JAIL SURVEY TRACKS ABUSE

Nearly half of female inmates, 13% of males have been victims, profile says

WASHINGTON (AP)-- Forty-eight percent of female inmates and 13 percent of
jailed men have been abused sexually or physically at least once in their
lives, according to a profile of the nation's local jail inmates released
Sunday.

More than a quarter of the women -- 27 percent -- and 3 percent of men said
the abuse included rape. Large numbers of the inmates grew up in
single-parent homes, were children of dissolute parents or spent at least
part of their childhood in homes on welfare or in public housing. More than
a third -- 36 percent -- said they were unemployed before their most recent
arrest.

The study by the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics paints
pictures of broken lives and gives clues to why more than half a million
people ran afoul of local authorities last year.

``The tragedy is that people who have been victimized often become
victimizers themselves,'' said Eric Sterling, president of the
Washington-based Criminal Justice Policy Foundation. ``It's a cycle we could
break, but it involves some expense. As a society, we haven't put our
resources there.''

Another expert, Raymond Bell of Pennsylvania's Lehigh University, said the
study probably understates the number of inmates who have been abused.

Bell, who has directed two other national studies for the Justice
Department, said past studies have pointed to similar findings.

``One of the things coming out in the juvenile courts is more and more boys
are reporting sexual abuse and incest in ways that 10 years ago they
weren't,'' Bell said. ``It's just the tip of the iceberg.''

In the latest study, the bureau said 20 percent of inmates were seeking
work, 16 percent were not looking, and ``almost half reported income of less
than $600 a month during the month before their arrest.''

Sterling said misbehaving children simply have fewer opportunities for help
in poor families.

``Poverty often means that kids in trouble are not able to get therapy or
counseling,'' he said. ``Not to blame their parents, but there is a lack of
resources and a social indifference to the problems of poor kids. A kid
acting out in an under-funded school system is less likely to see a school
psychologist.''

In midyear 1997, some 567,079 inmates were lodged in the nation's 3,328
local jails, up 43 percent from 395,554 in mid-1989.

Unlike prisons, jails are run by local governments. They hold convicts
awaiting sentencing and people serving sentences of a year or less.

The report's findings were extrapolated from a survey of more than 6,000
randomly selected inmates from 431 jails.

About 90 percent of the inmates were male, and 10 percent were female.
Thirty-seven percent were white, 41 percent black, 19 percent Hispanic and 3
percent were from other groups, including Asians, Pacific islanders and
American Indians.

About half the nation's inmates grew up in single-parent homes, and 12
percent had lived in households without either parent, the bureau said.

Nearly one-third said their parents or guardians abused alcohol and drugs.

More than half of convicted jail inmates reported having used illegal drugs
in the month before their crimes, up from the 44 percent estimated when the
last such survey was conducted in 1989, justice officials said.

Sixty percent were under the influence of drugs, alcohol or both at the time
of their offenses.