VANCOUVER, Wash. -- Clark County Jail officials are looking for new ways to stop inmate sexual assaults.

That’s after a federal report released last month showed an inmate sex victimization rate three times the national average.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics ranked the Clark County Jail second out of 282 local jails, right behind the Torrance, County facility in California.

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"Although it is impossible to investigate those specific allegations, we have taken the report seriously, are gathering as many facts as possible, are currently examining our practices and will make every effort to reduce the risk to inmates and staff," Clark County Sheriff Garry Lucas said in a statement Wednesday.

 More: Read the report (PDF)

The National Inmate Survey was required by the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 and sampled more than 40,000 inmates anonymously in 2007.

The rate for Clark County was 9.1 percent of inmates reporting being victims of non-consensual sex in prison.

Lucas said a task force was put in place to release a report by the end of the year. In the meantime, more staff and inmate education and training practices were put in place at local jails.

The survey on sexual victimization was conducted by RTI International, Research Triangle Park. It only reported allegations of sexual victimization and officials said some allegations may be untrue, federal officials said.