Corrections Officer Sentenced To Prison For Sex With Inmate

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A former corrections officer in northern Minnesota has been sentenced Monday for having sex with an inmate multiple times late last year, the Itasca County Attorney's Office announced.

James Bongaarts, of Tower, Minn., was specifically sentenced to 65 months in prison, which is about 5-and-a-half-years. He was immediately taken into custody following the hearing.

In late March, Bongaarts pleaded guilty to two felony counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct, according to the Itasca County Attorney's Office.

Last November, Bongaarts, 56, was charged with seven felony counts after he admitted to investigators that he had sex with a female inmate multiple times in a correctional facility in Togo, Minn.

When investigators spoke with the inmate, she said that she had sex (or tried to have sex) with Bongaarts multiple times.

In addition to prison time, the court also ordered Bongaarts to provide a DNA sample, register as a predatory offender and be subject to lifetime conditional release.