National Alliance for Prisoners’ Rights: Helping to Fight LGBT Prisoner Abuse through Fundraising Campaign
SYCAMORE, Ill. (PRWEB) October 25, 2017 -- A recent report released by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law found that the incarceration rate of LGBTs is three times the rate of the general population, and once incarcerated they tend to experience more mistreatment and sexual victimization including verbal, physical and sexual abuse. They are also more likely to experience solitary confinement and other sanctions, suffering psychological distress. Help by mental health professionals is regularly denied by the Command Staff. (Ilan H. Meyer, Andrew R. Flores, Lara Stemple, Adam P. Romero, Bianca D. M. Wilson, Jody L. Herman, “Incarceration Rates and Traits of Sexual Minorities in the United States: National Inmate Survey, 2011–2012”, American Journal of Public Health 107, no. 2 (February 1, 2017): pp. 267-273.)
Just as disturbing, this disproportionate ratio can also be found among incarcerated youth according to a joint study by Movement Advancement Project (MAP), an LGBTQ advocacy group, Youth First, a national anti-youth incarceration advocacy group, and the Center for American Progress, a policy advancement think tank, in a report called “Unjust: LGBTQ Youth Incarcerated in the Juvenile Justice System,” which was released on July 27, 2017. Their study has found that LGB youth make up 20% of all youth in juvenile justice facilities nationwide - even though only 7 to 9% of all youth identify as LGB. LGB girls alone make up nearly 40%. LGB youth are also more likely to face mistreatment while incarcerated. Sexual assault and misconduct by both peers and members of staff occur often. LGB youth are twice as likely as heterosexual youth to face sexual contact with adult staff, the report found.
National Alliance for Prisoner’s Rights (NAPR), a nonprofit organization, is helping to bring awareness and raise funds to fight LGBT prisoner abuse. While many organizations work tirelessly to achieve this goal, reports continue to be compiled, almost yearly, revealing the continuing, alarming extent of abuse.
“We were shocked when we read the recent 2017 reports concerning the LGBT arrest rate and the much higher incidence of abuse,” remarked an NAPR spokesman. “It’s remarkable that as a nation, we are rightly appalled by LGBT abuse elsewhere, such as the Chechnya tragedy, yet we ignore abuse under our very noses here in our own prison system,” he added. “We have launched LGBT Fallen Angels, an awareness and fundraising effort through FundRazr (http://www.fundrazr.com/lgbtfallenangels) to help inform people and raise funds. Abuse is never acceptable. Abuse is never part of anyone’s sentence.”
To read more and find out how you can help, visit the fundraising page or go to http://www.lgbtfallenangels.com .
R. Riel, National Alliance for Prisoners' Rights, http://www.lgbtfallenangels.com, +1 (650) 503-6670, [email protected]
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