptly, thoroughly, and objectively investigated” and disciplinary action for abusive staff. 

As part of the agreement, the prison – which had been outfitted with a “state-of-the-art camera system” would have camera placement locations “reviewed at least annually to ensure that they are serving their goal of maximizing supervision.”

In a statement at the time, then-Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division said the agreement had been “designed to address and eliminate the culture of abuse that Tutwiler’s women prisoners have suffered from and endured for years.”

Earlier this year the Department of Justice decided to roll back its oversight, the AP reports.

PEOPLE contacted Assistant United States Attorney for the Middle District of Alabama Tara Ratz for comment on how the new charges could affect that decision. She did not respond in time for publication.