A number of groups who couldn’t be more different are single-minded on eliminating prison rape. Prison Fellowship, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Family Research Council, Human Rights Watch, Focus on the Family, Sojourners, and others signed onto a letter Tuesday urging U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to implement new standards that would cut down prison rapes.
A guard woke Marilyn Shirley in her prison cell at 2:30 in the morning, saying she was needed in the guardhouse. Arriving there, she noticed there were no female guards present. The guard called another guard to give him a signal if the prison lieutenant was heading to the office. Then he raped Shirley.
Shirley is just one face among 60,500 of the reported victims of sexual assault in prisons every year, or about one in every 20 inmates according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Among juveniles, the numbers are worse: One in eight are victims of sexual assault while incarcerated.
A number of groups who couldn’t be more different are single-minded on eliminating prison rape. Prison Fellowship, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Family Research Council, Human Rights Watch, Focus on the Family, Sojourners, and others signed onto a letter Tuesday urging U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to implement new standards that would cut down prison rapes.