Sexual Victimization in State and Federal Prisons Reported by Inmates, 2007

Presents data from the National Inmate Survey (NIS), 2007, conducted in 146 State and Federal prisons between April and August 2007, with a sample of 23,398 inmates. The report and appendix tables provide a listing of State and Federal prisons ranked according to the incidence of prison rape, as required under the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 (P.L. 108-79). Facilities are listed by the prevalence and incidence of sexual victimization in each facility, as reported by inmates during a personal interview and based on activity since admission to the facility or in the 12 months prior to the interview. The report includes national-level and facility-level estimates of nonconsensual sexual acts, abusive sexual contacts, inmate-on-inmate and staff-on-inmate victimization, and level of coercion. It also includes estimates of the standard error for selected measures of sexual victimization. Data from jail inmates collected in the National Inmate Survey will be completed in January 2008, with a report ranking facilities expected in April 2008. Highlights include the following: An estimated 60,500 inmates (or 4.5% of all State and Federal inmates) experienced one or more incidents of sexual victimization involving other inmates or staff. Nationwide, about 2.1% of inmates reported an incident involving another inmate and 2.9% reported an incident involving staff. Among the 146 prison facilities in the 2007 NIS, 6 had no reports of sexual victimization from the sampled inmates; 10 had an overall victimization rate of at least 9.3%. Among the 10 facilities with the highest overall prevalence rates, 3 had prevalence rates of staff sexual misconduct that exceeded 10%.