The state has agreed to pay $1.85 million to 30 female inmates and a corrections employee who accused former prison sergeant Douglas Tower of raping, assaulting or sexually harassing them.

The women will receive checks ranging from $6,000 to $228,000, said Assistant Attorney General Michael Brown yesterday. The payments settle the women's lawsuits against the state. They do not settle any claims brought against Tower personally.

Nor do they affect the 11 criminal trials Tower, 63, still faces over the sexual and physical assault of female inmates. Tower has already been convicted of six counts of rape and sexual assault against one female inmate and of physically assaulting another inmate.

Those assaults happened at Shea Farm halfway house in Concord. Tower is serving 20 to 40 years for the rape conviction alone.

The prison did not admit wrongdoing in the settlement reached yesterday. But Jeff Lyons, prison spokesman, said the prison has made several changes in light of the Tower investigation.

All office doors now have windows, so staff and inmates cannot be out of view. There are more cameras at Shea Farm, which has winding halls and remote living spaces. The department doubled security staff at Shea Farm and now has at least one female officer assigned to every shift, Lyons said.

Only female staff can perform security pat downs of female inmates. Similarly, only female staff can transport female inmates in prison vehicles. And when they make a trip, staff must record their mileage and travel time. Tower is accused of sexually assaulting some inmates while driving them alone, off grounds, in a prison vehicle.

The entire prison system has also adopted a rape-prevention program with the help of a $1 million federal grant, Lyons said. That money has allowed the prison to hire a rape and sexual assault investigator as well as a victim support advocate. Lyons said the number of sexual assault reports since the changes have been low, "in the single digits," and have included allegations against inmates but not against staff members.

Under the new system, staff and inmates are educated about rape prevention, and inmates are told how to report sexual assault or misconduct to prison authorities, Lyons said. Corrections staff are also given a polygraph test prior to being hired, rather than just a criminal background check.

Michael Sheehan, a Concord attorney who represented three of the women, said the changes were important to them.

"Part of the reason they came forward was so this wouldn't happen again," Sheehan said. And while the changes were not a requirement of the settlement, they were a result of the lawsuits.

"Unfortunately, that is the role we play as plaintiff's lawyers," Sheehan said. "One of the ways to force change is to bring these claims after bad things happen."

Richard Lehmann, another Concord attorney, represented 20 of the women included in yesterday's settlement. He said the awards were decided according to the seriousness of the abuse the women faced. He said his clients had not yet decided whether to proceed with their claims against Tower personally.

"I just hope that the Department of Corrections is serious about taking steps to ensure that this type of thing doesn't happen again," he said. "I believe they are."

The state and the women's lawyers negotiated the settlement for about a month, Brown said. The Associated Press reported that the women began negotiations seeking $4.5 million. Attorney John Garvey served as a mediator between the parties.

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