NEWSBYLINDA MCFARLANE

When the government removes someone’s liberty, it takes on an absolute responsibility to keep that person safe, including from sexual abuse. This is a difficult task and, unfortunately, prison officials nationwide are failing at this responsibility all too often.

In inmate surveys conducted in 2007, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) found that 4.5 percent (or 60,500) of the more than 1.3 million inmates held in federal and state prisons had been sexually abused in the previous year alone and that nearly 25,000 jail detainees had been sexually abused in the previous six months. These surveys were snapshots, reaching only inmates present on a particular day. As the annual number of admissions to county jails is 17 times higher than the jail population on any day, the BJS data represent just the tip of the iceberg.

There is hope, however. Last month, the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission (NPREC) released its recommendations for the first-ever binding national standards addressing sexual abuse in U.S. prisons and jails. Mandated by the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003, the standards address core prison management issues, such as staff training, inmate education, housing, investigations, and medical and mental health care in the aftermath of an assault. The U.S. Attorney General has until June 23, 2010 (one year from the release of the standards) to codify them into federal regulation.