?In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tor and crim­i­nol­o­gist Prof Ramesh De­osaran is call­ing for a full-scale in­quiry in­to the in­ci­dence of sex abuse in the na­tion's pris­ons.

De­osaran made the call dur­ing yes­ter­day's Sen­ate de­bate on a bill to amend the Pris­ons Act. He said the in­ci­dence of sex abuse, par­tic­u­lar­ly ho­mo­sex­u­al­i­ty, was very preva­lent at pris­ons the world over and could not be de­nied by any pris­ons com­mis­sion­er. De­osaran said the me­dia should play a pos­i­tive role by high­light­ing the is­sue.

He said there was an un­holy tri­an­gle in the prison sys­tem in­volv­ing drug abuse, sex abuse and the spread of sex­u­al­ly trans­mit­ted dis­eases. Ear­li­er, De­osaran said the ex­ist­ing de­fi­cien­cies in the prison sys­tem helped crim­i­nals to be­come more skil­ful in com­mit­ting crimes. He said they were not re­ha­bil­i­tat­ed in the na­tion's pris­ons.