Chronicled Pain

I have a new article out today at AlterNet, headlined "Shocking Report Reveals Epidemic of Sexual Abuse in Juvenile Prisons." The piece draws from an unprecedented national report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics which finds that more than 1 in 10 kids held in detention were raped or molested within one year, most often by staff members.

I encountered more than a few surprises while digging into this, including the fact that 95 percent of all youth reporting staff sexual misconduct said they had been victimized by a female staff member. As well, I had conversations with teachers at one detention center who are skeptical of the high numbers in the report.

An excerpt from the article:

A notoriously difficult problem to gauge, the (report) struggles against the tendency of some youth to not report abuse they've experienced, even when they are promised anonymity. At the same time, some youth make false or inflated claims, or may not have a clear understanding of what is being asked of them.

(Jamie Fellner of Human Rights Watch) said it's her hunch that even the high reported numbers undercount the actual rate of abuse.

But David, who teaches at a Michigan detention facility -- and who asked that his real name not be used in this article -- said that he was surprised at the high rate of abuse revealed by the (report).

"I know there's a lot of individual sexual activity between youth, but most of it is what you'd probably call consensual, unless you want to get into age stuff," David said.

He added that he is, however, familiar with one youth "grooming" another -- that is, latching onto them and setting them up for a sexual encounter. David has also noticed that "some female staff that really like to flirt with the boys," a phenomenon that he described as "really pathetic."

"If I had to go with my gut feeling about how often (abuse) happens, I'd say it's way less (than the report indicates)," David said. "You do have to wonder how kids define sexual activity when asked about it."

Comments

[Rebecca]

I have to say that one of my catalysts for doing a yoga teacher training program was to be able to teach yoga in Juvenile Detention Facilities. I am appalled by these statistics, and giving kids the inner strength and knowledge to know how to feel confident about themselves is one way I can think of to help remedy the situation. Thanks for helping bring this to light. Juvenile Detention Facilities, especially the prisons, are scary, and many kids never really leave them.