Denver ? A federal judge was so appalled that a former Colorado prison guard accused of raping an inmate was allowed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor that he imposed $1.3 million in damages in the inmate’s civil lawsuit — a message advocates hope will pressure corrections officials nationwide to protect prisoners from sexual misconduct.

“It sends a strong message to the agency and also individual correctional officers that there’s not going to be immunity to violating the constitutional rights of people they’re required to safeguard,” said Brenda Smith, a member of the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission.

The Denver Women’s Correctional Facility inmate said the former guard coerced her into a five-month sexual relationship and sodomized her when she began refusing his advances, according to court documents.

The former guard pleaded guilty in 2008 to misdemeanor unlawful sexual contact and was sentenced to 60 days in jail.

U.S. District Judge David Ebel in June called the plea deal “simply egregious,” and said the man and some fellow corrections officers “are in need of a strong punitive award in this case to cure them of their disrespect for the law.”

The Bureau of Justice Statistics estimated in 2007 that 38,600 inmates of both genders in federal and state prisons had experienced sexual misconduct by staff. That equals about 2.9 percent of the national prison population.