A report issued yesterday by the Bureau of Justice Statistics exposed the shockingly high rate at which incarcerated juveniles are being raped and sexually abused by staff members. The average rate of sexual abuse in juvenile detention facilities across the country is 12 percent, but some facilities have rates exceeding 30 percent. An article about the report can be found here.
In that report, the Justice Department identified 13 facilities which were designated as having a “high rate” of sexual abuse of juvenile prisoners. The 13 facilities were not rated in a specific ranking in comparison to each other due to statistical variations and the multiple factors involved. However, according to the report the juvenile facilities with the highest rates of sexual victimization are:
Pendleton Juvenile Corrections Facility - Pendleton, Indiana
Corsicana Residential Treatment Center - Corsicana, Texas
Victory Field Correctional Academy - Vernon, Texas
Indianapolis Juvenile Correctional Facility - Indianapolis, Indiana
Shawono Center - Grayling, Michigan
Samarkand Youth Development Center - Eagle Springs, North Carolina
Culpeper Juvenile Corrections Center, Long Term - Mitchells, Virginia
Woodland Hills youth Development Center - Davidson County, Tennessee
Backbone Mountain Youth Center - Swanton, Maryland
L.E.Rader Center - Sand Springs, Oklahoma
Bon Air Juvenile Corrections Center - Bon Air, Virginia
Cresson Secure Treatment Unit - Pennsylvania
New Jersey Training School - Monroe Township, New Jersey
It is hard to imagine what parents with children in these facilities must feel when the report indicates there is roughly a one in three chance that the child will be sexually abused by a staff member there. Juvenile detention facilities are supposed to be a place to rehabilitate troubled teens before it is too late, not to turn them into sex objects for exploitation by the staff.
The question that remains is whether the Justice Department will start prosecuting staff members at these facilities for their participation in what almost constitutes human sex trafficking. The government won’t hesitate to drag American sex tourists back to this country for prosecution, but what will they do with prison guards exploiting child prisoners here?
For more information on the report, click here. To read the report itself, click here.
For more info:
Incarcerated juveniles raped and sexually abused by inmates and prison staff at shockingly high rate
Justice study tracks rape, sexual abuse of juvenile inmates
Study: youths sexually abused in juvenile prisons
Report: Sex abuse high at 13 juvenile centers
Sexual Victimization in Juvenile Facilities Reported by Youth, 2008-09
Juvenile inmates sexually abused by female guards and staff members
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