'A living hell'

Three survivors of sexual assault in federal prison described years of horrific abuse by prison staffers who used their unfettered access to vulnerable inmates and threatened them with retaliation if they reported the attacks.

All three former inmates, their voices cracking with emotion, told a Senate investigative panel Tuesday that the federal Bureau of Prisons had failed them and often shielded their attackers from accountability.

One of the victims, Linda De La Rosa, told the committee, which has been investigating the sexual abuse of federal inmates for the past eight months, that her attacker had full access to her personal files and used the information to gain leverage over her.

'A living hell': Former federal inmates describe years of sexual abuse by prison officers