Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Why is ass rape allowed in US prisons?

Five years ago, a Marmot's Hole regular named KrZ, our resident convicted drug felon, made a point about gang rape that is commonplace in US prisons being an added punishment for drug convictions:
U.S. drug laws are no joke either, plus you get the added extreme violence and anal rape/salad tossing of U.S. prisons. U.S. sentencing guidelines do allow for the death penalty for possesion of certain quantities of marijuana and other drugs, and our mandatory minimums are very high for all drugs. If I had the choice of serving time in a Korean prison or serving time in a U.S. prison I’d pick Korea. No ass-raping and you can still vote and be treated like a normal human when you get out and return to the U.S.
I always thought KrZ was an intriguing person, and he really seems to have a sensible head on his shoulders — except for the drug selling. Anyway, the type of thing he describes has long been one big reason I lean toward drug decriminalization (favoring, for now, treatment instead of prison, and possibly full legalization).

Indeed, a lot of people in America seem to treat prison rape as just desserts deserts for whatever crime you committed, and it's a staple of late-night comedy. Me, I think it's horrifying and cruel to subject even criminals to frequent and inescapable sexual assault, and it's encouraging that some are starting to bring this to light as the serious problem it really is.

From the Los Angeles Times:
Prison rape is an uncomfortable subject rarely covered in newspapers, a laugh line on late-night television. But the reality is that rape in our prisons is a national scandal. A study by the Bureau of Justice Statistics in 2007 found that more than 60,000 adult inmates and -- even worse -- 1 in 8 juveniles in custody had been sexually assaulted in the previous year.

Nearly a year ago, the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission issued a strong report on the scope of the problem and what must be done to address it. But for its proposed reforms to be implemented, we must overcome the inertia and resistance to change within our prison system. Efforts to set standards for prison officials and establish the means to hold them accountable for ending prison rape remain bottled up in the Justice Department bureaucracy.

Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. is committed to ending prison rape. But instead of taking immediate action, he is allowing bureaucrats to spend another year redoing the work already completed by the Prison Rape Commission. Meanwhile, more adults and juveniles in our prisons will be sexually assaulted.
Unfortunately for the incarcerated, complaints that this could go on for another year are more likely to be met with tiny violins than a call to action. But action needs to be taken:
The standards proposed by the [Prison Rape Commission] are straightforward. They require, for example, assessing which inmates are more vulnerable to being raped, and they call for isolating likely predators. Because guards also commit sexual assaults, the report called for pat-downs and strip searches to be conducted by an officer of the same sex, except in exigent circumstances. It also called for each rape be treated as a crime. You would think prison administrators would not have to be told such a thing.
This is indeed a national shame. Prisoners are people — people who we do not want as damaged souls living amongst us once they are released. Being raped was not part of anybody's sentence, and we should stop treating it like an "Oh, well, you shouldn't have done the crime then" kind of issue.

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2 comments:

  1. BrianWednesday, April 07, 2010 10:23:00 AM

    Thanks for sharing this.

    Our prisons are a national embarrassment, as is the number of incarcerated Americans. (That's not a line about decriminalizing certain things, that's about a culture---and cultures within that culture---that perpectuates disrespect, violence, and criminal behavior.)

    It bothers me very much that prison rape is considered a joke. Jay Leno would never make a joke about a woman getting raped on the street, yet even the most vanilla of comics and entertainers laugh about "dropping the soap" or whatever. Jail is a place where you're sent to serve your time, not where you're expected to face violence, rape, abuse, and torture. That guards and authorities permit it and other violence and gang activity to go on shows not only the disgustingly low regard they hold for those in their charge, but also the very low level of employee those detention facilities attract. When I read articles or watch shows about prisons and prison guards, it's remarkable that the officers often come across worse than the criminals.

    People talk about solitary confinement being inhumane, but damn, if I ever wind up in jail I'd request it. No way I'm going to live in fear of my life while under the care and protection of the government.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousFriday, February 24, 2012 12:24:00 PM

    Having been to prison in the USA, I can reply and relate to this question. The Prison I went to is totally understaffed and underfunded. Most of the inmates are black, and believe me, most are very dominant and violent. The whites are a minority, and the weaker ones like myself dont stand a chance.
    As a way to pacify the dominant blacks and keep some sense of peace on cellblocks, the guards usually look the other way, and often assist the blacks in their goals of sexual assaults.

    In my case, I was the stereotype white most likely to get raped. Young(19) white, slim, blonde hair and blue eyed ,not associated with any gang, and not an agressive fighter.

    The first evening, after lock up, my cell and several others mysteriously were unlocked and then the guard disappeared. Within seconds my cell was full of the huge musclebound blacks, and rather quickly I was stripped waist down and flipped around like a rag doll on my cot with my ass propped up in the air. Gagging my mouth with a huge hand and pinned and trapped with no way out, I never had a chance. Violently, big dick slammed at my little ass hole, with every thrust deeper, and it was the most worst existance of my life period. The assault took around 2 hours, and I had passed out during some of it, so I never even knew how many there were. When they were done, the cell door was slammed shut. Battered, bruised, torn open, violated, nausious, I was a wreck , physically and mentally.

    Day 2, more of the same, hard but much easier than the first night. Then I attracted the attention of a guard who transferred me to segregation.

    From then on, you are a marked person known to most inmates as a piece of ass. I lasted about a month in seg, where I physically healed up.

    Then some inmate or gang manipulated a transferred back to population. I was threatened with a shank. Fuck or get stabbed. Scared, I submitted, and I spread it, and gave it up. I found out real quick after the initial assaults my ass had healed up sized to accept the black dick without pain. I laid there and basically let him fuck all he wanted, and once he finished, 5 more followed. Then it gets to be a regular thing where they dont even threaten you. They demand ass , and you supply
    ass, period.Quickly your body gets used to it, and soon, its a normal occurance in there, every day, several times a day, maybe 2 hours in a 24 hour timeframe.

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