When the government takes away a person’s freedom, it must provide the essentials that an inmate can no longer secure: food, clothing, shelter, medical care, and also basic physical protection. No matter what crime someone has committed, sexual violence must never be part of the penalty.

Many people believe that rape and sexual abuse are inevitable facts of life in prisons and jails. JDI knows that they are wrong. Sexual abuse in detention is preventable; it is a systemic problem that requires systemic solutions.

Every day JDI communicates with rape survivors behind bars. Their letters show clearly that it is lack of political will, poor corrections policies, and bad management that allows sexual violence to flourish.

In the U.S., although sexual violence behind bars violates international, federal, and state laws, many corrections facilities fail to take even the simplest preventative measures. At the same time, reports of rape and other forms of sexual abuse are often ignored. In the worst facilities, victims are repeatedly denied help and retaliated against while perpetrators are able to act with impunity.

Basic precautions, such as identifying likely victims and likely perpetrators – and making sure that they do not get placed in the same cell – would ensure that thousands of men and women are spared the devastation of a sexual assault. Michael, a California inmate, was placed in a cell with a known sex offender and was raped after his requests for a transfer were repeatedly denied:

For one week I desperately tried to get a cell move but had no success. Then… my cellie raped me while holding a razor blade to my throat, threatening to kill me. No corrections officers could be seen on the dayroom floor at that hour.

JDI is the only organization in the U.S., and perhaps in the world, working exclusively to end sexual abuse behind bars. While the bulk of its attention focuses on American detention facilities, JDI seeks also to hold government officials accountable internationally, primarily in South Africa and in Mexico. JDI considers survivors of sexual abuse behind bars to be key allies and fellow advocates in the effort to end this type of violence.