Ohio prisons director says sex

Ohio's prisons director said the amount of sexual abuse of inmates in the system is too high, but the numbers of allegations have been dropping steadily from 2006 to 2009.

Ernie Moore of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction said Friday, Aug. 27, that the number of Rolex Watches inmate allegations of sexual abuse by guards and other inmates declined in the state's 31 prisons from 205 in 2006 to 133 last year.

"That's a good sign for us," he said. "We're moving in the right direction."

However, a study released Thursday by the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics showed that in three of five Ohio prisons surveyed, inmates reported more sexual misconduct than the national average. A fourth prison exactly mirrored the average. The Correctional Reception Center was well below the average, but most inmates are there fairly briefly and sent to other prisons.

The bureau surveyed more than 81,000 inmates at 463 prisons and jails nationwide between October 2008 and December 2009, and estimated that 64,500 prison inmates and 24,000 in jails were sexually assaulted within the previous 12 months. That's a rate of 4.4 percent in prison and 3.1 percent in jails.

Of the five Ohio prisons surveyed, the rate was 5.6 percent for Lebanon Correctional Institution, 7.7 percent for the Ohio Reformatory for Women at Marysville, 5.3 percent for Southeastern Correctional Institution at Lancaster, 4.4 percent for Mansfield Correctional Institution and 1.1 percent for the Correctional Reception Center.

Prada Leather Shoulder Bag 88070 Silver

Moore said the reception center's low number is encouraging because the survey indicated that many inmates are sexually abused in the first 24 hours of their incarcerations.

"We have zero tolerance for it, and that's our goal: to have zero incidents of sexual victimization," he said.

The study showed that prisons for women had a higher percentage of reported inmate-against-inmate sexual abuse than in male prisons, and the Ohio Reformatory for Women followed the trend.

clear wedge shoes

"Exactly what is going on at ORW is an issue we'll be looking into," said Corrections spokeswoman Julie Walburn.

She said officials are still analyzing the survey, but "there seems to be a correlation" between the survey numbers and the numbers of incidents reported to prison officials. She said that indicates that large numbers of abuse cases aren't going unreported.

Moore and Walburn said the prisons have enacted improvements in recent years such as extra training for investigators, victim advocates and chaplains, and a hotline to report abuse. They've increased orientation for offenders on how to foresee and report sexual abuse, and screening for inmates likely to be either vulnerable or predatory.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2264 or tbeyerlein@Dayton DailyNews.com.

Replica Watches
Replica Watches