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Confronting Prison Rape

By TChris, Section Inmates and Prisons
Posted on Sat Aug 20, 2005 at 09:42:03 AM EST
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by TChris

Many in the "lock 'em up" crowd believe deprivation of liberty alone provides inadequate suffering to constitute true punishment. Some (particularly those who are certain that the innocent are never convicted) believe that any incarcerated person deserves whatever pain and abuse might be inflicted upon him. Others just don't care, which is why society largely ignores the problem of prison rape.

The National Prison Rape Elimination Commission is learning that the problem is too endemic to ignore. The effect of sexual abuse on individual inmates is devastating, but, as commission chairman Judge Reggie B. Walton recognizes, "people [who] say inmates get what they deserve ... don't think about the overall impact on society."

An inmate infected with H.I.V. in a prison rape may spread the disease after his release, and is likely to become an unnecessary burden on the public health system. Those whose lives are shattered by the prison system often turn to drugs after their release to block their pain.

At the very least, society has an obligation to safeguard the health of individuals we choose to incarcerate

"By doing nothing," [Rep. Barbara] Lee said, "we condone this inhumane and abusive behavior. Indifference, deliberate or not, violates the Eight Amendment of the Constitution banning cruel and unusual punishment."

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    Confronting Prison Rape | 10 comments (10 topical)
    Re: Confronting Prison Rape (none / 0) (#1)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:33 PM EST
    I hear the sound of strawmen falling.... Wasn't that one of those Bob Dylan songs? -C

    Re: Confronting Prison Rape (none / 0) (#2)
    by roy on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:33 PM EST
    It's an important topic, and an interesting writeup, if you skip a few blind swings at (just a wild guess here) conservatives.
    ...those who are certain that the innocent are never convicted...
    No adult believes that.
    Some ... believe that any incarcerated person deserves whatever pain and abuse might be inflicted upon him.
    Who believes that? I know plenty of people who believe the worst of the worse, such as Jeffrey Dahmer, deserve whatever they get. I know a few who would say drug dealers and non-trivial sex offenders deserve it too. But who the heck supports forcible sodomization for unpaid parking tickets? Could it be nobody?

    Re: Confronting Prison Rape (none / 0) (#3)
    by jackl2400 on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:33 PM EST
    Many people tacilty accept that anything that happens to an inmate in prison, rape included, is appropriate because the whole idea of imprisonment is horrible punishment (don't want any "country club prisons") and "sending messages" to those not in prison that prison is a horrible place. I'm sure that there are many conservatives, perhaps commenting on this board, that would answer any of these issues by claiming that someone incarcerated for drugs, say, "broke the law", "should have thought about that before blah blah blah", "made poor choices" and "deserves what's coming to him. The whole moralistic mentality is similar to lynch mob justice or to the crowds in medieval cities or today's Riyadh who love to show up to see executions in the street. It's all about the bloodlust which satisfies a more primitive part of the brain than rational thought. So it's not nobody, it may even be....-cliff?

    Re: Confronting Prison Rape (none / 0) (#4)
    by aahpat on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:33 PM EST
    Excuse my cynicism but prison rape is an absolute necessary component of the deterrent effect of prisons. Mandatory minimums of anal rape tough love is the core of the nation's anti drug programming/brain-washing. It is part of our culture. Can anyone name a comedian who does NOT have a prison rape joke in their routine? According to the Justice Department: "On July 31, the Justice Department released its first statistical report on prison rape and inmate sexual abuse, a report also required under the 2003 act. It estimated that there were at least 8,210 reported incidents of sexual abuse and rape a year within a prison population that exceeds 2.1 million." Mother Jones series, "Debt to society" in 2001 reported this: "...Cindy Struckman-Johnson of the University of South Dakota published a survey of the Nebraska prison system showing that almost 1 in 4 inmates had been "pressured or forced to have sexual contact against [their] will." In a follow-up study of seven prisons in the Midwest last year, Struckman-Johnson found that 1 in 10 prisoners had been forcibly raped -- some only once, others gang-raped repeatedly. Combining such studies with hundreds of testimonials from inmate rape victims, a California-based advocacy group called Stop Prison Rape estimates that as many as 364,000 prisoners are raped every year. Struckman-Johnson calls the estimate "within the realm of possibility."" So where does the JD get their piddling number?

    Re: Confronting Prison Rape (none / 0) (#5)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:33 PM EST
    But who the heck supports forcible sodomization for unpaid parking tickets? Could it be nobody?
    Yeah of course if you frame the issue that way it seems ridiculous, but the reality is that men and women do go to prison for minor, nonviolent offenses -- drug offenses being the classic example -- and wind up in situations where sexual violence is tolerated by the institution that's supposed to be housing them. And because many Americans do, in fact, figure that "you get what you deserve," if you go to prison or jail, for years nobody has called the institutions on their appalling indifference to this problem. If you think that's an exaggeration, you frankly just don't know what you're talking about.

    Re: Confronting Prison Rape (none / 0) (#6)
    by Kitt on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:33 PM EST
    roy - I know plenty of people who believe the worst of the worse, such as Jeffrey Dahmer, deserve whatever they get. Yesterday afternoon on CNN, I happened to catch the old grouchy guy, I promptly forgot - Cafferty! carrying on about the BTK killer. I don't know if this the same clip, but he did mention at one point, Rader's not lasting longer than six months or something. I was shocked - truly. I didn't watch Rader on television & personally don't see why his remarks would be televised. Many of the victim's families walked out of the courtroom. At the same time, you would expect more professionalism on the part of a 'newscaster' or 'commentator' - if that's what Jack is doing nowadays.

    Re: Confronting Prison Rape (none / 0) (#7)
    by wishful on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:33 PM EST
    If we successfully confront prison rape, maybe we are redeemable after all. We will see.

    Re: Confronting Prison Rape (none / 0) (#8)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:33 PM EST
    roy - You're obviously correct about the two nutbar claims made in TChris'S post. TChris is prone to childish generalizations. But, I have met several people who thought those rightly convicted of a serious crime deserve whatever abuse they get. And this would still be wrong, n'est pas? In my experience, though, people with that opinion are evenly distributed across the liberal/conservative divide. I didn't see an outcry from either end of the spectrum when the Boston priest convicted of child-abuse was murdered in prison a couple of years ago.

    Re: Confronting Prison Rape (none / 0) (#9)
    by squeaky on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:33 PM EST
    Grad- It is hard to get emotional about Geoghan's death. A 68 year old Priest, drunk with power, protected by the Vatican, who has abused over 150 children while they looked to him for spiritual guidance. Perhaps Druce was raping him while cutting off his air supply and it was all a mistake, he actually wanted to give Geoghan a sex rush. Neo-nazis and Christians, what will they think of next, behind closed doors?

    Re: Confronting Prison Rape (none / 0) (#10)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 01:02:35 PM EST
    Leaders of rape crisis groups understand that men are victims of prison rape, but they don't care enough to use their considerable lobbying clout to help those victims. It's easier to talk about female victims of date rape.

    Confronting Prison Rape | 10 comments (10 topical)