Despite the prevalence of jokes about it in the
media and society at large, prison rape is no laughing matter. As many as 4% of state and federal prison inmates,
3.2% of jail inmates, and 1.8% of juveniles ages 16 to 17 have reported sexual
victimization by another inmate or facility staff in recent reports. From the assaults, the inmates have
reported not only physical abuse but also mental abuse, often at the hands
of prison guards who took advantage of their positions of power to engage in
sexual activity with inmates. As a
result, with millions currently incarcerated, hundreds of thousands of American
citizens have entered the criminal justice system to serve their time, only to
become victims themselves. Often a
population that is overlooked, a large portion of the population believes that
a prisoner is just a prisoner, and there is almost a tacit consent to sexual
misconduct in prisons where
people view prison rape as inherent to jail time. Fortunately, in the interest of preserving human
rights, civil liberties, and a constitutional commitment to preventing cruel
and unusual punishment, in 2003 the United States passed the Prison Rape
Elimination Act (PREA) to address the rights of a population often overlooked.
With this effort on behalf of the government, one question remains: is it enough?
