Political Quotes

“10 years ago this week, Congress passed a watershed piece of legislation. The Prison Rape Elimination Act was the first comprehensive legislative effort to prevent something we had long been reluctant to even acknowledge existed--the incidence of rape in our Federal, State, and local corrections facilities. Violence and victimization have no place in our society, including in our prisons, and we have an obligation to ensure these facilities are safe. The punishment of incarceration does not, and cannot, include a sentence of rape. And yet we know that all too often it does. A recent report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics estimated that nearly 1 in 10 inmates in America had been sexually assaulted in custody. Too often the victims of such violence end up being the most vulnerable members of our population. Women, racial minorities, and those suffering from mental illness face increased rates of sexual violence while incarcerated. Children in adult jails are at the greatest risk of being victimized. Juveniles housed with adults are 35% more likely than other inmates to be targeted for sexual assault, and that abuse is taking a terrible toll on this already vulnerable population. Youth under the age of 18 are 36 times more likely to commit suicide than if they were housed in a juvenile detention facility. With 100,000 youth held in adult jails and prisons every year, this is a problem we must address head on.…”