First ever National Survey of Prisoners

[Joanne98]

*First-Ever National Survey of Prisoners
Shows Widespread Sexual Abuse in Detention*

Stop Prisoner Rape, Los Angeles, December 16, 2007. A national survey
of
inmates, released today by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of

Justice Statistics (BJS), confirms that sexual abuse plagues American
prisons, derailing justice and shattering human dignity. According to
the report, an estimated 60,500 inmates held at state and federal
prisons were subjected to sexual abuse in the past year alone.

Today’s National Inmate Survey (NIS) is the first of its kind and
covers
more than 1.3 of the 2.4 million people currently in detention in the
United States. Detainees held at county jails, juvenile facilities, and

immigration detention centers were not included in the survey, nor were

prisoners at half-way houses. The research method used in the new
report
– asking prisoners directly and anonymously whether they had been
subjected to sexual abuse in the past 12 months – sets it apart from
previous attempts by the federal government to study the problem, which

have relied entirely on data submitted by corrections officials.

“We know from speaking daily with prisoner rape survivors that the
vast
majority will never file a formal complaint, for fear of retaliation,
stigma, or further abuse,” said Lovisa Stannow, Executive Director of

Stop Prisoner Rape (SPR). “Not surprisingly, today’s report
establishes
a 15 times higher rate of sexual abuse than an analysis of formal
inmate
complaints over a one-year period, published by the BJS four months
ago.”

Garrett Cunningham, a prisoner rape survivor from Texas and a member of

SPR’s Board of Directors, is a case in point. “After being raped by
a
prison guard, I was devastated and terrified. I felt sure that filing a

formal complaint with the perpetrator’s colleagues would only have
made
my situation worse.”

In today’s report, the BJS identifies the U.S. prisons with the
highest
and the lowest rates of sexual abuse. Alarmingly, five of the ten worst

facilities are prisons run by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice
(TDCJ). This finding confirms SPR’s own data, based on letters the
organization has received from some 900 prisoner rape survivors
nationwide; 20 percent of these letters come from men and women held in

TDCJ facilities.

SPR urges corrections officials across the country to consider
today’s
BJS report a wake-up call. “When the government makes the grave
decision
to remove a person’s liberty, it takes on the responsibility to
guarantee his or her physical safety,” said Ms. Stannow. “Whether
perpetrated by staff or by inmates, sexual abuse in detention is a
problem of poor prison policies and practices. It is not an inevitable
fact of life behind bars.”

-- An international human rights organization, Stop Prisoner Rape (SPR)

is the only group in the U.S. dedicated exclusively to eliminating
sexual violence against men, women, and youth in detention. SPR was
instrumental in securing passage of the Prison Rape Elimination Act
(PREA) of 2003, which mandated the BJS to conduct the NIS and publish
the report released today.

For more information, visit www.spr.org or call Lovisa Stannow at
213-384-1400 (ext. 103) or 310-617-4350 (cell).

[Miss Chybil]

1. “When the government makes the grave

decision to remove a person’s liberty, it takes on the responsibility to
guarantee his or her physical safety,” said Ms. Stannow.

Period.

[Joanne98]

3. True

[angrycarpenter]

2. conservatives like prisonrape

It's what they wish on everyone that goes to jail. We've all heard it said when a loathsome character gets convicted. It looks like it's mandatory in Texas.

[Joanne98]

4. True. They're scum!

[Dogmudgeon]

5. Without prison rape, what would stand-up comedians talk about?

The difference between NYC and LA?

How "Political Correctness" is the new Naziism?

Their impotence (M) and sluttiness (F)?

--p!

[Acumensch]

6. no one should be raped in prisons

Rape culture:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_culture