No Escape: Male Rape In U.S. Prisons

Human Rights Watch ^ | 2007.02.12 | Joanne Mariner

[B-Chan]

I don't think I'm Jackie Chan, just gritty and savage enough to fight off a pack of assailants.

I don't care if you are Jackie Chan. You've got to sleep sooner or later.

With all due respect: in my experience, this sort of tough guy talk comes from guys who have never actually had the living shit kicked out of them by a group of guys. I have. I've been beaten so hard that the guys who did it could have shoved a beer keg up my ass and I'd've been helpless to stop them. The fact that I am alive, reasonably whole, and so far unsodomized is entirely due to God's protective Hand.

I'm no Ali, but in my salad days I was a better-than-average rough and tumble fighter. However, I've had my ass handed to me more than once. The truth is that no matter how tough you are, there's someone (or a group of someones) out there that can beat you stupid. I hope you never have to have your illusion of invinicibility shattered by Real Life. Believe me, it ain't fun.

[B-Chan]

Danke.

[RavenATB]

"No, I said I ran out of sympathy. In other words, I don't give a damn about him or the plight he placed himself in."

I must say that I, too, find your comments more than simply inhumane. As a conservative I always thought that my contemporaries were concerned with the concept of justice in our judicial system.

Unless we're willing to apply a certain set of moral standards to the way our prison population is treated and housed, we really don't have a system of justice for criminals, anymore, but a system of revenge.

To take your concept of "if he didn't do the crime he wouldn't have suffer that fate" philosophy further down its own path, shall we all say that a young girl who gets raped after sneaking out of the house at night "deserves what she got," because she did something wrong?

If I see your wife walking down the street in a low-cut top and barely enough to cover her ass, and she gets pulled into the bushes by some rapist, should I walk away and tell myself that she got what she asked for?

Do we really want inmates to become part of the punishment process, thereby being able to set up a secondary system of punishment within prison walls. Do we want hardened criminals to have that much control over the lives of someone else?

[stephenjohnbanker]

I'm all for it!

[Antoninus]

Solitary confinement under Spartan conditions should be the rule.

Uh, I know you didn't mean it that way, but the Spartans were famous for this kind of stuff...

I agree with you 100%. Prisons shouldn't be "fun"--but there's absolutely no excuse for rape. It should be an offense that results in the perp being put in solitary for life. Or else, executed.

[RavenATB]

"How can a man who has no respect for innocent life expect others to have respect for his "quality of life"?"

So, using your philosophy, a man who is routinely negligent about buckling his kid in the booster seat while he drives should be ass-raped, too?

How about the "mother" who uses drugs or alcohol and isn't coherent enough to ensure the safety of her kids at home? Shall we drag her in the bushes, too?

How about the guy who speeds through my neighborhood every afternoon? Shall we ask a few of the local "bubbas" to pump his butt full?

Oh, but that beautiful high school girl who lives near me whose always doing her makeup as she drives past kids at the school bus stop every morning...

[Bonaparte]

Read my post/s again. I never prescribed the abuse we're discussing. I simply said that most of my sympathy goes to the innocent victims of repeat offending drunk drivers. When someone you're close to is maimed or killed by one of these drunks, you will know what I mean.

[DieHard the Hunter]

> Ministering to those in prison does not include stopping the punishment that comes with being in prison.

Ummm... being in prison *is* the punishment. Anything done to the prisoner beyond depriving him/her of their liberty is and should be illegal.

And those who do perform crimes against prisoners, be they fellow prisoners or guards, should be punished toward the more severe end of the tariff: prisoners because they are *already* in prison on other offenses and are obviously not rehabilitating, and prison guards because they should know better.

[DieHard the Hunter]

> Whether you like it or not, society needs it's testosterone filled warrior class. They allow women like you to make comments on this forum in pretty blue colors.

Sounds like a decisive argument to me, chock full of impeccible logic and brilliant insight from a Testosterone Filled Classy Warrior! Bravo... /s

[TKDietz]

"That's not all...

This makes an Islamic group look real good when you're inside... for protection.

I wonder how many conversions may have this as a root cause."

I bet a lot do, especially for blacks. I'm a public defender, so I talk to a lot of people who have been to prison. At least in the prisons in my state Muslim "gangs" are big. A lot of blacks join the "Muslim Brotherhood" or whatever for protection. Then they take their new religion with them when they get out. I haven't heard of any of these groups for whites, although they may exist, but whites don't tend to be welcome in the black Muslim groups. The whites tend to join these meth dealing white supremacist groups, also for protection, and they take that crap with them when they get out too.

[cherry]

I am never one to gloat over this topic, and it not only scares me to death but I am so angry at our "system" that allows this.....

I don't know what to do.....I think if I had a kid or other relative that was sentened to prison I might very well help them to another country rather than allow them to face this....

[GulfBreeze]

Monday: "Even if it was as rare as you state however, if it was you, or your sister, or mother, would you still say rape was acceptable punishment for having the misfortune to be arrested and incarcerated?"

Nick,
Building on that, would you think rape was appropriate for your mom when she "thought" she had time to get a deposit in the bank in time to cover a check she wrote at Target? Because that is a crime you can go to prison for...

Does anyone here think that it would be just fine if Border Patrol Agents Ramos or Compean get raped while they are in prison? (If they haven't already that is.)

[isthisnickcool]

Building on that, would you think rape was appropriate for your mom when she "thought" she had time to get a deposit in the bank in time to cover a check she wrote at Target? Because that is a crime you can go to prison for...

GB, you have nothing to "build on", I never said anything in any way, shape or form that "rape was appropriate". see #134. Only a nut would condone rape in prison or anywhere else for that matter.

[P-40]

I must say that I, too, find your comments more than simply inhumane.

That is probably because you are just simply misreading what I wrote.

[BnBlFlag]

"White gangs are evil; Black and Hispanic gangs are cultural"
Surely this is sarcasm. Many Whites join racist gangs for survival in prison. A lone White to survive unscathed in prison today has to be one bad hombre.
The Aryan Brotherhood is the toughest and meanest gang in the prisons today. This poor soul with "feminine characteristics" would need to become the "Bitch" of one of their members and they would protect him from the Black and Hispanic gangs.

[GulfBreeze]

Good enough for me...

I understand.

[brwnsuga]

I feel bad for the guy, but he certainly brought this setting on himself. One would think that if you are in prison, you can be protected, but prisons are terribly understaffed. I have a very close relative that worked at a miniumum security prison farm (he quit because of the atmosphere) the prisoners run the prison. There is only an illusion that the correctional officers are in charge.

[brwnsuga]

nd being the guy with the kippa

Wasnt' that against your constitutional rights to throw away your head covering? I hope you were alright, but I know that was scary. I would not survive an hour in prison.

[BigCinBigD]

I believe that if you are sent to prison it is for punishment because of your crime. However, The state by taking you also must provide for your health and welfare while in custody.

[Wallace T.]

I don't like the death penalty...but there are times when I just look the other way and am comfortable with that. Being in Texas, I had better be!

Or as the comedian Ron White puts it, in Texas, if you kill someone, we kill you right back.