Published horrific violence statistics in US prisons

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American edition Mother Jones published an investigation that reveals violence statistics in US prisons. After surveys, it turned out that every fifth inmate speaks of attacks from cellmates. Article translation leads Inosmi.

Security is a problem for all prisons, however, it is very difficult to obtain accurate information about violence in prisons. Take a look at what we know about physical and sexual violence in American correctional facilities, and what happened in a private prison in Louisiana where Shane Bower worked (Shane Bauer) (the reporter Mother Joneswho worked as a warden in this prison for four months).

Physical abuse behind bars

• 19% of all male prisoners in US prisons say they have been physically abused by inmates.

• 21% says they were beaten by wardens.

• According to official data, there were at least 2011 8 cases of rape and other sexual harassment in all US prisons in the 800 year.

• However, between three and nine percent of male prisoners say that they were sexually abused while in jail. This indicates that the number of victims of sexual violence is much more and amounts to 180 thousand people.

• According to the testimony of former prisoners, in private prisons in the states, inmates are sexually harassed by neighbors twice as often as in state ones. However, they are twice as likely to be sexually abused by staff.

• 66% of cases of illegal sexual behavior by prison staff involve “consensual” sexual relations with prisoners, authorities note.

Women

• Women make up 7% of the total prison population.

• They constitute 22% of the number of victims of sexual abuse by cellmates.

• They constitute 33% of the number of victims of sexual abuse by prison staff.

Private and public prisons

To date, there are no relevant comparative data on violence in public and private prisons. The last study on this topic was conducted by the Ministry of Justice in the 2001 year, and it revealed that prisoners attacked each other in private prisons by 38% more often than in public ones.

Wynn Correction Center Violence

Working at the start of 2015 as a warden in the prison of the Winn Correctional Center, Shane Bower recorded 12 attacks with a knife in two months. However, according to official data from the Louisiana State Penitentiary Department, the center reported only five cases of knife attacks in the first 10 months of the year. (Winn Correctional Center reports that it reports all attacks, but these incidents can be classified differently in documents.)

• For 10 months, prisoners were found to have 114 weapons in the center of Winn - almost three times more than in the Allen State Correctional Center, which is a general prison of about the same size.

• The staff of the Winn Correctional Center used “direct” force 40 times more often than guards at a similar state prison in the Avoils district.

• In the Winn Center, there were three times more cases of use of pepper gas and other chemicals against prisoners than in Allen and Avoils prisons.

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