rape

For many years, correctional officers in American prisons have been adamantly denying that rape is not an epidemic problem in our nation. However, prison rape is a rampant portion of the human rights crisis. The United States is less than 5 percent of the world’s population but yet it holds approximately a quarter of the world’s prisoners. America detains about 2 million inmates collectively in Federal and State prisons, local jails and county. Out of these inmates, over 20 percent have been sexually assaulted by other prisoners or corrections staff. Despite the statistics collected from the Bureau of Justice, a more accurate occurrence of sexual attacks for all prisoners is likely much higher. The humiliation of being raped and sexually assaulted causes victims to silence themselves and this is only intensified behind prison walls. The pressure to not report a sexual attack is much worse in prison where any indication of weakness will only aggravate further abuse. To make matters worse, when prisoners are being abused by staff members, they face grave consequences and retaliation. Many inmates are nonviolent offenders and most are suffering from drug addiction, mental illness or crushing poverty. Prison rape should not be an unpreventable feature of incarceration.

There are many problems that have arisen because of the prison rape crisis in America. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, “prison and jail administrators reported 8,763 cases of alleged sexual abuse of inmates 2011, representing an increase of 4 percent from the 8,404 that were reported in 2010 and an 11 percent jump from the 7,855 reported in 2009.” Accusations of rape and sexual assault concerning inmates are steadily rising, and correctional officer...

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...g amongst the prisons in the United States, so are health issues. Predictably, in an epidemic such as this, sexually transmitted disease rates are over-the-top. The rate of confirmed cases of inmates affected by AIDS amid federal and state prisons is approximately 2.4 times greater than the rate reported in the general US population. Per annum, a projected 1 in 7 persons affected with HIV is incarcerated at some time or another at a correctional facility. Many of these people acquired HIV are likely to pass it on once engaged in sexual contact within prison walls. Paralleled with those who have not been incarcerated, incarcerated inhabitants have higher risk factors that are related with attaining and transmitting HIV. Individuals affected have risks such as untreated mental illness, various types of drug abuse, commercial sex work, and lower socioeconomic status.