Putting An End To Prison Rape
There is a prison in Texas where 15.7% of the inmates were raped in the preceding year alone. Think about that for a second. One in six inmates were raped either by other inmates or those charged with guarding them -- which in that prison alone means there were 470 victims of sexual violence in a 12-month period. In any country that likes to think of itself as a beacon of freedom, this is outrageous and must be stopped.
While the percentage is not quite as significant at other prisons around the country, it is still disgracefully high, especially for those who are violated in the most dehumanizing way possible. This includes over 100,000 men, women and yes -- CHILDREN -- a fact that should be every bit as shocking, embarrassing and downright sickening as those photos from Abu Ghraib.
Well, now seems like the perfect time to do something about this. It is currently Sexual Assault Awareness month, and we are approaching the end of a deadline (June 2010) for the Attorney General to act on recommendations mandated by the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), passed in 2003. You want bipartisanship in Washington? I give you a bill that was unanimously passed, co-sponsored by Sens. Teddy Kennedy and Jeff Sessions, and signed into law by George W. Bush. Its standards were created by a bipartisan federal commission upon consultation with corrections officials, criminal justice experts, advocates and prison-rape survivors.
So what can you do to make sure the Obama Administration enacts these common-sense solutions, such as weeding out known predators, ensuring the especially vulnerable receive additional monitoring and increasing the overall transparency of our corrections system by providing independent audits of our prisons? You can quite literally make your voice heard.
How? By adding your public comment to the rising tide of those who realize that whether your issue is improving public health, creating a more just and moral society or saving taxpayer money (think litigation), ensuring Attorney General Holder codifies the federal regulations mandated by the PREA, forthwith, should be a top priority.
Martin Luther King, Jr. once said that "In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends." In the era of interactive media, you needn't be part of the elite to make your voice heard. Every one of us has a weapon in our very own progressive arsenal, our ability to raise our voices quite publicly. So speak up, and become a part of a campaign to further ensure we live in the America we want and deserve.
**I am proud to be a media consultant for Just Detention International
I've often wondered why prisoners or ex-prisoners don't sue or mount a class action about this. It seems to me that the government has a duty of care, and that when prisoners are assaulted or raped by other prisoners then it has been negligent in its duty. It amazes me that in this day and age this can still be going on.
Many, many women raped by men don't tell anyone about it. Men being raped by other men? It's a power thing. Do I need to say anything else?
since so many people return to prison, usually on parole violations, they have legitimate fears of being branded as snitches. Being shanked is (probably) worse than being raped.
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
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Good luck with that the courts are usually controlled by Republicans that feel that the only people with less standing in their courts than an average shareholder in a corporation is a prisoner in custody.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IQmEwK6I20
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Am I the only one that finds the Progressive girl HOT?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
I'm right there with ya. Can't put my finger on it but......
is intended to be a factual statement
on their way in....Sorry could not resist...
It will be to the "Tennis anyone?" Country club style prison. Someone please tell me they don't exist any more.
But how exactly is a law going to stop a bunch of people IN PRISON from raping people?
They'll teach it in tandem with abstinence only, try and scare them straight.
All the time and effort PETA expends saving animals and we all let this go on in prisons. Prisons aren't just a sentence of time lost but there is lot of brutalization and rape that is accepted in our "enlightened culture".Legally, even the most violent criminal doesn't deserve this. They deserve their prison sentence. Then when I look at what happens to those that we send away that have committed non-violent crimes it sickens me. We all know it isn't going to get better in a faltering economy and privatized prisons.Reminds me of a few lines in the movie Running Time. (I paraphrase)Bruce Campbell walking out of prison, to the inmates left behind."See ya, I'll give your love to your wives." A prisoner off screen "%$#@ you." Bruce Campbell- "Not anymore."
That the main problem is corruption of officials and guards. As some have pointed out for years- you know you are in trouble with the "war on drugs" when you can't keep them out of a walled establishment like a prison. I would guess it is the same with keeping violence /rape out, if you have the connections or money the officials will look the other way. I know there may be some great officials and guards out there but the system is stacked against them.
I meet the superintendent of one of the county prison systems in NH a few months ago. He's apparently against the incarceration of non-violent drug offenders since it was a LEAP presentation I meet him at. I'd say he's probably one of the good ones. But there certainly is a certain culture of corruption associated with prison officials in America. And even more so in the 'privatized' systems.
PETA is a different entity entirely. You might as well tell people to forget about breast cancer and focus only on prison rape.
We can cover all topics, honestly.
Odd combination of words
END to prison RAPE...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
^
Its self pepetualizing. The system has no incentive to rehabilitate people when their jobs depend on it for raises and promotions. The worst offenders are given parole that they know will be back and those who pose no threat must serve out long sentences for nonviolent offenses.
Republicans are liars and simply cannot be trusted.
Christian America depends on the threat of male rape in prison to keep their flock, as well as the rest, toeing the line.
Christian American Military also depends on the threat of gay rape to keep soldiers and prisoners and espionage in line.
This is also why they don't want to end DADT. It's such a useful tool of threat, intimidation and blackmail.
I think they rely on the faithful's fear of eternal damnation to Hell.
Don't try to confuse the issue with half-truths and gorilla dust.
Prison culture, esp. when incarceration rates are this high, makes it's way into popular culture. That should scare more people, but they have no idea how broken prison culture is. Some that do, don't consider it bad. They think it is great that rape is part of the punishment.
And then we export it too. While much of the world was astonished at Abu Ghraib, some prison activists said they were sad but not surprised.
Transgenders should get the best oversight. A male-to-female will end up in an all male wing of a prison because incarceration is based on the sex written down on your birth certificate.
Are they prisons or seminaries?
Semenaries...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
What is up with America and prison rape? I've never heard about it over here. AFAIK there are also no gangs in prison here.
Bite my shiny metal ass.
http://www.startalkradio.net/
Soooo many hypocrites..........
Does the number 1 macho state in the union
also lead the country in homosexual man on man rape?
That is downright seditious if not hilarious.
Unless judges are willing to be more honest and say "I sentence you to be raped" this has to end! And end now! This is a national disgrace that our judicial system quite literally sentences prisoners to the cruel and unusual punishment of rape.
A just cause, but not a chance in hell it will happen anytime soon. We are a vengeance culture, especially if we are punishing minorities, who are dark and scary.
I wonder if the righties would support prison reform if they knew that whites are subject to prison rape more often at the hands of minorities? You know, just in case they actually get caught committing some "white" collar crime.
http://www.mochadad.com/wp-content/uploads/20...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Makes me wonder if we are ignoring the root of the problem. The legal system is inaccesible to any form of dissent in any institution. Lawyers compete for retention by the most powerful. Judges pander to the same lot.
Before addressing this sub-legal issue, we need to make law accessible and harsh punitive measures taken against those in the legal profession who benefit from its dysfunction.
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