Abusing the inmatesis commonplace in U.S.

BEIJING, March 13 (Xinhua) -- A report released on Thursday by the Information Office of China's State Council revealed prison staff in the United States widely engaging in mistreating the inmates.

An estimated 60,500 inmates, or 4.5 percent of State and Federal inmates in the U.S., experienced one or more incidents of sexual victimization and 2.9 percent of them reported an incident involving prison staff, said the report, citing figures released by U.S. Department of Justice in 2007.

"Abusing the inmatesis is commonplace in the U.S.," said the report entitled "The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2007."

The U.S. government acknowledged in a January 16, 2007 report that suspected illegal immigrants were mistreated in five prisons, breaching the principle of humane custody, the report said.

U.S. prisoners often die from inadequate medical service, it added.

It cited a report released by the Los Angeles Times in September, 2007 as saying that 426 death cases took place in California prisons in 2006 due to belated treatment.

Among them, 18 deaths were found to be "preventable" and an additional 48 were found to be "possibly preventable", it added.