In 1998, at the age of 15, Jessica Gonzalez became the youngest person ever convicted of murder in an adult court in Rhode Island.

She’s gained more notoriety behind bars in recent weeks as correctional officers to prison staff wonder how she escaped discipline after allegedly having sex with a supervisor at her work-release job.

Corrections Director A. T. Wall says Gonzalez is not receiving any special treatment.

And the point may soon be moot: Gonzalez is being paroled this month.

Last week three members of the state Parole Poard met with Gonzalez and reaffirmed an earlier decision to release her this month. She will have served 10 years of her 45-years-to-serve sentence.

The allegations of Gonzalez’s sexual fraternization did reach the Parole Board, said board member Kenneth Walker — “There was some prison investigation” — but he said he couldn’t recall whether he or the two other members at last week’s meeting — Rick Reamer or Thomas Verdi — asked Gonzalez about the allegations.

“We went back, talking about the crime of years ago,” Walker said. “We looked at her as a child being sentenced to such a long time, so the board thought it was time for her to go.”

Gonzalez was only 13 when, on a September evening in 1996, she shot and killed 23-year-old Maria Rivera, a single mother.

The slaying happened only a few hours after the former roommates had a fistfight in the Elmwood section of Providence; Gonzalez accused Rivera of trying to steal her boyfriend.

Later, Gonzalez took her mother’s boyfriend’s car and drove to Rivera’s apartment, on Wesleyan Avenue, where police said at the time she called Rivera over to the driver’s window and shot her between the eyes.

Prosecutors agreed to reduce the original charge of first-degree murder, which carried a mandatory life sentence, to second-degree murder. A superior court judge sentenced Gonzalez to serve 45 years of a 60-year sentence.

Parole Board minutes show the board wanted Gonzalez released in time to take classes part time at the Community College of Rhode Island.

While on work release, Gonzalez served as a maintenance worker at an East Providence elderly care center. She was removed from the center earlier this summer when it was learned she was having sex with a center employee who was also her supervisor, Wall said.

She was not booked for a disciplinary infraction, said Wall, because standard correctional practice puts the responsibility — and blame — of such behavior on the inmate’s supervisor. There is no discussion of whether the sex was consensual or not, he said.

“The fact is whoever supervises an inmate has power and authority over the offender. The imbalance of power is enormous because an offender is under confinement, under sentence and consent is never an acceptable explanation under those situations.”

“It is standard practice, not only in our department but in correctional agencies across the nation, that when an inmate is involved in staff sexual misconduct, the inmate is not disciplined.”

The standard applies even in cases such as this where the supervisor was not a corrections employee but a worker at the center, serving as a supervisor.

“They have dominion over the offender. It’s their job to set the limits and that duty can never be delegated to an inmate. We would make no exception, whether the inmate is male or female. We never have, It is always the responsibility of the supervisor to maintain a professional distance and boundaries with the inmates whether it is our staff or someone under contract or someone in the community

Wall noted a second female inmate who had also engaged in sex at the center was not disciplined.

The incidents prompted the Corrections Department to end its work-release relationship with the center.

tmooney@projo.com