Texas terminated their contract to run a prison pending the expected criminal indictment of several staff members for sexually abusing inmates.

In those 34 cases, it said, the accusations "ranged in seriousness from alleged beatings of immigration detainees to B.O.P. correctional officers allegedly verbally abusing inmates."

One recent study determined that child molesters exhibited significantly higher levels of fear of intimacy than rapists, nonsexually abusing inmates, and a control group of law-abiding citizens.

COs received better training, in which they were trained not to abuse inmates, and to use force only when emergency situations warranted it.

"Commissioner Coughlin has had a longstanding policy that inmates will not be allowed to abuse officers, and officers will not be allowed to abuse inmates," he said.

The privatization of prisons has had its critics, however, and Wackenhut's guards have been accused of abusing inmates in Florida, Texas and Louisiana.

Federal officials were desperate to find a new halfway house after the only one in New York City closed when its director was charged with sexually abusing inmates.

Monday morning quarterbacks and political opportunists should understand that inmates often abuse and beat other inmates.

He catalogued lax background checks before hiring guards, which led to several alleged cases of guards physically and sexually abusing inmates.

In his first legislative campaign, Rice was criticized for his association with Dismas House founder Bob Sylvester, who was found guilty in 2000 of sexually abusing inmates.