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The first National Former Prisoners
Survey, released May 17 by the Department of Justice (DOJ), reported almost 10
percent of former inmates said they were the victims of sexual abuse while
incarcerated. About 3.7 percent said they were forced to have sex with another
prisoner, while about 5.3 percent reported incidents involving staff members.
One-quarter of those victimized by
inmates said they had been restrained during the attack, and one-quarter were
physically injured. Twenty-three percent reported serious injuries, including
anal or vaginal tearing (12 percent), chipped or lost teeth (12 percent), being
knocked out (8 percent), internal injuries (6 percent), stab wounds (4 percent)
or broken bones (4 percent).
Men who have sex with men suffered
victimization at 10 times the rate of heterosexual men (3.5 percent of
heterosexuals, vs. 39 percent of homosexuals and 34 percent of bisexuals).
Half of those who reported being
victims of sexual misconduct by staffers said they had been offered special
privileges; one-third said they had been talked into participating. More than
three-quarters of these reports involved male inmates and female staff members.
All sexual contact between prisoners and staff is considered legally
nonconsensual; however, respondents characterized some of these encounters as
“willing.”
The survey includes responses from
518,000 former prisoners who were on supervised parole in mid-2008.
“For too long, incidents of sexual
abuse against incarcerated persons have not been taken as seriously as sexual
abuse outside prison walls,” DOJ said in a statement. “In popular culture,
prison rape is often the subject of jokes; in public discourse, it has been at
time dismissed by some as an inevitable - or even deserved - consequence of
criminality.”
Immediately after the report’s
release, the Obama administration announced new mandatory standards aimed at
reducing sexual victimization in correctional settings.
The Friends of AIDS Foundation is
dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and
empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV
virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.
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