Prison rape statistics have always been taken with a grain of salt by prison officials. Many believed that inmates were making the stories up; others conceded that these crimes did take place, but they were the exception rather than the rule. However, as Just Detention International explains, two recent Bureau of Justice Statistics studies show that even when asked anonymously, prisoners still report that rape by both other inmates, as well as by guards, takes place at an alarming rate.

The study methods and consistency of results indicate that this data is accurate, with the same risk factors and patterns of abuse being shown throughout our prison system. The studies were not only conducted in adult facilities, but in juvenile detention centers as well, which makes the findings even more troubling. The article shares in-depth analysis based on race, gender, and age.

Unfortunately, collecting and sharing these statistics is only half the battle. Now that these findings have come to light, how can the prison system curb these sexual assaults?

Read the full article at nybooks.com

Georgia, a state that has historically incarcerated disproportionate numbers of black offenders, has recently reduced their black prison intake by 20%, according to a study detailed last week in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. How was this accomplished?

According to Governor Nathan Deal, “By identifying low-risk, nonviolent offenders and more effective ways to rehabilitate them, we are steering these offenders away from a life of crime and reserving our expensive prison beds for the violent offenders who pose a public safety risk.” 

This move is only one example of the changes Georgia is making in an attempt to revolutionize a penal system that has ranked one of the highest used in the country, leading the nation in incarceration rates as recently as 2009.

What other reforms are taking place in Georgia? Find out more at atlantadailyworld.com

In this 2013 Rand Corporation survey, researchers analyzed the association between correctional education and recidivism reductions, post-incarceration employment, and learning in math and reading. Their findings show that educational programs did in fact reduce recidivism rates as well as increase the odds of an offender finding post-release employment.

The study also looked into the cost effectiveness of correctional education as while as which types of education were the most effective. They found that programs can be cost-effective when considering recidivism, and that computer-assisted instruction led to a slight increase in reading comprehension and a substantial increase in math skills when compared to programs that did not use computers.

For more in-depth analysis, continue reading at rand.org

It’s intuitive to think that fewer prisoners leads to more crime, because there are more criminals on the street. However, new information from the ALCU and The Sentencing Project suggest that locking fewer people up may actually lead to a reduction in crime.  Since 1990, our country has seen a 50% reduction in crime while prison populations have drastically increased. This seems to suggest that locking up criminals has had a positive impact on our crime rate, but evidence in three states suggests we can do even better.

Consider Massachusetts, Maryland, and Texas, three states committed to reducing prison populations. In each state, a 13-15% incarceration reduction has led to as much as a 38% reduction in violent crime, and as high as a 31% drop in property crime. In the same time period, the neighboring states of New Hampshire, West Virginia, and Arkansas have increased prison populations. In each of these three states, violent crimes and property crimes have risen, in some cases as much as 35%.

Nationally, it has been found that recidivism rates are almost halved when probation time is used as a substitute for prison time, and longer prison sentences have been shown to increase overall recidivism by 3%. With conflicting studies still showing that higher incarceration rates curb crime, the findings of these studies beg the question, is incarceration the only solution to crime in America?

See the infographic and more at huffingtonpost.com

When prisoners are allowed to make phone calls, prisons make money — sometimes so much that the calls become prohibitively expensive. Losing contact with their family members is destructive to a prisoner’s well-being and reintegration back towards society. Phone calls are not only an exploitative way to make money, they lead to more crime and recividism.

See the article on prisonpolicy.org 

John Oliver, formerly of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, has a new show on HBO, Last Week Tonight, and they dedicated a remarkable (and hilarious) 17-minutes to critique prisons and show the need for prison reform. It’s perhaps the most entertaining way to get acquainted with the issues!

In the video, he:

• Shows how minorities are affected out of all proportion with their portion of society
• How the United States has 2,000,000 prisoners at the moment, even more than China
• How even Sesame Street has been forced to deal with the issue, it being so common
• How mandatory minimums for drug offences causes longer-than-necessary sentences
• The condition of prisoners in solitary confinement
• How nonviolent offenders can be handled separately from more serious offenders
• How a significant fraction of offenders are subjected to rape
• How cost cutting at prisons is done with little regard to prisoner conditions

All done with the usual intelligent comedy we expect from such spoof news shows.

See the video