Shock study: 12% of kids sexually abused in govt. custody

Shock study: 12% of kids sexually abused in govt. custody: "

Some 12 percent of minors held in government custody are sexually
abused, and in some facilities the rate reaches a stunning one in three
children, says a report released Thursday by the Bureau of Justice
Statistics.

The first-ever National Survey of Youth in Custody
found that no less than 10 percent of the 26,550 juveniles being held
in detention facilities in the US are abused by staff at the facility,
while another 2.6 percent report abuse at the hands of other inmates.

Among the facilities studied were six identified to have rates of sexual abuse as high as three in 10. According to
the Associated Press, those six facilities are Pendleton Juvenile
Correctional Facility in Indiana; Corsicana Residential Treatment
Center in Texas; Backbone Mountain Youth Center in Swanton, Maryland;
Samarkand Youth Development Center in Eagle Springs, North Carolina.;
Cresson Secure Treatment Unit in Pennsylvania; and the Culpeper
Juvenile Correctional Center, Long Term, in Mitchells, Virginia.

“The widespread sexual abuse of children in juvenile facilities
shows that public officials either aren’t paying attention or can’t be
bothered to do the right thing,” said Jamie Fellner,
senior counsel for Human Rights Watch. “The high rates of victimization
are powerful testimony to the failure of governments to safeguard the
boys and girls in their care.”

The study was mandated by a 2003 law, the National Prison Rape
Elimination Act, which also created the National Prison Rape
Elimination Commission. Human Rights Watch notes that six months ago
the commission set out “comprehensive, effective standards for the
prevention, detection, and punishment of prison rape,” but the Justice
Department has yet to act on those recommendations.

“Every day Attorney General Eric Holder fails to promulgate national
prison rape elimination standards is another day in which kids and
adults are being abused behind bars,” Fellner said. “The attorney
general already has on his desk proposed standards that reflect the
best thinking and effective practices to end this widespread scourge.
There is no need to reinvent the wheel or to delay moving forward.”

The survey found that gay youth were at higher risk than
heterosexual youth, with one in five reporting abuse at the hands of a
staffer or fellow inmate. Males were more likely to report being abused
than females (10.8 percent to 4.7 percent). And 95 percent of those
abused by staff reported that the abuser was female. But that number
may be influenced by the fact that 91 percent of youth in custody are
male.

The AP reports:

Although advocates said the level of abuse wasn’t
surprising, the prevalence of sexual abuse by staff, particularly
female workers, was shocking, said Linda McFarlane, deputy executive
director of Just Detention International, which fights to end sexual
abuse of those who are detained.

“Many of these are already the most vulnerable and traumatized youth
from all of our communities and they’re placed for custody because
they’re considered to be a danger,” she said. “If sexually abused in
those very institutions that are supposed to help them prepare for life
in the community, then it’s just an incredible travesty.”

The Associated Press also notes that sex abuse by staffers was
higher in state-run facilities than in privately-run or municipal
detention centers, and smaller facilities appear to have lower abuse
rates than larger ones.

The study investigated a 12-month period, and was carried out from June, 2008, to April, 2009.

Source: infowars

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