Prison Rape is not a Joke
By Zachary Gappa | Posted in Blog | Sep-02-2010 | Leave A Comment
The Bureau of Justice Statistics recently released a report on sexual abuse in prisons and jails across the United States. The results aren’t pretty (click here to read the summary):
According to the BJS, 4.4 percent of prison inmates and 3.1 percent of jail inmates reported having experienced one or more incidents of sexual victimization by other inmates and/or staff at their current facility in the preceding 12 months. While some suffered a single assault, others were raped repeatedly: on average, victims were abused three to five times over the course of the year.
These surveys are done via in-person drop-by one day visits to jails or prisons. Given the traffic in and out of many prisons and jails throughout a year, the real number of people abused is much higher than the 88,500 yearly Americans recorded in the report.
Surprisingly, inmate on inmate abuse in female prisons was more than twice as common as the same abuse in male prisons, and men and women inmates are both more likely to be abused by prison staff than by fellow prisoners. This latter detail is particularly shocking and should raise our collective ire. Sexual abuse is not some form of punishment – it is not “getting what’s coming to you.” Punishments are set by a jury and judge – they do not include sexual abuse.
Sexual abuse degrades the prisoner. It is an attack on their human dignity, and it will scar them in an inhumane way. It is cruel and barbaric, and it should not be encouraged, entertained, or made light of by anyone. It is not justice – it subverts justice by striking at the core of human dignity.
Read more on this study via Just Detention International.



