Posted on 02/12/2007 11:22:29 AM PST by B-Chan
"I've been sentenced for a D.U.I. offense. My 3rd one. When I first came to prison, I had no idea what to expect. Certainly none of this. I'm a tall white male, who unfortunately has a small amount of feminine characteristics. And very shy. These characteristics have got me raped so many times I have no more feelings physically. I have been raped by up to 5 black men and two white men at a time. I've had knifes at my head and throat. I had fought and been beat so hard that I didn't ever think I'd see straight again. One time when I refused to enter a cell, I was brutally attacked by staff and taken to segragation though I had only wanted to prevent the same and worse by not locking up with my cell mate. There is no supervision after lockdown. I was given a conduct report. I explained to the hearing officer what the issue was. He told me that off the record, He suggests I find a man I would/could willingly have sex with to prevent these things from happening. I've requested protective custody only to be denied. It is not available here. He also said there was no where to run to, and it would be best for me to accept things . . . . I probably have AIDS now. I have great difficulty raising food to my mouth from shaking after nightmares or thinking to hard on all this . . . . I've laid down without physical fight to be sodomized. To prevent so much damage in struggles, ripping and tearing. Though in not fighting, it caused my heart and spirit to be raped as well. Something I don't know if I'll ever forgive myself for."
***
The letter excerpted above was one of the first to reach Human Rights Watch in response to a small announcement posted in Prison Legal News and Prison Life Magazine, two publications with a wide audience in U.S. prisons. Having been alerted to the problem of prisoner-on-prisoner rape in the United States by the work of activists like Stephen Donaldson of the organization Stop Prisoner Rape, we had decided to conduct exploratory research into the topic and had put a call out to prisoners for information. The resulting deluge of letters--many of which included compelling firsthand descriptions such as this--convinced us that the issue merited urgent attention. Rape, by prisoners' accounts, was no aberrational occurrence; instead it was a deeply-rooted, systemic problem. It was also a problem that prison authorities were doing little to address.
The present report--the product of three years of research and well over a thousand inmate letters--describes the complex dynamics of male prisoner-on-prisoner sexual abuse in the United States. The report is an effort to explain why and how such abuse occurs, who commits it and who falls victim to it, what are its effects, both physical and psychological, how are prison authorities coping with it and, most importantly, what reforms can be instituted to better prevent it from occurring.
***
The Scope of this Report
This report is limited in scope to male prisoner-on-prisoner sexual abuse in the United States. It does not cover women prisoners, nor does it cover the sexual abuse of male prisoners by their jailers. Human Rights Watch investigated the problem of custodial sexual misconduct in U.S. women's prisons in two previous reports and the issue has been a continuing focus of our U.S. advocacy efforts. As to custodial sexual misconduct against male prisoners, we decided not to include that topic within the scope of this report even though some prisoners who claimed to have been subject to such abuse did contact us. An initial review of the topic convinced us that it involved myriad issues that were distinct from the topic at hand, which is complicated enough in itself.
Even though the notices that Human Rights Watch circulated to announce our research on prisoner-on-prisoner sexual abuse were written in gender-neutral language, we received no information from women prisoners regarding the problem. As prison experts are well aware, penal facilities for men and women tend to differ in important respects. If the problem of prisoner-on-prisoner sexual abuse exists in women's institutions--a possibility we do not exclude--it is likely to take somewhat different forms than in men's prisons.
For several reasons, the primary focus of this report is on sexual abuse in prisons, rather than jails. Most importantly, all of our information save a handful of letters came from prison as opposed to jail inmates. Many of these prisoners did, however, describe sexual abuses they had suffered when previously held in jails, allowing us to gather some information on the topic. Nonetheless, the bulk of our prisoner testimonies and documentation--and all of the information we collected from state authorities--pertain specifically to prisons. Already, with fifty separate state prison jurisdictions in the United States, the task of collecting official information was difficult; obtaining such information from the many thousands of local authorities responsible for city and county jails would have been infinitely more so. Yet we should emphasize that our lack of specific research on jails should be not interpreted as suggesting that the problem does not occur there. Although little research has been done on sexual assault in jails, the few commentators who have examined the topic have found the abuse to be similarly or even more prevalent there.
It is evident to Human Rights Watch, even without having completed exhaustive research into the jail context, that the problems we describe with regard to prisons generally hold true for jails as well. This conclusion derives from the fact that most of the risk factors leading to rape exist in prisons and jails alike. We therefore believe that our recommendations for reform are largely applicable in the jail context, and we urge jail authorities to pay increased attention to the issue of prisoner-on-prisoner sexual abuse.
While this report does not deal specifically with juvenile institutions, we note that previous research, while extremely scanty, suggests that inmate-on-inmate sexual abuse may be even more common in juvenile institutions than it is in facilities for adults. Indeed, a case filed recently by the U.S. Justice Department in federal court to challenge conditions in a Louisiana juvenile institution includes serious allegations of inmate-on-inmate rape.
Finally, our choice of U.S. prisons as the subject of this research, over prisons elsewhere in the world, in no way indicates that we believe the problem to be unique to the United States. On the contrary, our international prison research convinces us that prisoner-on-prisoner rape is of serious concern around the world. We note that several publications on human rights or prison conditions in other countries have touched on or explored the topic, as have past Human Rights Watch prison reports.(8) Interestingly, researchers outside of the United States have reached many of the same conclusions as researchers here, suggesting that specific cultural variables are not determinative with regard to rape in prison.(9)
***
Methodology
The report is primarily based on information collected from over 200 prisoners spread among thirty-seven states. The majority of these inmates have been raped or otherwise sexually abused while in prison, and were therefore able to give firsthand accounts of the problem. Numerous inmates who were not subject to sexual abuse also provided their views on the topic, including information about sexual assaults that they had witnessed. A very small number of inmates who had themselves participated in rape also contributed their perspectives. Much of the information was received via written correspondence, although Human Rights Watch representatives spoke by telephone with a number of prisoners, and personally interviewed twenty-six of them. Prisoner testimonies were supplemented by documentary materials such as written grievances, court papers, letters, and medical records.
Prisoners were contacted using several different methods. Human Rights Watch posted announcements in a number of publications and leaflets that reach prisoners--including Prison Legal News, Prison Life Magazine (which has since ceased publication), and Florida Prison Legal Perspectives--informing them that we were conducting research on the topic of prisoner-on-prisoner sexual abuse and that we welcomed their information. Several organizations that work with prisoners, including Stop Prisoner Rape, put us in contact with additional inmates.
The prisoners who collaborated in our efforts were thus a largely self-selected group, not a random sampling. Previous researchers have conducted quantitative studies using statistically valid techniques in certain U.S. prisons -- most recently, in 1998 in seven midwestern state prison systems -- but, given that there are some two million prisoners in the United States, this would be difficult to achieve on a national scale. The research on which the present report was based was thus qualitative in nature: it sought to identify systemic weaknesses rather than to quantify actual cases of abuse. The result, we believe, sketches the outlines of a national problem, bridging the gap between academic research on the topic and the more anecdotal writings that occasionally appear in the popular press.
The prisoners with whom Human Rights Watch was in contact, we should emphasize, did not simply serve as a source of case material. Rather, their comments and insights--based on firsthand knowledge and close observation--inform every page of the report.
Besides prisoners, we also obtained valuable information from prison officials, prison experts, lawyers who represent prisoners, prisoners rights organizations, and prisoners' relatives. Written materials including academic studies, books, and articles from the popular press supplemented these sources. In addition, Human Rights Watch conducted an extensive review of the case law relevant to prison rape in the United States.
Sheesh, it's hard to believe that any freepers could be this dense. I'd expect such utter lack of thought and real-world knowledge out of a moonbat crowd, but not a bunch of freepers!!!
"Don't violate the law"
And if you do, don't let them take you alive...
The part in bold may be one of the dumber things I've ever seen posted here.
Here in Georgia, we just had a man released from prison because DNA exonerated him from a rape conviction. He served 21 years. It does happen.
I remember a while back reading an account by a former guard at Angola State Prison in Louisiana (being interviewed anonymously) about the situation there in the Fifties and Sixties. The gist of it was that homosexual rape was a tool used by the prison administration to maintain control of the facilities. They were understaffed, and couldn't really control the behavior of largest, most aggressive inmates short of shooting them (which led to all sorts of uncomfortable state investigations and such), so to keep them quiescent they would arrange for "the blondest boy" out of the next load of inmates to be sent to their cell as a reward for the bad guy in question remaining relatively cooperative with the guards. Also, troublemakers were set up for it while the staff looked the other way - a situation that has also occurred in California at Corcoran State Prison as recently as two years ago (a well-publicized case).
The point is that it doesn't appear to be totally random - at well-run facilities, homosexual rape is virtually non-existent - but when it does happen the staff is frequently at fault - either through disinterest or as an active co-conspirator.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
And they are justifying rape, which is still a crime the last time I checked. That is sick.
DON'T DRINK AND DRIVE, DOOFUS!!!!!
I also have a hard time feeling sorry for someone after their third DUI. So I really don't have any symphathy for the guy. My friend just lost her hubby to a drunk driver (4th DUI) in August 2006. Her hubby's was coming home from work after a 12 hour shift. They had 2 little boys and she was 5 months pregnant with their 3rd child. She is in her twenties and left to raise 3 kids under the age of 5 on her own. So I have a very hard time feeling sorry for a drunk drivers. She has my symphathy, her hubby was 100% innocent.
A black male in the United States has about a 1 in 3 chance of going to prison during his lifetime. For a Hispanic male, it's 1 in 6; for a white male, 1 in 17.
That's prison, mind you, not merely jail, like I was stuck in for a night.
Jail rates --- for everything from traffic tickets to MIP to being a material witness --- is much higher --- I do not recall the numbers but far in excess of 50% --- I think 75% --- of U.S. males will have been in jail at least once in their lives.
So, yes, that qualifies as "very easy."
While you don't apparently care about these people, 95 percent of all inmates are eventually released. Upon release, male prisoner rape survivors bring with them a lot of baggage that makes them much more likely to be violent upon release.
So, if nothing else, care to protect your own ass.
Exactly. It is not a job a normal, sane person would want, which is why the prisons end up employing so many who are callous or downright sadistic.
Wow. I really have to disagree. It's an injustice for cops to administer gratuitous beatings. It's injustice for guards to ignore criminal behavior in jail.
We've made pretty good strides in creating more professional cops. We ought to do the same thing with prison guards.
A LOT of people want this job.
Well, so far we have a the border patrol agents, someobody else guessed that a percentage of males in prison are innocent and we have your one guy. That's a long way from "it's very easy......".
I don't agree that it's "very easy" for 100% innocent people to "end up in the slammer". If I believed that I'd be pretty incensed and very active to get all these innocent people freed. Is is possible for innocent people to be jailed? Yep! Is it "very easy"? Nope. If it was most people in jail would be innocent. Again, it was a dumb thing to say.
We had a guy like that in Louisiana had been in prison since the early 80's and was exonerated through DNA evidence. My heart goes out to folks like that spending all that time in prison for a crime you didn't commit. Thank goodness for DNA.
We had a guy like that in Louisiana had been in prison since the early 80's and was exonerated through DNA evidence. My heart goes out to folks like that spending all that time in prison for a crime you didn't commit. I just think if it wasn't for the DNA these guys would have never got out. Some of those guys had exhausted most of their appeals before they were cleared by DNA evidence.
Prove that.
You are very wrong.
I was on a jury last week that aquitted a man charged with "domestic battery", all on the account of his angry crazy ex-wife trying to exact revenge. That was a Class A misdemeanor with the possibility of jail time, and I'm glad to say I helped spare him his ex's revenge.
He was only caught for the third time. No doubt he drove intoxicated countless times more.
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