Justice Dept.: High rate of sex assaults in Philly jails
Two Philadelphia jails have some of the highest rates in the country of inmates who report being sexually assaulted while incarcerated, according to new Justice Department data.
A new report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics identifies the Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Center as one of the facilities where inmates report the highest rates of sexual victimization by jail staff. And the city's Riverside Correctional Facility, which is for female prisoners, is one of the institutions with the highest rates of inmate-on-inmate sexual contact.
At Riverside, 6.7 percent of inmates reported inmate-on-inmate sexual victimization, while 6.3 percent of PICC inmates reported staff sexual misconduct. Those numbers are the second- and fourth-highest in the country, respectively, for jail inmates, and well above the national averages of 1.6 percent for inmate sexual misconduct and 1.8 percent for staff misconduct.
BJS identified 21 correctional facilities, including Riverside, as having high rates of inmate-on-inmate victimization and 24 facilities, including PICC, as having high staff misconduct rates.
In total, 20 correctional institutions in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, including three Philadelphia jails, reported higher-than-average rates of sexual misconduct by inmates or staff.
Shawn Hawes, a spokeswoman for the Philadelphia Prison System, said she hadn't read the BJS report so she couldn't comment specifically on its findings.
The prison system investigates and reports any allegations of sexual assault, she said, and is in the process of installing more video cameras at PICC as a preventative measure.
BJS says prison and jail inmates who were female, white or had college degrees reported the highest rates of inmate-on-inmate victimization. Higher rates of staff sexual misconduct were reported by men in jails and blacks in both prisons and jails.
(Jails are county-run and typically house inmates who are awaiting sentencing or serving relatively short terms; prisons house those incarcerated for longer periods and are run by state or federal authorities.)
Inmates who were incarcerated for violent sexual offenses, had a mental illness, had experienced a sexual assault before entering the facility, or identified as gay, lesbian or bisexual also reported higher rates of sexual victimization.
Several Pennsylvania and New Jersey prisons reported rates of sexual victimization above than the national averages of 2 percent for inmate-on-inmate contact and 2.4 percent for staff contact.
Those facilities are:
Mountainview Youth Correctional Facility (N.J.), where 3.1 percent of inmates reported sexual contact with staff
South Woods State Prison (N.J.), where 3.5 percent reported inmate-on-inmate contact
Cambridge Springs State Correctional Institution (Pa.), where 3.7 percent reported inmate-on-inmate contact
Muncy State Correctional Institution (Pa.), where 8.9 percent reported inmate-on-inmate contact and 3.6 percent reported staff contact
Pine Grove State Correctional Institution (Pa.), where 6.3 percent reported staff contact
Somerset State Correctional Institution (Pa.), where 2.9 percent reported inmate-on-inmate contact
County-run jails in Pennsylvania and New Jersey reporting higher rates of victimization than the averages of 1.6 percent for inmate contact and 1.8 percent for staff contact include:
Mercer County Correctional Center (N.J.), where 4.1 percent reported inmate contact and 5.1 percent reported staff contact
Passaic County Jail (N.J.), where 2.6 percent reported staff contact
Allegheny County Jail (Pa.), where 2 percent reported inmate contact
Blair County Prison (Pa.), where 3.5 percent reported inmate contact
Fayette County Prison, where 2.6 percent reported inmate contact and 3.9 percent reported staff contact
Indiana County Jail, where 3.9 percent reported inmate contact
Luzerne County Correctional Facility, where 2.4 percent reported inmate contact
Montgomery County Prison Correctional Facility, where 2.6 percent reported staff contact
Philadelphia's Curran Fromhold Correctional Facility, where 3.4 percent reported staff contact
Philadelphia's Industrial Correctional Center, where 3.5 percent reported inmate contact and 6.3 percent reported staff contact
Philadelphia's Riverside Correctional Facility, where 6.7 percent reported inmate contact and 3.7 percent reported staff contact
Schuylkill County Prison, where 2.7 percent reported staff contact
Westmoreland County Prison, where 2.1 percent reported inmate contact and 2.2 percent reported staff contact
York County Prison, where 3.5 percent reported inmate contact
In contrast, Philadelphia's Alternative and Special Detention Facility and Federal Detention Center both reported below-average victimization rates for both inmate and staff misconduct.