Some tragic commentary on people all too easily forgotten in our society. After taking criminal law this past semester, it adds particular poignancy to thinking about prisoners and punishment and the sad state of America's penal system.
Here is Ezra Klein:
Prison rape occupies a fairly odd space in our culture. It is, all at once, a cherished source of humor, a tacitly accepted form of punishment and a broadly understood human rights abuse. We pass legislation called the Prison Rape Elimination Act at the same time that we produce films meant to explore the funny side of inmate sexual brutality.
Although it would be unthinkable for the government today to institute corporal punishment in prisons, there is little or no outrage when the government interns prisoners in institutions where their fellow inmates will brutally violate them. We won't touch you, but we can't be held accountable for the behavior of Spike, now can we?
As our jokes and cultural products show, we can claim no ignorance. We know of the abuses, and we know of the rapes. Research by the University of South Dakota's Cindy Struckman-Johnson found that 20% of prisoners reported being coerced or pressured into sex, and 10% said they were violently raped. In a 2007 survey by the U.S. Department of Justice, more than 60,000 inmates claimed to have been sexually victimized by other inmates during the previous 12 months. Given the stigma around admitting such harms, the true numbers are probably substantially higher.
But by and large, we seem to find more humor than outrage in these crimes. In part, this simply reflects the nature of our criminal justice system, which has become decreasingly rehabilitative and increasingly retributive.
More from Joe Carter:
We are justifiably outraged by the human rights abuses occurring in foreign lands. So why aren’t we more outraged by the atrocities here in our own country? Our reactions to the problem tend to range from smirking indifference to embarrassed silence. Yet rape and other forms of sexual assault are becoming endemic to our prison system.
In 2004 the corrections industry estimated that 12,000 rapes occurred per year—more than the annual number of reported rapes in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York combined. In a 2007 survey by the U.S. Department of Justice, though, more than 60,000 inmates claimed to have been sexually victimized by other inmates during the previous 12 months.
First-time and non-violent offenders are often targeted by prison gangs for sexual servitude. Once an inmate is forced into sexually submissive role, becomes a ‘punk”, the gangs treat him as chattel. While prison guards turn a blind eye, the gangs use these men as sexual slaves.
Although the majority of these inmates are eventually returned back into the general public, their sentence could turn into a death penalty. HIV, tuberculosis, and hepatitis C are up to 10 times more prevalent in correctional institutions than in the outside population. The repeated abuse these inmates receive makes it almost inevitable that they will be exposed to one of these fatal diseases.
In contrast, when women are raped or assaulted in prison, it is usually by correctional employees. According to Lara Stemple, executive director of Stop Prisoner Rape, in some prisons up to 27 percent of female inmates are sexually abused. This also leads to a shockingly high rate of prison pregnancy which merely compounds the problems for the prisoners.
A Wisconsin inmate named Jackie Noyes, for example, was impregnated by a prison guard overseeing her and ordered to serve nearly a year of solitary confinement. The only punishment the guard, Matthew Emery, received was the loss of his job. (The Wisconsin legislature finally passed a law in 2003 making it a felony for prison and jail guards to have sex with inmates. The bill had been stalled for four years by the union that represented the prison guards.)
How odd that we make jokes about actions that we would denounce if they occurred in other lands. The fact that so many Americans are appalled and angered by the human rights abuses in countries like Syria, Iraq, and China speaks well of our nation. But we must hold our own country to the same standards. We can’t look away from the sexual torture, assault, slavery, and abuses that are rampant in our own system. Concern for human right must extend beyond both the water’s edge and the prison doors.
Despite having what I think is the best system of jurisprudence in the world, innocent people are sometimes mistakenly found guilty in American courts. Even those who are correctly found guilty of the worst offenses don't deserve to be subjected to this kind of treatment. To say our prison system has severe problems is a tragic understatement.
See my previous posts:
Read more about this American tragedy on Prison Fellowship's and Stop Prison Rape's websites.
Here are more resources from Prison Fellowship:Commentary and Reports(Image via Gipic)"After Sexual Assault: A Recovery Guide for Survivors" (PDF)Research and Statistics
A publication of the Safe Horizon
Does the Public Care About Prison Rape
Justice eReport Vol. 5, No. 9
In the Shadows: Sexual Violence in U.S. Detention Facilities (PDF)
This report highlights the widespread sexual abuse of incarcerated men, women, and youth in U.S. detention facilities and seeks to offer recommendations aimed at remedying this horrible situation.
Indifferent No More: People of Faith Mobilize to End Prison Rape (PDF)
A publication of the Notre Dame Law School
Preserving the Rule of Law in America's Prisons: The Case for Amending the Prison Litigation Reform Act (2007)
The Prison Litigation Reform Act - a Proposal for Closing the Loophole for Rapists (2006)
The Prison Rape Elimination Act: Implications for Women and Girls
An article of Corrections Today (August 2007)Sexual Violence Reported by Correctional Authorities, 2006Organizations
A publication of the Bureau of Justice Statistics
Sexual Violence Inside Prisons: Rates of Victimization (2006)
A publication of the Journal of Urban Health - Vol. 83, No. 5An End to Silence
NIC/WCL Project on Addressing Prison Rape
The American University Washington College of Law in conjunction with the National Institute of Corrections offers a resourceful website addressing the issues of prison rape.
Commission on Safety and Abuse in America’s Prisons
The Commission has examined violence and abuse in America’s prisons with the goal of making correctional facilities safer for inmates and staff.
Human Rights Watch
HRW has conducted “specialized prison research and campaigns for prisoners' rights since 1987, to focus international attention on prison conditions worldwide.”
Stop Prisoner Rape
SPR serves as virtually the only human rights organization dedicated to ending prison rape.
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