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The Augusta Youth Development Center was one of four Georgia youth lockups with the most instances of inmates being victimized sexually, according to a federal report released this week.

A new federal report says Illinois is one of the worst states in the country when it comes to youth reports of sexual abuse in prison.

Three facilities have rates among 13 highest in the nation.

Hundreds of teen-agers are raped or sexually assaulted during their stays in the country’s juvenile detention facilities, and many of them are victimized repeatedly, according to a U.S. Department of Justice survey.

This article is in response to a Justice Department report that juveniles were subjected to sexual misconduct and other abuses at a privately run Mississippi prison, though the report came three weeks after plans were revealed to move the youth to another facility.

This is a report of allegations brought by a former ward of the State of Wyoming. He accuses Frontier Correctional Systems, the former operator of the Regional Juvenile Detention Center (JDC), of subjecting him to unsafe conditions and violating the standards for humane treatment of juvenile detainees. Jennings alleges that he witnessed sexual attacks against two children while being housed in the same cell as a high-risk juvenile offender. Frontier, which was licensed by the state to operate the JDC, lacked a policy for assessing the risk level of juveniles, leading to the mixing of high- and low-risk youth, the suit states.

2010 Human Rights Watch report states that new government data suggesting high levels of sexual abuse of confined youth in the United States should galvanize the Department of Justice to swiftly issue national standards to end prison rape.