AUGUSTA – Reports filed by the Maine Department of Corrections with the U.S. Department of Justice indicate there were no incidents of sexual violence between inmates in Maine’s correctional facilities in 2004. It is a report that even the Corrections Department finds hard to believe.
“I am not telling you it is not going on, I suspect that it is going on,” said Associate Corrections Commissioner Denise Lord. “But to answer your question of, Is this a big problem or a little problem, we don’t know. Anecdotally, I am hearing it is not a big problem, but without the data, we don’t know.”
The yearly reports are required under a 2003 federal law aimed at determining the scope of sexual violence in correctional facilities across the country. Maine reported zero incidents between inmates, but did report two cases of staff assaults on inmates.
The state also reported one incident of youth-on-youth sexual activity in the state’s two youth correctional facilities.
“I think there is clearly a problem with reporting,” said state Sen. Bill Diamond, D-Windham. “I don’t think anyone believes there is no improper activity going on.”
Diamond, co-chair of the Legislature’s Criminal Justice Committee, said state officials need accurate data, as do federal officials. He said during testimony to the committee and in his visits to the correctional facilities that violence in the facilities, including sexual assaults, was often mentioned as a consequence of the overcrowding.
Rep. Richard Sykes, R-Harrison, is the ranking GOP member of the committee. He agreed with Diamond that the department needs to take steps to improve the data gathering in this area so policy-makers have what they need.
“It is really important that we have accurate records,” he said. “If these are not accurate, it raises the question what other statistics from the department are questionable.”
Sykes added that the state clearly has to do a better job on collecting data.
The Bureau of Justice Statistics, the unit of the U.S. Department of Justice that collects the data, acknowledges in its report that there are problems in getting accurate reports.
“Due to fear of reprisal from perpetrators, a code of silence among inmates, personal embarrassment, and lack of trust in staff, victims are often reluctant to report incidents to correctional authorities,” the report concluded.
Diamond agreed that there are legitimate problems in collecting accurate data, but he said it is clear that Maine’s process needs to be improved greatly.
“I understand the problems,” he said, “but to have no reports (of incidents) at all says there is a problem that needs to be fixed.”
Lord agrees and said the Department of Corrections is forming a work group to review the current reporting policies in the institutions to see what needs to be improved. She said that if there are impediments to reporting by inmates, they should be removed.
Sykes said some of the problem may be that Maine puts victims in special confinement to protect them and that the alleged perpetrator stays in the general prison population.
“I am not sure that’s the right message,” he said. “Maybe we should be segregating the offenders from everybody else.”
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