WASHINGTON, Jan. 7 (UPI) -- About 12 percent of incarcerated youthful offenders were sexually abused at least once while in jail in 2008-2009, a U.S. Justice Department report indicated.
About 2.6 percent of youth reported an incident involving another youth, and 10.3 percent said a sexual encounter involved a facility employee, the department's Bureau of Justice Statistics said.
The report was mandated by the Prison Rape Elimination Act, the department said in a release.
The National Survey of Youth in Custody included reports by youth to incidents occurring in the last 12 months or since their admission to the facility if less than 12 months, the department said.
Citing the numbers of abuse instances in the report, Prison Fellowship Vice President Pat Nolan called on Attorney General Eric Holder to adopt standards holding prison officials accountable for ending the sexual violence.
"No crime -- no matter how heinous -- has a sentence that includes sexual assault," Nolan said.
The survey was conducted between June 2008 and April 2009 in 166 state-owned or -operated juvenile facilities and 29 locally or privately operated facilities. The department said it received 9,198 completed interviews.
Males were more likely than females to report sexual activity with facility staff -- 10.8 percent compared to 4.7 percent -- but less likely than females to report forced sexual activity with another youth -- 2.0 percent compared to 9.1 percent, the survey said.
About 4.3 percent of youth said they were forced to engage in sexual activities with staff, while 6.4 percent said their sexual contact with staff wasn't because of a threat or otherwise coerced.
Based on the percentages of youth reporting incidents, the study said 13 juvenile facilities had high rates of sex abuse and victimization, 11 facilities had low rates and five facilities had no reported incidents.
http://www.examiner.com/x-26875-St-Petersburg-Headlines-Examiner~y2010m1d8-Federal-survey-reports-youthful-inmates-are-sexual-victims
Update: I visited with Ted on January 10th and he told me that he wasn't aware of any sexual misconduct having taken place at Lancaster C.I. or Lancaster Work Camp. When Ted was 17, he was at Avon Park Youth Park, a medium-security juvenile detention facility. Avon Park did have such an incident before Ted was there: http://www.baynews9.com/content/36/2004/10/7/57628.html
No comments:
Post a Comment