a public defender

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The Bureau of Justice Statistics released a new study [pdf] over the weekend, this one reporting on sexual victimization in Federal and State prisons. The results:

• An estimated 60,500 inmates (or 4.5% of all State and Federal inmates) experienced one or more incidents of sexual victimization involving other inmates or staff.
• Nationwide, about 2.1% of inmates reported an incident involving another inmate and 2.9% reported an incident involving staff.
• Among the 146 prison facilities in the 2007 NIS, 6 had no reports of sexual victimization from the sampled inmates; 10 had an overall victimization rate of at least 9.3%.
• Among the 10 facilities with the highest overall prevalence rates, 3 had prevalence rates of staff sexual misconduct that exceeded 10%.

The study itself is worth a read. Prison sexual assault is quite prevalent and needs to be addressed. Combined with the prevalence of STDs in prisons, at the very least States should make condoms available.