Explain several findings of the Prison Rape Elimination Act associated with female inmates.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

In 2014, more than 7,600 prisons, jails, community-based facilities, and juvenile correctional facilities nationwide were covered by the PREA. Among the findings of the 2014 data collection and analyses were the following: Administrators of adult correctional facilities reported 8,763 allegations of sexual victimization in 2011, a statistically significant increase over the 8,404 allegations reported in 2010 and 7,855 in 2009. The number of allegations has risen since 2005, largely due to increases in prisons, where allegations increased from 4,791 allegations to 6,660 in 2011 (up 39%). In 2011, 902 allegations of sexual victimization (10%) were substantiated (i.e., determined to have occurred on investigation). State prison administrators reported 537 substantiated incidents of sexual victimization in 2011, up 17% from 459 in 2005. About 52% of substantiated incidents of sexual victimization in 2011 involved only inmates, while 48% of substantiated incidents involved staff with inmates. Injuries were reported in about 18% of incidents of inmate-on-inmate sexual victimization and in less than 1% of incidents of staff sexual victimizations. Females committed more than half of all substantiated incidents of staff sexual misconduct and a quarter of all incidents of staff sexual harassment. Clearly, administrators must be concerned with issues related to sexual assault in prisons and jails. As can be seen from the results of the 2014 data, these assaults are completed by both women and men, and they are also completed by both inmates and staff, in nearly equal numbers.