Sexual Violence In Prisons Escalating

Rape, sexual harassment and violence in US jails were on the rise in 2006, not exactly a shock to most of us, however the perpetrators of these violent sex crimes might be eye-brow raising.

When most people are told that sex crimes are being carried out against inmates, we shrug our shoulders and say, "yeah, what else is new" however what would the average reaction be if you were told that the Prison Guards were responsible for

over half

of those horrendous acts? The United States Justice Department released a report yesterday, which made those claims. In sheer numbers, 6,528 cases of sexual violence were reported last year in US prisons, a 4.5 percent increase over 2005 and a 21 percent increase over 2004, which is when the burueau of prisons began tracking reports of prison sex crimes. Part of the increase may be the result of a growing tendency among inmates to report incidents as victims or witnesses, said the report, noting that 55 percent of allegations were "unsubstantiated" and 29 percent "unfounded." Of all incidents, 36 percent involved "staff sexual misconduct" toward inmates, consensual and nonconsensual, and 17 percent staff sexual harassment. 34 percent had to do with the always popular "inmate-on-inmate" nonconsensual sex acts, and 13 percent with abusive sexual contacts between inmates. The sexual contact "appeared to be willing" in 57 percent of incidents of staff sexual misconduct and harassment, the report said, another oddity, was an addition in the report which said that "staff perpetrators" were 58 percent female in federal prisons, but only 20 percent in state facilities. Recent statistics rank the U.S. as #1 in the world in prison population with 2.24 million people behind bars as of mid-2006