Guards are the worst prison-rapists
More than 7.3 million Americans are confined in U.S. correctional facilities or supervised in the community, at a cost of more than $68 billion annually. Given our country's enormous investment in corrections, we should ensure that these environments are as safe and productive as they can be. Sexual abuse undermines those goals. It makes correctional environments more dangerous for staff as well as prisoners, consumes scarce resources, and undermines rehabilitation. It also carries the potential to devastate the lives of victims. The many interrelated consequences of sexual abuse for individuals and society are difficult to pinpoint and nearly impossible to quantify, but they are powerfully captured in individual accounts of abuse and its impact.National Prison Rape Elimination Commission - Publication - Report - Executive Summary (via MeFi)Former prisoner Necole Brown told the Commission, "I continue to contend with flashbacks of what this correctional officer did to me and the guilt, shame, and rage that comes with having been sexually violated for so many years. I felt lost for a very long time struggling with this. . . . I still struggle with the memories of this ordeal and take it out on friends and family who are trying to be there for me now."
Air Force veteran Tom Cahill, who was arrested and detained for just a single night in a San Antonio jail, recalled the lasting effects of being gang-raped and beaten by other inmates. "I've been hospitalized more times than I can count and I didn't pay for those hospitalizations, the tax payers paid. My career as a journalist and photographer was completely derailed. . . . For the past two decades, I've received a non-service connected security pension from the Veteran's Administration at the cost of about $200,000 in connection with the only major trauma I've ever suffered, the rape." ...
Victims and witnesses often are bullied into silence and harmed if they speak out. In a letter to the advocacy organization Just Detention International, one prisoner conveyed a chilling threat she received from the male officer who was abusing her: "Remember if you tell anyone anything, you'll have to look over your shoulder for the rest of your life." Efforts to promote reporting must be accompanied by policies and protocols to protect victims and witnesses from retaliation. And because some incarcerated individuals will never be comfortable reporting abuse internally, facilities must give prisoners the option of speaking confidentially with a crisis center or other outside agency.
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The title, "Guards are the worst prison-rapists", is not a good assumption to make when what follows is, "prisoners report more rape committed by guards than by other prisoners". I would imagine that it is safer for inmates to report guards than to report fellow inmates.
"Guards are the worst prison-rapists"
So who are the best?
That wording is a little wonky.
WEAPONX - exactly!
Who is the best prison-rapist? You can't leave that question hanging Cory... ;^)
I can hear a succession of right-wing talking heads proclaiming "But it's PRISON! You're supposed to be PUNISHED! If we take a way the rape it'll be like going to a fancy resort!!!"
Fat, overweight cons make the best prison-rapists. The doughy folds of back fat are a great place to hide cigarettes.
I have noticed, from the comments on several American news sites, that lots of people seem to consider rape to be part of punishment of state incarceration. Not that they say so outright, because that would identify them with the few barbarous societies where rape is in fact used as a mob punishment; instead they tolerate prison rapes, joke about it, and seem to relish the idea of convicts being raped. I think it is shocking and despicable that people joke about men being raped in prison; it should be every bit as abhorrent to the right-thinking person as a woman being raped in prison.
The fact that prison rape is at all acceptable, anywhere in the world, that it is the subject of jokes, is appalling and more than a little depressing.
Rape? No, no, you have been misguided. We do not 'rape' in prison.
We do, however, if absolutely necessary, reserve the right to use 'deep penetrading correctional techniques'.
Christ, the comment thread is almost more nauseating than the report itself. Thanks guys.
A guard's not going to shank you in the shower if you snitch.
I'm willing to bet good money that guards commit only an extremely small minority of prison rapes. It's silly to group men's prisons and women's prisons for these purposes. Rape by guards and rape by fellow inmates just aren't the same thing.
Furthermore, you quote two anecdotes, but only one of them is about rape by a guard.
Freshyill, so more anecdotes would have made it data?
Kudos Cory.
Rape is an insidious thing and everyone knows it is. And yet rape in the context of prisons is one of those many issues that you find under rugs.
Thanks for this. I've offered the opinion that no one deserves to be raped - cons or not - may times only to be met by the "hur hur hur...don't drop the soap...that's what they deserve" right wing vomitus so many times that I just about hold my tongue now when I hear people bring the subject up. It's nice to see others here who feel the same way.
Lots of people go to jail or prison for very minor or non-violent offenses, and I don't think that state sanctioned (or tolerated) rape should be part of their corrections experience.
I always wonder how quickly the tune would change for some of these people who make light of this sort of thing if they had a son or daughter who were arrested for some stupid, penny-ante offense.
@Freshyill - you'd lose your money. If you read the second page of the report, you'll see the following: "... 1.6 percent reported abuse by another inmate, and 2 percent reported incidents perpetrated by staff ...".
Note that this is apparently 'reported' in the sense of 'ticked the box on the questionnaire', not in the sense of 'made a complaint'.
sn't rp th nly dtrrnt lft fr prsns. f thy gt rd f t wht fr f prsn s lft?
FRESHYLL -- You seem to have a loose and strong sense of your own authority on this subject, judging from the stupid arrogance of your comments. Do you base what you're saying on some kind of reservoir of knowledge on the subject? D'you do a lot of research? It's an awfully broad topic. And you sound pretty sure of yourself, challenging a study performed, ostensibly, by people devoted to the issue.
Or are you simply a blathering idiot? Let's see here, you end with: "Furthermore, you quote two anecdotes, but only one of them is about rape by a guard."
Cory quotes an excerpt from a study. You make it sound as if he's said two things, then run out of steam, as if to prove his point. But he links the report--an entire report devoted to the topic. I'm assuming you've read it, right?
Right?
Your rhetoric doesn't exactly distinguish you.
FRESHYLL opined that: Rape by guards and rape by fellow inmates just aren't the same thing.
No, indeed. Actually, it's worse if the rapists are guards, because then, there's no authority to complain to. (Not that complaining of rapist inmates can accomplish much, if you were put in that kind of prison in the first place. It means that society and the justice system have given up on you. Which enables the clever perverts, those who managed to get a job as prison guards, to prey on you with near impunity.)
As someone that's been in the "care" of the Prison system, my experience has been that Guards are more cruel than the inmates, though I never witnessed (whew!) any actual rape by either prison guards or inmates.
I did feel that if the wrong inmate was housed in the same cell block, raping would occur. I don't think that rape is something that an inmate chooses to do because they can't get laid while in prison, it's a fault that's hard wired into them and they'll do it whether they're inside or out.
And remember, Inmates are forced to go to prison, prison guards choose to go to prison. It takes a "special" kind of person to do that on a daily basis.
"Extrapolated to the national prison population, an estimated 60,500 State and Federal prisoners were sexually abused during that 12-month period. ... More prisoners reported abuse by staff than abuse by other prisoners..."
I'm sure the media outrage over this report will flare up any day now - especially among those pro-war pundits who highlighted Saddam's "rape rooms" in Iraq.
"Every woman in Iraq is better off because the rape rooms and torture chambers of Saddam Hussein are forever closed." (George W. Bush, 12-Mar-2004)
"Sexual abuse...also carries the potential to devastate the lives of victims."
Written almost like an afterthought. I think good form dictates that one lists the impact on the victim, even if it means stating the obvious.
``A plane carrying 230 passengers crashed into a substation today, knocking out electrical service to the city's northeast. Officials say power will be restored within two weeks, at a cost of $20m. Also, all 230 passengers were killed.''
Let me state my view here, to clear it up, because as a blathering iditot, I sometimes fail to make myself clear:
I'm addressing Cory's take on the study, not the study itself.
I read Cory's take on it, and I was left with questions. Cory focused on the fact that guards are supposedly the most notorious prison rapists, but didn't support that with the quoted material. "Guards are the worst prison-rapists" may be factual, but the statement wasn't supported. Studies like this aren't written for casual readers, so we rely on trustworthy, quality reporting to make sense of it.
Here's a game plan.
End the war on drugs. Make unlawful drug possession a civil offense. Regulate marijuana and other soft drugs. Control access to more dangerous ones. Abolish mandatory minimums. Give "criminals" who were given mandatory minimum sentences the chance for an appeal to reduce or convert sentence.
Goal? Reduce the load on the prison system.
Effect? Higher quality prisons (less over crowding, more resources) more money for things like the suggested sexual assault overwatch, less guards, thus screening process can be more in depth or more selective.
For justification, check out this handy cited website.
http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/?q=node/63
You could easily blame prison rape on the drug war. I just did.
My best friend is on this committee!!!
@6, women get raped in prison just as much as men.
#1: "I would imagine that it is safer for inmates to report guards than to report fellow inmates."
I am in a position to be able to tell you that you are indeed only imagining.
#24, bad phrasing on my part perhaps. What I meant is that I've never seen a comment suggesting that women should ever be raped in prison as an acceptable part of the punishment, but (even in this comment thread) plenty of jokes about men being raped. I'm sure it's all too common for both male and female inmates, but it's unfortunately not considered equally abhorrent for some people.
Stanford prison experiment:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment
Crap. Crap. It's one thing to know that it's done, another to see it spelled out in gory detail.
Before some younger men go into prison, here in Sydney, they have a fairly practical lesson on surviving in prison. A tutorial on performing oral sex, suppressing the gag reflex.
This anecdote, shared with me by a friend who acts as the lawyer for many young men about to be imprisoned, stuck in mind about the reality of prison and that sexual abuse is an every day occurence.
We seem to want to lock the door and throw away the key as a society but people come out of prisons more damaged and more dangerous than they were before.
But no one wants to listen to this.
"Rape by guards and rape by fellow inmates just aren't the same thing." Are you kidding or just delusional. ITS STILL RAPE!!!
If the prison administrators can't stop this type and all types of violent crime in prisons, they should be sued, sued, and sued again. It's criminal negligence, and they should be relieved of all their financial assets and barred from ever administrating a prison system again.
Then, put them in their own prison.
Not kidding.
Reminds me of Oz, the hbo show. Wasn't afraid to show women guards raping the men - something that they don't like to talk about, how women can also be rapists.
Gelapno,
A) Claire was having sex with Ryan in return for favors. More prostitution than rape.
B) It's a TV show.
One of the things I hate about Michael Savage (Radio Commentator) he along with many others allow this as colateral damage (rape).