Also, generally the MORE secure the prison is the LESS likely you are to get shanked or raped. Jail in the USA is maximum security I believe, because they house people from serial killers to shoplifters, they need to default to the highest level (well, supermax is the highest). Not likely at all to get raped or shanked in jail, for a number of reasons. Like NN said, a lot of the people in jail plan to be out really soon, so they are not going to risk getting a ton of time when they only have a few days or weeks to serve. A lot of the ones who are facing a lot of time have not been convicted yet, and they are not going to risk getting more charges when they still are not convicted of the original ones against them. Also, everybody is fresh from the outside world and not likely to be as hardened in many cases. At a supermax prison you are definitely not going to get raped or shanked, because you have no contact with anybody at all or only have contact with guards. Maybe the lowest level of a supermax you will have very little contact with other inmates, but it will be under such strict security that there is no way you will be raped. Pretty much the less secure a prison is the more likely you are to be raped or shanked in it. Where do you think you are more likely to be raped, a prison where you have one hour of contact with other humans, under strict supervision of guards, or a prison where you share a cell with five random people? Or even in a big dormitory where you are free to move about the place, kind of like a college campus from hell. The lower security the place you are at, the more contact you will have with other people, the more isolated you will be from guards, etc. The only advantage, from this perspective, of being at a lower security place, is that the people you are locked up with are less likely to be insane rapist murderers, and the less time they will be doing so the less likely they are to want to kill or rape you.