Denver women's prison has highest rate of reported staff sex assaults in nation

the Denver Post


More than one of every 10 women at the Denver Women's Correctional Facility claim staff members sexually assaulted them, according to a national study.
The study indicated that 10.7 percent of 160 inmates at the prison claimed they were sexually abused by staff, according to the study headed by Dr. Allen J. Beck, a statistician for the U.S. Bureau of Statistics.
It was the highest rate in the nation, according to the report, "Sexual Victimization in Prisons and Jails Reported by Inmates 2011-12" released Thursday morning by the U.S. Department of Justice. The study was conducted between February 2011 and May 2012.
The

Colorado prison was identified among 12 prisons across the country considered "high-rate" facilities based on reports of staff sexual misconduct including eight male prisons and four female prisons.By comparison, of the 38,251 male and female inmates at 225 prisons and 358 jails involved in the nation-wide survey, 2.4 percent of inmates claimed to have been sexually abused by staff members.
Of the Denver female inmates claiming sexual abuse, 7.3 percent claimed that physical coercion or threat of physical force was part of the assault. Only a Texas prison had a higher rate, the report indicated.
The accuracy of the inmate reporting was deemed above 95 percent.
A spokesperson for the Colorado Department of Corrections could not immediately be reached for comment.
The report also looked at inmate-on-inmate abuse. It said that 4 percent of state and federal inmates reported being sexually victimized in the past year. That is down from 4.5 percent in a survey conducted in 2007, according to the report.
At Denver Women's Correctional Facility, a total of 12.2 percent of women surveyed said they were sexually abused by staff and inmates.
Inmates at two other Colorado prisons were part of the study.
Only 1.2 percent of male inmates at the state-run prison Buena Vista Correctional Center claimed to have been sexually victimized. Of inmates at Skyline Correctional Center, also a state prison, 2.4 percent of inmates said they were sexually assaulted.
At Denver County Jail, of 205 inmates asked to participate, 69 percent responded. Of those inmates, 3.7 claimed to have been sexually victimized. It was the highest rate of abuse reported of the seven jails surveyed.
By comparison, no inmates at Jefferson County or Park County jails reported sexual assaults, according to the study.

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