The National Prison Rape Elimination Commission proposed new standards on June 23 to reduce the 60,000 cases of inmate sexual assault each year, according to the Huffington Post.This seems to be clearly in reference to women prisoners, from what I have gleaned. States that don't follow the standards will run the risk of losing portions of their federal funding.
This Commission was created in 2003 by Congress under the Prison Rape Elimination Act.
Some of the measures being suggested are better staff training and increased screeing of prisoners to identify potential abuse victims, reported the examiner.com.
There are about 148,200 women in U.S. state and federal prisons, as well as in women's correctional facilities. Seventy percent of the guards in these prisons and facilities are male. Records have shown that correctional officials have raped women prisoners, have sexually assaulted them, committed sexual extortion, and groped them during body searches, according to a 2005 fact sheet which was compiled by Amnesty International. One obvious recommendation that comes to mind would be to have female correctional officials working in these facilities. I wonder why that is not happening.