Houston County Jail dubbed "high rate" for sexual assaults

The results from a recently released, nationwide survey on the occurrence of sexual assaults in jails dubbed the Houston County Jail as one of six jails considered "high rate" facilities.

Allen J. Beck, a senior statistician for the Bureau of Justice Statistics who conducted the study, said 216 inmates at the Houston County Jail were interviewed as part of the study on the occurrence of what he referred to as "sexual victimization" at the facility. The inmates were surveyed between October 2008 and December 2009.

"Statistically, Houston County is among the high rate facilities, and higher than average in the rate of inmate-on-inmate sexual victimization," Beck said. "The overall rate for the nation was 1.5 percent, and the estimate for Houston County was 4 percent."

The findings are based on a survey through the U.S. Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics.

"We're required under the law to do the survey under the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003," Beck said.

Of the 286 jails surveyed, Beck said two in Alabama were dubbed "high rate" facilities, based on the prevalence of inmate-on-inmate sexual victimization.

Beck said the other jail in Alabama to fall in that category is in Madison County. Beck said of the 293 inmates interviewed in the survey, 5.5 percent of them reported an incident of inmate-on-inmate sexual victimization.

Beck said the term sexual victimization referred to a much broader group of crimes than rape and could also include touching and groping.

"Fortunately, sexual victimization is relatively uncommon," Beck said. "It's just a sample. We didn't talk to everyone, and nor did everyone agree to talk."

Houston County Sheriff Andy Hughes said there was only one report of a sexual assault made to jail officials within the surveyed time period. Hughes said any crime reported in the jail would be investigated just like crimes outside the jail. He encouraged inmates at the jail to report any such incident to jail officials.

"Some of them can be prevented," Hughes said. "If an inmate is being raped he can holler and scream."

Jail Commander Keith Reed said there were 528 inmates held at the jail at the time of the survey, but as of Friday there were 388 inmates being held there. Hughes said the numbers indicated that the inmates either didn't understand the survey or have been under reporting the incidents to authorities.

"It's hard to put a lot of stock in these numbers there are a lot of variables to consider," Hughes said.

Reed said there was one report of a sexual assault at the jail in 2010, but he said it later turned out to be a false report, and no charges were filed.

"The bottom line is we want nobody to become a victim of a crime at the jail. Nobody deserves to be raped," Hughes said. "We have to rely on the inmates to report these things to us."

According to a statement, among the 463 facilities in the survey, eight male prisons, two female prisons, and six jails were identified as "high rate" facilities based on the prevalence of inmate-on-inmate sexual victimization.

Four male prisons, two female prisons, and five jails were identified as "high rate" based on the rate of staff sexual misconduct. Beck said none of the jails dubbed "high rate" facilities based on the rate of staff sexual misconduct are in Alabama.

Beck also said inmates of a certain kind have a higher risk for being victimized. Inmates with a college degree are more likely to be victimized than those with a high school diploma or less. He said inmates who are not married, widowed or divorced have a higher rate of sexual victimization. He also said convicted sex offenders and homosexuals have a higher rate of being victimized. He said none of those risk factors accounted for the higher rate in the Houston County Jail.

"We have identified the facilities that have the highest rates statistically," Beck said. "A consequence of this is that three of the jails will be called before the prison rape review panel."

Beck said it has not been determined which facility would have to go before the prison rape review panel.