LANSING — A former corrections officer at Michigan’s only prison for women has been sentenced to 18 months to 15 years behind bars for sexually assault an inmate.
Joshua Lee, 22, of Wyandotte, “engaged in multiple sexual acts with several prisoners while working at the prison,” Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said in a June 22 news release.
Lee, who worked at Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility near Ypsilanti, pleaded guilty in April to one court of second-degree criminal sexual conduct, Nessel said.
On June 18, Washtenaw County Circuit Judge Arianne E. Slay handed down Lee’s sentence, according to the news release.
“No one is above the law, and everyone deserves safety from sexual abuse,” Nessel said. “My office is committed to prosecuting those who weaponize their authority to exploit the very people they are assigned to monitor and protect.”
Lee was charged in November 2025 with four counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct after an investigation by the Michigan State Police.
Nicholas Somberg, a Clarkston attorney representing Lee, said in a June 22 email that his client “is an extremely immature, naive, and suggestible young man who never should have been placed in that position of authority.” Somberg said the case raises questions about “how someone with his limitations ended up in that job.”
The women’s prison is under intense scrutiny over living conditions and the quality of health care after three recent sudden deaths at the prison.
Male officers are not employed in the residential housing units but still have contact with inmates in some areas of the prison.
This story has been updated to add new information.
Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Former officer sentenced for sexual assault at Michigan women’s prison
Reporting by Paul Egan, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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By Paul Egan, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
