According to Just Detention International, founded in 1980, an advocacy group dedicating to eradicating this hidden-in-plain-sight scourge, 200,000 people per year in the US experience this per year. However, since these victims are seen by too many to "deserve what they get," not a lot of people listen to their story, nor do a lot of people seem to care.

Here's a brief story of a man who met a terrible fate, despite a non-violent crime:

...My assailant was a leader in a gang called the Vice Lords, and he was known for being violent. When he began to threaten and harass me, I told the prison officials, but the prison officials did nothing. After serving three days in segregation for brutally assaulting another inmate in a stairwell, he was released and assigned to my dormitory. That was when the repeated assaults began. He threatened to stab me, and he raped me...I couldn’t defend myself, because he had his fellow gang members standing watch. I knew that if I reported him, I would face repercussions from the other gang members and no action was being taken by officials... Unfortunately, my story does not end there. Eventually, I became very ill. My illness was mysterious – swollen lymph nodes, vomiting, diarrhea, weakness, dizziness, and scabs on my scalp. Medical staff could not identify the illness, and so I spoke with my personal physician and friend at home. She prompted me to ask for an HIV screening. ...Sure enough, I was determined to be HIV positive, and extensive triple therapy was begun which would be a lifelong ordeal.

It was not long before the other inmates discovered that I was gay. During my first few hours there, I didn’t see two men take a shower together. That all changed when I went to take mine. A man entered the shower with me and ordered me to face the wall or he would “break my fucking neck.” This man was literally twice my size and so I faced the wall without question. I felt his hand on me and I tried to move away. He ordered me not to move as he sexually assaulted me. I cried silently.

I was repeatedly sexually and physically assaulted in the shower. I never felt so much shame, embarrassment, and humiliation in my life. I felt degraded and low. The feeling of worthlessness was only amplified when the first man who assaulted me in the shower sold me to another inmate for $20 in commissary items. I became his “ho.” This meant that I was his property and available to him for sex at his beck and call or risk being “put in a ho’s place.”

The American prison system has been described as a "sexual jungle," where there are predators and prey. Experts say some prison officials quietly permit rape as a way to control the population. "Where the predators — the more violent, powerful inmates — are in effect being given a bribe or a reward to cooperate with the prison authorities," says Harvard University criminologist Dr. James Gilligan. "As long as they cooperate, the prison authorities will permit them to have their victims."

The nine states that certified full compliance with the rape standards are: Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oregon, Tennessee and Washington. New Hampshire and New Jersey achieved the certification last year. Last year, Texas was one of six “renegade states,” as inmate advocates called them. Two of them, Florida and Indiana, opted into the national effort to eliminate prison rape this year, submitting accepted assurances. It is unclear what the three others, Arizona, Idaho and Utah, did. The Justice Department’s list of certifications and assurances is not complete.

Particularly vulnerable are LGBT people:ABC described the prison system as a "sexual jungle":Interestingly, in 2003, a Prison Rape Elimination Act was passed and signed, but clearly, it has been impotent, given JDI's statistics. Congress has had trouble getting states to comply.This is pure evil. The sentences for crimes is supposed to be incarceration, not involuntary anal/oral/vaginal penetration! People ought to stop and think about how perhaps some of the reason people who have been in jail are so violent is a constant loop in which to avoid sexual assault by other prisoners and/or guard, some join gangs, carry weapons, etc. to protect themselves. Not to mention, the lifers who have nothing to lose can basically get away with ruining the lives of people who are supposed to be released once the time is served! Why do fugitives run from the law, despite the huge risk of having to be on the run and risk a longer sentence? Probably, in part because they don't want to be something they're not supposed to be: a sex toy for psychopaths. Another big danger of sexual assault being rampant in jails is that when people get out, they may become so desensitized to sexual assault that they lack the qualms to do it when out of jail, and then become sex offenders. Not to mention the threat of getting HIV/AIDS and possibly spreading it, PSTD, and inability to become a productive member of society when released.

According to the UK Independent, "no one has ever been criminally charged in the US for raping a male prisoner." I suspect they meant "no inmates" have been charged for raping a male prisoner, tho if thats the case, sounds correct. Rape is similiarly common in female institutions, by both male and female perpetrators.

This needs to be stopped if we're serious about CJ reform. It is inhumane, runs counter to American values, and hurts society. CJ reform isn't just about protecting the innocent, its also about being just to the guilty as well. Prison rape must end.