BIA detention facility had highest sexual misconduct rate

Friday, May 17, 2013  

A Bureau of Indian Affairs detention facility on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota had the highest rate of staff sexual misconduct than any other in the U.S., according to a new Department of Justice report.

Based on interviews with inmates, the report found that 10.8 percent of inmates at the Oglala Sioux Tribal Offenders Facility experienced some form of sexual victimization. According to the report, "the rate of staff sexual misconduct in this Indian country facility was statistically higher than the rate reported for any jail nationwide."

The report pointed out that the facility was also the most overcrowded in Indian Country. The inmate population grew nearly 78 percent in 2011, the year at issue in the study.

Get the Story:
Juvenile Inmates Found to Be at No Greater Risk for Prison Rape (The New York Times 5/17)

Get the Study:
Sexual Victimization in Prisons and Jails Reported by Inmates, 2011-12 (May 16, 2013)