More than a quarter of those letters come from one state: Texas.

Sexual abuse is a problem in prisons from Rikers Island to Albany. But even when adjusted for the number inmates in a given prison system, Texas still stands out as the state where sexual assault in prison is most prevalent.

Five of the 10 prisons with the highest rates of sexual abuse in the country are in Texas. That includes the top two, Estelle Unit and Clements Unit.

Garrett Cunningham was an inmate at the Luther Unit in Navasota in 2000, when he says a corrections officer twice his size accosted him on his way to the shower, handcuffed him, raped him and then forced him into the shower. Cunningham said the officer threatened to have him transferred to “a rougher unit where I would be raped all the time” if he told anyone.

Cunningham told his story to a panel of congressmen investigating sexual abuse in prisons in 2005.

“Many men and women in Texas experience sexual abuse at the hands of officer and other prisoners,” Cunningham said. “Their pleas for help go unanswered by administrators and staff.”

While sexual abuse in prison is not a problem that is unique to Texas, federal statistics suggest that it's most pervasive in the Lone Star State.

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New federal standards

Now, the federal government is implementing new standards for prisons, jails and other lockups in what advocates and the Department of Justice call a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to end sex abuse behind bars.

“This is something that I think needs to be done, not tomorrow, but yesterday,” Attorney General Eric Holder told the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies last month.

New standards were proposed last June by a commission formed after passage of the Prison Rape Elimination Act in 2003. Facilities will have one year to implement the final recommendations, due this year and subject to federal approval.

“Protecting prisoners from sexual abuse remains a challenge in correctional facilities across the country,” the commission for the new law stated in its 259-page report. “Too often, in what should be secure environments, men, women and children are raped or abused by other incarcerated individuals and corrections staff.”

The alarming rank of the Estelle Unit, on FM 3478 in Huntsville, came after the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics surveyed inmates in hundreds of state and federal prisons, as well as county lockups, for the new law.

Nationwide, the rate of inmates reporting sexual victimization within a prior 12-month period was 4.5 percent. At Estelle, it was 15.7 percent.

Four other Texas prisons were in the top 10, including the Clements Unit in Amarillo, the Allred Unit near Wichita Falls, the Mountain View Unit near Gatesville, and the Coffield Unit near Tennessee Colony. Those prisons had rates of abuse from 9.3 to 13.9 percent.

Texas ‘at forefront'

Texas officials say that the rates of abuse reflected in that report may have been artificially inflated by the report's methodology, which recorded inmates' complaints without attempting to verify their validity.

State prison personnel say they've already made progress in educating prisons' employees and inmates alike about the need to combat sexual abuse and the options that are available to them if they've already been attacked.

Texas is the only state in the country to have a special prosecution unit that specializes in crimes committed in prisons. And the state has implemented the Safe Prisons Program, designed to educate inmates about sexual assault and separate likely abusers from potential victims.

“Texas is actually at the forefront of trying to stop sexual violence in prisons,” prosecutor Gina DeBottis said.

The inmate protection unit, which DeBottis now heads, was launched in the 1980s to cope with a rash of gang-related murders in Texas prisons. But now, the organization's nine prosecutors and seven investigators handle prison-crime cases involving everything from murder to contraband.

They also prosecute sexual abuse cases, both when inmates assault other inmates and corrections officials attack inmates.

Linda McFarlane, deputy director of Just Detention, said there are many individuals within the Texas Department of Criminal Justice who are committed to fixing the problem. But she says the sprawling system, with its huge numbers of prisons and prisoners, is hard to police.

“What I've picked up is that the culture in those prisons is that each one is sort of entity unto itself,” McFarlane said. “That makes it very difficult to make and enforce policy that is consistent across the entire system.”

Some sex not coerced

Nationwide, inmates report more sexual abuse at the hands of guards than fellow inmates. The same is often true in Texas prisons. At Clements Unit, 5 percent of inmates said they'd been pressured or forced into sex with other inmates, while 11 percent of them reported being pressured or forced into sex with prison staff. The Prison Rape Elimination Act commission report said the young, mentally disabled, those with small stature and lack of experience in jails, and gay prisoners all appear to be at increased risk of sexual abuse by other prisoners.

Not all sex between corrections officers and inmates is coerced; 6 percent of Clements inmates reported consensual sex with staff. But even if an inmate is willing to have sex with a corrections officer, it is illegal.

Because of guards' position of power over their charges, prisoners cannot legally consent to sex with corrections officers. In Texas, corrections officers can be — and DeBottis says often are — prosecuted for any sexual contact with an inmate, including kissing.

Holder has until June to act on the commission's recommendations, which include use of video to prevent sex abuse; housing changes and transfers for victims; sanctions for any inmates or staffers engaging in abuse and written agreements with outside law enforcement agencies and prosecutors to investigate allegations of sex abuse.

Meredith Simons reported from Washington. Robert Gavin reported from Albany.

meredith.simons@chron.com