Although several years old, I recently stumbled across this multimedia New York Times series discussing sex offenders and civil commitment. The articles are available in three parts: part 1 | part 2 | part 3. The multimedia feature can be viewed here. Though popular with legislators, the article finds doubts about the effectiveness of civil commitment.
August 2010
August 30, 2010
DOJ Issues Report on Prison Rape
As required by the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003, the Department of Justice released an interesting report entitled: Sexual Victimization in Prisons and Jails Reported by Inmates, 2008-2009. The Act requires DOJ's Bureau of Justice Statistics to: (1) conduct "a comprehensive statistical review and analysis of the incidents and effects of prison rape for each calendar year," and (2) "provide a list of prisons and jails according to the prevalence of sexual victimization." From TalkLeft:
90,000 inmates, more than 4 percent of prison inmates and over 3 percent of jail inmates, reported being sexually victimized in custody.
Female inmates were more than twice as likely as male inmates to report experiencing sexual victimization by another inmate.
Among inmates who reported victimization by another inmate, 13 percent of male prison inmates and 19 percent of male jail inmates said they were victimized within the first 24 hours after being admitted to a corrections facility. In contrast, the figure for women was 4 percent for prison and jail.
Inmates with a sexual orientation other than heterosexual reported significantly higher rates of inmate-on-inmate sexual victimization and staff sexual misconduct.
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