Almost one in 10 prisoners suffer sexual abuse while incarcerated in prisons, local jails and treatment facilities after the release, according to a report released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The report, based on the first prisoners old national survey, includes 518 800 former prisoners who were under conditional supervision in mid-2008.
About 3.7% said that they were forced or pressure for having non-consensual sex with another inmate. Approximately 5.3% reported an incident involving staff of the institution.
Publication of the report coincides with the publication of the Ministry of Justice of the landmark federal standards to protect detainees in all federal, State and local facilities under the prison rape elimination of 2003 Act.
"For too long, sexual assaults on prisoners were not taken as seriously as sexual abuse outside the walls of the prison," the Justice Department said in a statement on standards. "In popular culture, prison rape is often the object of jokes;" in public discourse, it was sometimes dismissed by some as an inevitable - or even deserved - consequence of crime. »
A quarter of those who reported that they had suffered sexual contacts unwanted at the hands of other inmates, said that they had been physically held down or restricted and a quarter had been injured or physically injured. Nearly a quarter (23%) reported serious injuries, including anal/vaginal tearing (12%), chipped or lost teeth (12%), in being thrown unconscious (8%), internal injuries (6%), knife and stab, injuries (4%) or fractures (4%), according to the survey of former prisoners.
Although all sexual contact between staff and detainees is legally non-consensual, former prisoners said incidents were reluctant and some were "ready."
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Most of the victims of the sexual misconduct of staff reported some type of constraint. Half said that they had been offered favours or special privileges and a third said that they had been spoken inside. About 7 to 8 in this category have reported only the authors of the opposite sex. More than three quarters of all acts of sexual misconduct reported personal involved a male detainee with female staff.
Rates of victimization by other inmates were reported by homosexuals (39%) and inmates male bisexual (34%) at the rate of about 10 times higher than those reported by heterosexual males (3.5%).
In other findings, the report said prisoners from two or more races (11.3%) and black Hispanics (6.5%) suffered a sexual victimization at rates higher than the held non-Hispanic whites (4.5%) and Hispanics (4%).
The investigation was part of the Bureau of Justice Statistics Prison rape National Programme of statistics, which collected records of reported sexual violence or allegations of sexual victimization directly from victims since 2004.
The new standards require an array of measures to prevent and handle sexual abuse involving prisoners, including additional staff, training, grievance, reporting systems, increased staff and video surveillance, invites the medical and psychological attention to victims and disciplinary action for staff or authors.
"The standards we set today take into account the fact that the crimes of sexual assault in correctional facilities can have devastating consequences - for the individual victims and communities beyond our prisons and prisons,"Attorney General Eric Holder, said in a press release.""
The standards will enter into force for federal facilities within 60 days. States that do not comply or demonstrate that they are trying to comply with the standards with the loss of relevant federal funding.
In the development of standards, Department of Justice was prohibited from placing an excessive financial burden on States. He collected the comments of the public and fought with representatives of States, a wide range of groups and other stakeholders, an official of the Ministry said, explaining why standards have been put in place nine years after the adoption of the Act.
"These standards are the result of a thoughtful and deliberate process - and represent a crucial step forward in protecting the rights and safety of all Americans,"holder said.""Most content of msnbc.com and NBC News:
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