SHAWANGUNK, N.Y. — An Ulster Park teacher who worked at the Shawangunk Correctional Facility was charged with rape, authorities said Wednesday.
Marla Bastone, 50, was arrested by state police at Highland at 6:37 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 25. Bastone is charged with the felony of rape with vaginal sexual contact of a person incapable of consent and under the age of 17, and the misdemeanors of sexual contact with an individual greater than 17 and incapable of consent, introducing contraband in prison, and official misconduct by a public servant (three counts).
The Shawangunk Correctional Facility does not house prisoners under the age of 17, a prison official said. State police did not provide any additional information about the alleged victims or the charges Bastone faces.
Bastone was released with tickets for Shawangunk Town Court.
Until her resignation on Tuesday, Nov. 25, Bastone was a teacher at the facility earning an annual salary of $77,441, a DOCCS official said. She began working at the prison in December 2018, DOCCS said.
According to the SeeThroughNY website, Bastone was previously employed by the Catskill, Kingston, Poughkeepsie, Hunter-Tannersville, Highland, Arlington and Wappingers school districts and by Dutchess County BOCES.
In a statement, DOCCS spokesperson Thomas Mailey said the department’s Office of Special Investigations was contacted by Shawangunk prison officials reporting that Bastone “was engaged in inappropriate activities with an incarcerated individual.”
Mailey said “OSI promptly dispatched investigators to the facility to conduct an investigation, which resulted in Ms. Bastone confessing to the sexual offenses, smuggling in contraband and other misconduct, for which she was charged. Ms. Bastone provided OSI her resignation.”
DOCCS contacted state police who then arrested Bastone, Mailey said.
“The Department will not tolerate sexual abuse in the State’s correctional facilities,” Mailey said. “In recent years, DOCCS has invested in the expansion of our staff dedicated to the prevention of sexual victimization, and to ensuring appropriate response when a report is made, and has reorganized the Office of Special Investigations to provide a more robust response to reports of misconduct including allegations of sexual abuse. If anyone is found to have committed a crime inside a DOCCS’ facility, they will be held accountable and where appropriate referred for potential prosecution.”
The Shawangunk Correctional Facility at 200 Quick Road just outside the hamlet of Wallkill is a maximum security men’s prison, according to the DOCCS website.
State police did not immediately release additional information.