Legal Research

27,000 Jail Sex Incidents Cited By Small Proportion of Inmates

By David Badertscher, PLL

Source: Crime and Justice News, June 25, 2008.

"About 1.6 percent of jail inmates (12,100 nationwide) reported a sexual incident involving another inmate in the previous six month, and 2 percent (15,200) reported an incident involving staff, the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics said today. A majority of inmate-on- inmate victimization occurred most often in the victim's cell (56 percent); much staff-on-inmate victimization occurred in a closet, office, or other locked room. "

"An estimated 5.1 percent of female inmates, compared to 2.9 percent of male inmates, said they had experienced one or more incidents of sexual victimization. The data were collected last year from a sample of more than 40,000 inmates in 282 local jails. The report and appendix tables provide a listing of results for sampled local jails, as required under the 2003 federal Prison Rape Elimination Act."

U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics

Full post as published by New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library on June 25, 2008 (boomark / email).