It is well known among prison reformers that the East Mississippi Correctional Facility, a private prison, is a cesspool of violence and sexual abuse. The horrific conditions there have long been out in the open, thanks in large part to a class-action lawsuit brought in 2013 on behalf of the prisoners, on which a judge will rule any day now.

In April, the prison reached a new level of notoriety after a video was released of an inmate being beaten unconscious by other prisoners. The video runs nearly 30 minutes before corrections officers casually enter the frame — negligence made more appalling by the fact that an officer had filmed the attack.

Given the prison’s track record, it would seem like a foregone conclusion that an audit of its efforts to stop rape among prisoners as well as that perpetrated by staff members would turn up scores of problems.

It didn’t.

In 2015, an auditor assessed whether the facility complied with the Prison Rape Elimination Act’s standards — a set of strong federal regulations aimed at ensuring safe ways to report abuse behind bars and improving medical and mental health care in prisons, among other provisions. The picture he painted was at odds with the reality there.