MOSCOW, September 15 (RIA Novosti) - About 4,000 inmates in prisons in England and Wales might be victims of sexual abuse each year and the figures could increase, according to research by the Howard League for Penal Reform.
"We continue to work hard to understand the reasons for the increase in assaults, including sexual assaults, and we are comprehensively reviewing how we manage violence, including sexual violence, in prisons and working with the police and CPS to introduce a new approach to the investigation of crime," Prisons Minister Andrew Selous was quoted by BBC News as saying in an article released Sunday.
Official statistics released by the Ministry of Justice said there were only 170 cases of sexual abuse in prison last year, while the report by the Howard League for Penal Reform states that a large number of sexual assaults in prison remain unreported and 1 to 5 percent of inmates could be victims of abuse every year, BBC News reported.
The findings show that for some prisoners sex is a way to pay off a debt or to buy drugs. Others are coerced into having sex, as they belong to such vulnerable groups as gay or transgender.
"Prisons are meant to be safe places where the law is enforced, not places where people are under threat of sexual violence and rape," Frances Crook, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said, BBC News reported.
According to BBC News, a study published by the US Bureau of Justice suggests that up to 4 percent of prisoners in the United States in 2013 were victims of sexual abuse. This makes it possible for the commission of the Howard League for Penal Reform to say that the standards in English and Welsh prisons are getting closer to that of the United States.
