ALLEGATIONS OF SEXUAL VICTIMIZATION IN ADULT CORRECTIONAL FACILITIES NEARLY TRIPLED FROM 2011 TO 2015

"Correctional administrators reported 24,661 allegations of sexual victimization in prisons, jails and other adult correctional facilities in 2015, according to the most recent data available from the Bureau of Justice Statistics. The number of allegations in 2015 nearly tripled from 8,768 in 2011.
                                           
This increase coincided with the implementation of the National Standards to Prevent, Detect, and Respond to Prison Rape in 2012. The standards require correctional facilities to educate staff and inmates on sexual victimization, refer all allegations for investigation, track the information collected in BJS’s Survey of Sexual Victimization and provide the information on request.

Most of the increase in allegations was due to an increase in unfounded (determined not to have occurred) and unsubstantiated (insufficient evidence to determine if it occurred) allegations. Of the 24,661 allegations of sexual victimization in 2015, 1,473 were substantiated (determined to have occurred)—a 63 percent increase from the 902 substantiated incidents in 2011.

Fifty-eight percent of substantiated incidents of sexual victimization in 2015 were perpetrated by inmates, while 42 percent were perpetrated by staff members.

During the 4-year aggregated period of 2012-15, there were a total of 67,169 allegations of sexual victimization in correctional facilities. Investigations were completed for 61,322 of these allegations, and 5,187 allegations (8 percent) were substantiated.

Between 2011 and 2015, the increase in allegations and substantiated incidents of sexual victimization occurred across all types of correctional facilities. The number of allegations in prisons increased 180 percent (from 6,660 to 18,666), and the number in jails increased 184 percent (from 2,047 to 5,809). The number of substantiated incidents in jails more than doubled, from 284 in 2011 to 576 in 2015, while the number of substantiated incidents in prisons rose 44 percent, from 605 to 873..."

Sexual abuse & adult prisons

Correctional Populations in the United States: 2016

"Presents statistics on persons supervised by U.S. adult correctional systems at year-end 2016, including persons supervised in the community on probation or parole and those incarcerated in state or federal prison or local jail. The report describes the size and change in the total correctional population during 2016. Appendix tables provide statistics on other correctional populations and jurisdiction-level estimates of the total correctional population by correctional status for selected years.

Highlights:

• In 2016, the number of persons supervised by U.S. adult correctional systems dropped for the ninth consecutive year. 
• From 2007 to 2016, the portion of the adult population under supervision of U.S. correctional systems decreased by 18%, from 3,210 to 2,640 per 100,000 adult residents. 
• The percentage of adults supervised by the U.S. correctional system was lower in 2016 than at any time since 1993. 
• The incarceration rate has declined since 2009 and is currently at its lowest rate since 1996. 
• On December 31, 2016, an estimated 6,613,500 persons were supervised by U.S. adult correctional systems, about 62,700 fewer persons than on January 1, 2016..."
  Corrections statistics

Corrrections population in the United States: 2014

"At yearend 2014, an estimated 6,851,000 persons were under the supervision of U.S. adult correctional systems, a decline of about 52,200 from 6,903,200 at yearend 2013 (figure 1). After peaking at 7,399,600 persons in 2007, the correctional population decreased each year by an average of 1.0%. By yearend 2014, the population declined by 0.8% to the lowest level observed in more than a decade (6,886,800 in 2003). About 1 in 36 adults in the United States was under some form of correctional supervision at yearend 2014. This was the lowest rate observed since 1996 (5,531,300) when about 1.3 million fewer offenders were under correctional supervision (not shown)..."
Correctional population

Correctional Populations In The United States, 2009
"Presents summary data on the number of adults under some form of correctional supervision in the United States at yearend 2009. Correctional supervision includes adults supervised in the community on probation or parole and those incarcerated in prison or local jails. The report provides a comparison between the change in the correctional population observed since 2000 and the changes observed during the 1980s and 1990s, which illustrates the slowing of growth in the population during each decade. It also includes the number of men and women under each correctional status and trend analysis of men and women under correctional supervision since 1990..."
View full report.

Sexual Violence Reported by Juvenile Correctional Authorities, 2005-06
"Presents data from the 2005 and 2006 Survey on Sexual Violence, an administrative records collection of incidents required under the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 (Public Law 108-79) of youth-on-youth and staff-on-youth sexual violence reported to juvenile correctional authorities. The report provides counts of sexual violence, by type, for juvenile correctional facilities. The report also provides an in-depth analysis of substantiated incidents, including where the incidents occur, time of day, number and characteristics of victims and perpetrators, nature of the injuries, impact on the victims and sanctions imposed on the perpetrators. The appendix tables include counts of sexual violence, by type, for all state systems, and all sampled locally or privately operated facilities.

Highlights include the following:

* Approximately 1 in 5 of reported allegations of juvenile sexual violence were substantiated.
* Youth-on-youth incidents were more likely to occur in the victim’s room (37%) or in a common area (32%), compared to staff-on-youth incidents (7% and 13%, respectively).
* Victims received physical injuries in 12% of substantiated incidents of youth-on-youth sexual violence; about half received some form of medical follow-up."