A former drug and alcohol counselor who worked at two state prisons has been charged with having sexual relations with three inmates she treated.
Leean Harkins, 35, now of Schwenksville, Montgomery County, was charged with three counts of institutional sexual assault. Two of the incidents occurred in 2001 and '02 at the State Correctional Institution at Pittsburgh, known as Western Penitentiary, in the Woods Run section of the North Side. The other occurred at Graterford correctional institution in Philadelphia.
Harkins faces a preliminary hearing Sept. 29 before North Side District Justice Robert Ravenstahl.
Harkins started working at Western Pen in March 2001 as an employee of an agency contracted by the Department of Corrections, officials said.
She moved to Graterford as a department employee in February 2002 and was suspended this month.
Harkins' estranged husband told investigators he was visiting his son at the defendant's Schwenksville apartment in August 2002 when he found letters, cards and photographs that indicated she had sexual involvement with inmates, according to affidavits of probable cause.
Investigators with the Department of Corrections' Office of Professional Responsibility interviewed the inmates, who admitted having sexual relations with Harkins during drug and alcohol counseling in her office, the affidavits said.
During an Aug. 7 interview at Graterford, Harkins admitted having sexual relations with two of the three inmates, investigators said.
