Their shoes have been taken by other inmates. To keep bulldogging to a minimum, jail administrators try to keep people arrested for minor offenses such as failure to pay traffic tickets separated from inmates with extensive prison experience or who are charged with violent crimes. The larger the jail, the more complex the process. Overcrowding and understaffing undermine the classification procedures and sometimes put weaker, less-experienced inmates in danger. Inmates and corrections officers say bulldogging is common in jails.
Sexual assaults are less common than bulldogging in county jails.
But inmates and officers say they do happen. One national study by a group that offers counseling to victims of jail rapes claims that an inmate's chance of being sexually assaulted in a detention center is one in 10.