State Facilitation of Sexual Assault of the Incacerated and Detained
As commented earlier by Cindy Soohoo, prison sexual assault continues to be a serious problem despite the passage of the Prison Rape Elimination Act in 2003. Prison rape is a grossly underreported crime for several reasons. One is fear of retaliation by the perpetrators. Another is that complaining prisoners are often placed in solitary confinement for “safety” reasons. Whether for prisoner protection or punishment, the isolation of solitary confinement is torturous. Despite these reporting limitations, according to the Bureau of Justice, in 2013 approximately 4% of state and federal inmates reported having been sexually assaulted. When one considers that conservatively 4% of prisoners are sexually assaulted, and that the incarcerated population is 2.2 million, the minimum number of prisoners sexually assaulted while incarcerated is over 80,000.
While some assaults were by other inmates, the majority were perpetrated by correctional facility staff. Juveniles report a nearly 10% rate of sexual assault, and this statistic does not include sexual assaults of immigrant juveniles held in detention pending a hearing with the Board of Immigration Appeals. Most juveniles report multiple assaults. Of those juveniles held in state or federal facilities, one in five reports 11 or more sexual assaults. Staff is reported to be the overwhelming perpetrators of sexual assault of minors. With increasing incarceration in the United States, prison overcrowding and the wholesale detention of immigrant juveniles, sexual assault rates of incarcerated and detained minors will likely increase.
Incarcerated individuals who experience mental illness, transgender individuals and juveniles are particularly vulnerable to sexual assault.
The majority of sexual violence against incarcerated men and women are state employees. The state is a direct actor in perpetrating this sexual torture. By sending persons convicted of crime, those awaiting trial and those detained pending immigration hearings to facilities that are known to be unsafe, the state is complicit in the sexual assaults. “ …[I]f a person is to be transferred or sent to the custody or control of an individual or institution known to have engaged in torture or ill-treatment, or has not implemented adequate safeguards, the State is responsible, and its officials subject to punishment for ordering, permitting or participating in this transfer contrary to the State’s obligation to take effective measures to prevent torture in accordance with article 2, paragraph 1.”
Editor’s note: This post is part of the shadow report on domestic violence and sexual assault submitted as part of the review of U.S. compliance with the Convention Against Torture.