SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) - At least seven female prison inmates have reported they were sexually harassed or abused by corrections officers while in custody in Washington prisons, a newspaper investigation has found.

One staffer was fired; another resigned and was prosecuted, The Spokesman-Review newspaper reported.

Also, four other current or former female inmates filed a proposed class-action lawsuit last summer in Thurston County on behalf of an unknown number of women allegedly abused by staffers behind bars.

At the women's prison near Gig Harbor, "it appears that the guards believe that this is kind of like a fishing pond," said Brett Purtzer, a Tacoma attorney who's representing several other female inmates claiming sexual misconduct.

Not true, prison officials say.

"Sexual misconduct by correctional staff is a crime in this state and will not be tolerated," Department of Corrections spokesman Gary Larson said in a statement.

Washington runs three women's prisons. The Washington Correctional Center for Women near Gig Harbor can house as many as 738 offenders. In Medical Lake, the Pine Lodge Correctional Center for Women can handle 359 inmates. Mission Creek, near Bremerton, can hold 80 women.

According to the Department of Corrections, from January 2005 through last June, it received 202 allegations of sexual misconduct totaling 218 people of both sexes in Washington's prison system.

Of those, 46 percent involved staffers, and of those cases, 26 incidents were substantiated. The agency couldn't immediately say how many of those 26 cases involved women, the newspaper reported.

But a search of documents allowed the newspaper to uncover some cases involving women inmates.

In one case, Jeffrey Wayne Hill, 52, who had worked as a correctional officer for seven years, was spotted adjusting his pants as he came out of a restroom with a 28-year-old inmate in 2005.

An investigation revealed that the female inmate had written "love notes" to Hill, had allowed Hill to watch her shower and had once reached through the handcuff port of a cell door and grabbed his crotch. Confronted, the woman acknowledged that she and Hill had sex.

The woman filed a claim against the state, which paid her $45,000. Purtzer, her attorney, said the sex was wrong even if consensual.

"The problem is that there's a criminal statute precluding sexual contact with inmates," Purtzer said. "The guards have all the power out there."

Another former inmate told the newspaper she and Hill became sexually involved after her release from Pine Lodge. She said Hill repeatedly threatened to have her sent back to prison if she told anyone about the relationship.

Hill resigned last year, but was charged with custodial misconduct and official misconduct. In April, he pleaded guilty to both charges, ending up with two years probation and a suspended one-year prison sentence. He did not respond to a message seeking comment.

Also in 2005, investigators learned that another correctional officer, Donald Rhodes Baker, 52, "had directed numerous inappropriate comments toward female offenders" at Pine Lodge.

A 33-year-old woman said that while she was an inmate, she and Baker made plans to meet once she was released. They went to a motel a few days after her release. Then he sent the woman a letter.

"Thank you for allowing me to love you in such a way," it read.

When questioned, Baker denied ever touching her. He admitted getting the room but said he was alone. The letter just expressed his feelings, he said, not his actions.

Pine Lodge Superintendent Donna Cayer was not convinced.

"Your explanations regarding what occurred with all of the offenders were that of someone trying to twist the facts in order to diminish the severity of the situations," she wrote.

Baker was fired and now lives in Clallam Bay, Wash. He did not respond to a request for comment.

The allegations of the other women are similar, the newspaper reported.

The lawsuit contends inmates were fondled or made to perform oral sex. Several women reported that guards gave them gifts such as candy, soda, razors, lotion, hair gel or privileges if they would undress as the guards watched.

When the women report such abuse, correctional officials fail to properly investigate, the lawsuit alleged.