On August 26, 2010 the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) released the findings of its study on sexual abuse in American prisons and jails. The study found that 4.4 percent of prison inmates, and 3.1 percent of jail inmates reported that they had been the victim of sexual abuse during the past 12 months. The sexual assaults were perpetrated by other prisoners and/or staff members. The average assault rate was three to five times in a period of one year. Although alarming in numbers, the adult abuse rate is far lower than the 12% sexual abuse rate for juveniles reported by the BJS in January 2010, which means that one in eight juveniles was a victim.
Just Detention International, an organization that calls for the end of sexual abuse in all areas of detention, believes that the statistics gathered by the BJS are just the tip of the iceberg. Just Detention claims that because the annual admissions to county jails are far higher than the average daily numbers, only a small number of inmates were surveyed. Another reason for believing the statistics are low is that some prisoners may be too afraid, or too embarrassed to report incidents of sexual abuse.
Those more likely to be victims of sexual abuse were those with a past history of sexual abuse, and those who identify themselves as gay or cross-gendered, according to the report. Female-to-female sexual assault was twice as high as male-to-male, and surprising to some, male facilities had a higher incidence of staff sexual misconduct. The BJS reported that in prisons and jails males and females were most likely to be abused by staff members than by other inmates, and that staff members were usually the opposite sex of their victims.
In 2003 the Prison Rape Elimination ACT (PREA) called for prisons and jails to provide surveys to inmates concerning sexual abuse at their facility. The August 26, 2010 survey named the facilities with the highest and lowest rates of sexual abuse. Fluvanna Correctional Center in Virginia, a female facility, was ranked as one for the highest for both inmate-to-inmate, and staff-to-inmate sexual misconduct. For male prisons with inmate-to-inmate abuse, three Texas facilities ranked highest, and Orleans Parish (LA), Madison County (AL), Miami-Dade (FL), and Houston (TX) were rated the worst jails. The New York Department of Corrections has the highest rate of abuse by staff members in both male and female prisons. The highest rate of sexual misconduct by staff members in jails was found in Caroline County Jail (MD), Eastern Shore Regional Jail (VA), and Clallam County Correctional Facility (WA).
In an effort to prevent further incidents of sexual abuse in prisons and jails, the Justice department is looking over proposed national standards. These standards were mandated by the PREA, but Attorney General Eric Holder missed the ratifying deadline of June 23,2020, and a new date has not been set.
The proposed national standards include limiting cross-gender supervision, training staff and educating inmates about sexual abuse, providing medical and mental health treatment to victims of sexual abuse, and conducting regular independent and external audits that would hold the facilities accountable for failing to protect inmates from sexual abuse.
When Attorney General Holder finally issues the standards, the federal prison system will implement them immediately, while states and local facilities will have to comply within one year or lose five percent of correctional funding from the federal government.
Until then ,says Lovisa Stannow, executive director of Just Detention International, “Every day that the Attorney General doesn’t finalize the national standards is another day of anguish among prison rape survivors.”
Source: Just Detention International
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