Last week that neglectful balloon burst when the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics reported that in a survey of 40,419 inmates in 282 lockups around the nation, the Clark County Jail ranked second-worst in claims of sexual abuse of prisoners.

Second worst!

In the nation!

Clark County!

Of 163 inmates surveyed in the county jail system, 9.1 percent reported having been victims of sexual abuse. That would be 15 inmates. The worst jail on the ignominious list: Torrance County Detention Center in New Mexico, with 13.4 percent of 67 inmates reporting sexual abuse. Still, Clark County’s percentage was about three times the national average of 3.2 percent.

The report caught some county officials by surprise, including  commissioners Marc Boldt and Steve Stuart. That, in itself, is troubling. We’d have  preferred that this significant and ongoing problem had been high on the county’s radar screen and that the corrective measures that Sheriff Garry Lucas announced Wednesday had been taken without prodding by the U.S. Department of Justice. One signal came two months earlier in a study commissioned by the Clark County Custody Officers Guild that showed the jail is 22 guards short of the mimimum staffing level.

In any case, Lucas and Commander Keith Kilian are taking commendable corrective steps to fix the problem, including establishment of an internal county hot line for inmates to report alleged abuse.

“We have taken the report seriously (and) are gathering as many facts as possible (and) examining our practices and will make every effort to reduce the risk to inmates and staff,” Lucas said in a prepared statement. He is convening a committee to look further into the problem.