the shame of our prisons

[donsu]

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3006309

Records show surge in sexual attacks in prisons


Sexual assaults in state prisons are up sharply, with hundreds of inmates reporting that they were attacked by cellmates or corrections officers.

The number of reported sexual assaults in Texas prisons has increased 160 percent, to 609 in 2004 from 234 in 2000, according to state records.

At least 129 Texas prisoners have alleged that they were raped or had sexual contact with corrections officers since 2000, the records show. Claims of inmate-on-inmate rape was even more frequent.

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However, inmate advocates said the problem is greater than the state figures show. They have begun a nationwide legal campaign against assaults and the complacency that they say allows them to flourish.

"I really have become convinced over the last three years or so that Texas is the prison-rape capital of the country," said Margaret Winter, a lawyer who represents two inmates who sued the prison system. "When prisoners report it, they are ignored, laughed at and often punished."
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america is a crime scene