Three Texas prison units and one jail (the largest) ranked among
correctional facilities where inmates are most likely to be sexually
victimized by either other inmates or correctional staff, according to a
new report by the US Department of Justice
(pdf, see the chart on page 12). Reportedly 6.3% of Harris county Jail
inmates are sexually victimized, according to DOJ's offender survey. The
percentages were 6.8%, 7.8% and 8.4% at Stiles, Clements and the Montford
psychiatric unit, respectively (with a 95% confidence rate, see the report for details and limitations on their methodology, etc.).
Another interesting
aspect: Extrapolating from national data on Table 8, p. 18 (these are all survey-based estimates), the number of heterosexual
victimizations perpetrated by staff more than doubled the number of
times that inmates were victimized by other inmates in same-sex
assaults, with an estimated 27,258 heterosexual incidents by staff
compared to 13,603 same-sex inmate-on-inmate incidents. Heterosexual
inmates are more likely to be victimized by staff. Gay inmates are more
likely to be victimized by other inmates.
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11 comments:
This just makes me ill. And what is being done about it.
This is a difficult problem that is difficult to track and manage. Obviously both under-and over-reporting occur and that is hard to correct.
Having been a correctional physician in Texas for 12 years, and have probably supervised at least 15000 unique inmates, in that time I have dealt with 3--count 'em--THREE complaints of sexual abuse. In none of those three was there any verifiable objective evidence. National statistics from government and advocacy organizations would make one suspect that the incidence is much greater than my experience; one would expect that despite the Safe Prisons Initiative there is still a reluctance to report due to fear of retaliation--inmates don't even like to admit to minor assaults, much less sexual victimization.
All of this is to say that this report makes me wonder if the facilities listed are really the WORST units for sexual assaults, or do they just do the BEST job of identifying and reporting their problems.
WASHINGTON – Prison and jail inmates identified with mental health problems reported higher rates of inmate-on-inmate sexual victimization ...
litigious society with plenty of dirtbag lawyers funded by the taxpayer to accommodate them, what else do you expect? go ahead and randomly interview local jail inmates, and you will find that real sexual assualts are all but non-existent in the local jails.
I wish I could agree with Prison Doc, but the inmates I talk to confirm that TDCJ still operates on the old system of "Fight or F**k". This practice is tolerated from the very highest levels, despite the sham shows of concern. And about a third of assaults are staff on inmate, but if caught the guard is often not even disciplined inside, let alone charged for the crime. It seems to me that every study of prison sex assaults put Texas in the top three always. If it were just an occasional outlier study, maybe that would be different. But TDCJ has always, as long as I can remember, been among the top 3 systems for sexual assault.
Well the Staff on Inmates sexual assaults are well covered up or complete denial, are very high on the Crain Unit. Someone should go down there and conduct a survey. But the inmates are never allowed to talk to people like the ACA or anyone else. The standard excuse from this unit is the inmates are always lying. It is common knowledge nothing will ever happen to an officer on this unit for this crime but the inmates who reports assaults are immediately take to AD SEG for punishment.
Why does this surprise anyone. Texas prisons are understaffed by THOUSANDS of officers. The new officers they are hiring are poorly trained and some have trouble speaking English. TDCJ is now forced to recruit employees from places like Nigeria to staff the units.
The legislature could care less about the staffing issues and deficiencies and corruption. Agency management and Republicans attacked Senator Whitmire for exposing them.
The Texas Legislature and Governor's Office were able to come up with a 40% raise for TDCJ's Executive Director, but only 5% over two years for correctional officers. This means correctional officers will average a 1.25% increase for a period of over 4 years, not enough to cover cost of living. To add further insult to injury, the rest of Texas law enforcement will receive a 20% raise.
Why East Texas Correctional officers continue to vote for their Republican candidates blows my mind. Even Huntsville's Republican State Representative John Otto failed to stand tall for correctional officers.
Q. "This just makes me ill. And what is being done about it." Hmm, as you can see, nothing. What can be done to prevent it should be your question.
A. Learn Self Defense in the freeworld. Or wait til the last minute and learn Shank Making 101, Master Sock & Soap Chucks, Whitling - Broom & Mop Handle Spears & Mop up with Mop Bucket Bats in a cage.
Beleive it or not the gaurds & the Lt. want you to protect yourself at all means. If you don't protect yourself and ask for AD Seg. they'll put you in the dorm full of 6 ft 3 fags and their punks. Therefore, you become just another punk.
Protect your self and don't allow anyone to assit or you'll owe a favor. Don't borrow or lend out or gamble or discuss yourself, your charges and family with anyone.
The prison doc is not your friend or ally, he / she is part of the problem due to being salaried and all. He / she isn't even on duty when the shit goes down. As you can see from above he / she is full of it by throwing three out of 15000 at us and thinking we are stupid enough to fall for it.
Ha. Only a quack would write such B.S. - "verifiable objective evidence" wasn't found!
First you have to perform a real inspection and take DNA samples (properly preserve them) with photos and write up a report, then contact the Warden's Office. Anything else is quackery. 15000 simply means you were moved around to various units.
And everyone knows that Prison Doctors don't "supervise" inmates. By using the phrase "Obviously both under-and 'over'-reporting occur" leads to more Qs regarding your title. You are probably a good guy but wasn't trained to deal with (male) rape victims so you just blew it off as annoying the Doc. and cashed a check until retirement day. Only you and the rape victims' know the truth.
GOVERNOR PERRY! LEAVE AUSTIN and take those stupid and retarded Legislators with you. A 5% pay raise for Correctional Officers? Are you all simply MAD?
Folks, PERRY has got to go and his dead-headed YES men do too.
They are ruining TEXAS with unfair labor decisions. I hope the Texas Correctional Officers take all of them to court all the way to the Supreme Court for unfair and illegal labor practices...they are not ABOVE GOD! They put their pants on one leg at a time like the rest of all Texans.
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