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Chandra Bozelko: Let’s declare a state of emergency in prisons and jails
By implementing a policy and installing equipment that will search all incoming guards for all forms of contraband, the State of Vermont is poised to reduce prison sexual assault significantly.
Conditions in our jails and prisons too often do not promote reform
The purpose of punishment is to reform behavior, and incarceration is no exception. Yet, there is mounting evidence that U.S. correctional facilities are providing poor conditions for rehabilitation. In November, the U.S. Marshals Service released a 52-page report detailing extensive constitutional rights violations within the Cuyahoga County Jail in Ohio.
Bozelko: Rates of prison rape remain a mystery
The Department of Justice released a bombshell report last summer that attracted very little attention.
The Office of Justice Programs’ Bureau of Justice Statistics announced that claims of prison rape almost tripled between 2011 and 2015, the very time when sexual assault in correctional facilities should have been declining, as the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) was finally in full effect, for the first time since its passage in 2003.