Is Rape Okay With You?

Is there anyone out there reading this who condones rape?

No, of course not.

Who in civilized society would believe the violent sexual assault of another person is okay?

So then, why do we allow the brutal, repeated rape of our prisoners? We've known about the problem for decades. We read about the sexual victimization of inmates in books and newspapers, we see it depicted on TV and in the movies. Yet somehow it's been allowed to continue. These attacks are both prisoner-on-prisoner and guard-on-prisoner and a majority of times the perpetrator goes unpunished. Why is that?

Do we think that once a person is convicted of a crime he or she loses all constitutional rights? Do you, personally, believe prisoners should be allowed to pursue justice if they're victimized behind bars? If your answer is no -- would you change your mind if the sexual attack happened to a prisoner who is a juvenile?

Heavy questions, and the answers go to define who we are as a people.

Back in 2003 Congress passed, and President George Bush signed into law, the Prison Rape Elimination Act and a special body was created to study the problem. Think about that for a minute. We had to have a special Act of Congress before we, as human beings, stood up and said, "You know, prison rape just isn't right."

Even with the presidential act it took until 2006 for the state of Vermont to take steps to actually criminalize prison staffer's sexual attacks on inmates, the last state in the union to do so. And it wasn't until 2007 that Texas finally agreed to investigate hundreds of complaints of sexual victimization of juvenile offenders at Texas Youth Commission facilities.

Look, I'm for prisoners doing hard time if the crime commands it, but we've been demanding better treatment for caged animals lately (think the Michael Vick dog fighting case) than we have for caged humans.

A 2007 study by the Bureau of Justice Statistics found that more than 60,000 inmates are sexually attacked every year, more often by a guard than another prisoner. In fact, there were a surprising number of cases of male staff on male inmate sexual assaults.

The most frequent victims are inmates who are short, young, gay, or female. The study also found a real lack of any meaningful punishment for this very obvious crime. Think about the toll of broken human lives we then put back on the street.

There are cases from states all across America. Here are three examples:

In Colorado last year a prison guard accused of raping a female inmate was allowed to plead guilty to a mere misdemeanor and he got just 60 days in jail. This year a federal judge hearing the victim's civil suit was so disgusted with the leniency of the sentence he imposed 1.3 million dollars in damages for the inmate. Three other female inmates in Colorado have pending civil lawsuits alleging they, too, were forced by state Department of Corrections employees to perform sex acts. Each prisoner seeks $150 million in damages.

The state of Michigan determined that male employees of its Department of Corrections had acted so egregiously over the years that it established a 100 million dollar fund for victimized inmates to draw from. So far more than 900 prisoners have come forward seeking money for alleged sexual misconduct inside Michigan prisons.

In Oregon the state is facing a multi-million dollar lawsuit filed by five female prisoners who claim they endured years of sexual abuse by a guard and other Corrections Department employees at the Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville. If the state loses the case it's a safe bet that prisoners in other Oregon facilities will feel empowered to file their own suits.

Some of these allegations may be not be true, of course, but even if half or a third of the 60 thousand reports per year are viable, that's too many sexual assaults being perpetrated against too many people. Prisoners have to serve their sentences, but those sentences do not come with rape attached.

The problem should not be viewed as an economic one, although states could save millions if they more closely monitored their prison guard's behavior. It should be seen through a moral and ethical lens.

Six years after the Prison Rape Elimination Act was passed its commission has finally released an official report. Among the recommendations: Better training for staff in recognizing assaults, addressing prison overcrowding, providing proper medical and mental health care for victims and harsher penalties for staff who engage in assault or allow it to happen.

Gee, it took us all this time to figure that out? Did we figure prisoners are just throw away citizens, people without civil rights? That's not the American way.

Diane Dimond can be reached via her web site: www.DianeDimond.net

Comments

[satanlite]

Rape is an act of domination above all. When you look at our 2-party political system and determine which party is involved in domination, you tend to look at the right. Domination and intimidation has a been SOP of the Republican party for years and years and has become glaringly obvious over the past 8 years. There will be no prison reform and no chance at any true prison reform until Republicans are out of the political system. Whenever a reform is attempted you can bet your last dollar you will find a conservative Republican standing in the way. They need to be removed from office and replaced with people who are level headed and don't view domination as their right since they are in power. Conservative Republicans and their mindset of domination and inditimidation are mostly responsible for the system we have today.

[edgraham]

Great post.

When I was a kid, I went to the cheap Saturday movie triple-headers and many of the movies were about prisoners running the prisons, selling drugs, and paying off the guards - - always wondered why that was allowed. These were old 1940s movies, but it still seems to be the case.

The entire criminal justice system needs to be fixed.

PS I always enjoy your work.

[Diane Dimond - Huffpost Blogger]

Thanks, edgraham, I really appreciate your kind words.

You know, my intent with this weekly column is to open eyes about our justice system. While it's far superior to many other country's systems it's time we looked at overhauling it. From the courts to the prosecution, to the criminal defense office to the prisons and beyond.

Thanks for being one of the interested ones!

Diane Dimond
www.DianeDimond.net

[Catothemuchyounger]

I hear you! I am very conservative and am for law and order, but if you are going to lock someone up and take away their ability to protect themselves then you have an obligation to protect them yourself.

[Diane Dimond - Huffpost Blogger]

Cato - couldn't have said it better myself!

[NYC-CatLover]

I think you read my mind - it's an outrage that we don't protect the human rights of prisoners. Yes, violent offenders should be taken off the streets and non-violent offenders should be punished as well, but it should be of the utmost importance to us as society to respect their human dignity and rights during that time of incarceration. Look at it this way - there would be a huge outcry if American POW's were being raped by their jailors or fellow prisoners if we had soldiers being held by other countries, right? We'd insist that the Geneva Conventions be respected and that our POW's be treated correctly. I think the domesitic prison-rape problem all ties in with Gitmo and Abu Ghraib, where we violated the human rights of prisoners in other ways. We need a fundamental shift in how we see ALL incercerated people, we need to see them as people with diginity and rights that must be protected. This is a moral value.

[Diane Dimond - Huffpost Blogger]

Hey -Cat Lover - you might be on to something here. Maybe a great first start would be to put all non-violent offenders in one place - and all the violent offenders in a separate facility!?

DD

[EuripidesTheYounger]

There is no such thing as a non-violent crime. If you believe that, I have some clean coal to sell you.

[tomas0808]

Duh. They don't have any money. That's why no one cares what happens to them. Period. It's all about the money.

[Diane Dimond - Huffpost Blogger]

I don't agree Tomaso, i think a huge number of us somehow feel that a criminal just gets what they deserve - no matter how violent it is.
Too many citizens view the convicted as throw away human beings. ~ DD

[Shotgun Mary]

It seems like there is alot of victim blaming going on in these comments. There is this sense that these people somehow deserve to be sexually assaulted. Its amazing to me that as a society, we are so up tight about sex that if two teenagers hop in bed with one another we're ready to lable the older one a sex offender for life, but if one adult forces himself on another adult, male or female, we chalk it up to "thats just how things are." Shame on you all.

[LifeIsBrief]

Thank you!

[EuripidesTheYounger]

I wholeheartedly agree with your essay and your premise.
And I substitute the words hunger or poverty or sexism instead of prisoner rape and my donations of my time and money and even my career, in additions to my duties as a member of my extended family, are all taken up.
I am comfortable with those priorities and comfortable with the fact that I limit my participation in this valid cause to writing to my elected officials and expecting those who work in and for the correctional system to do their jobs as well as I do mine.
It's not that I don't care. It's that in my opinion there are so many causes more close to my heart and my values for which I choose to invest my time and money, that's all. I am happy people like you are willing to utilize the lion's share of your time on this worthwhile cause.

[oregonbird]

Why isn't this post on the politics page? Changing the way we handle law enforcement and prisons is a political cause, tied in directly with our economy.

Oh, and rape is bad, of course. So the best way to avoid institutional rape is not to commit crimes that put you in prison. I would rather prisoners spent their time in schoolrooms. I would rather that a 4 person cell holds three people. But these criminals knew -- before they chose to commit the crimes that sent them to prison -- exactly what conditions they would face for breaking the law.

As you say, the news is out. So the incarcerated made an informed decision.

[LifeIsBrief]

If we acknowledge that prison rape is to be expected as part of the punishment, unevenly applied, mainly to the small, weak, female, or gay, and illegal on so many levels, then incarceration would itself be illegal, as two punishments for the same crime is rightly forbidden in our constitution, even if we set aside the thought that rape is illegal.

Say you accidentally killed someone with your car, were falsely convicted of any crime, or got caught smoking a joint, or committed any comparable minor crime under circumstances where you were made an example of, and were subsequently sent to prison, would you be okay with getting raped? What if it was your son, or your daughter?

[Diane Dimond - Huffpost Blogger]

In my opinion there is no justification for rape. None. No matter what the victim may have done before the rape ... None. ~DD

[EuripidesTheYounger]

Agreed. No justification whatsoever.
So I have this much money and this much time to donate to a cause outside of my obligations to my family and my career; I have to prioritize.
So which one gets my check and my time to the cause?
The Center for Missing and Exploited Children (sexually abused innocent children)
The local Rape Crisis Hotline/Action Center (sexually abused innocent girls and women)
Your cause (male prisoners who have been raped by other male prisoners)

I wholeheartedly agree with your essay and your premise.
And I substitute the words hunger or poverty or sexism instead of prisoner rape and my donations of my time and money and even my career, in additions to my duties as a member of my extended family, are all taken up.
I am comfortable with those priorities and comfortable with the fact that I limit my participation in this valid cause to writing to my elected officials and expecting those who work in and for the correctional system to do their jobs as well as I do mine.
It's not that I don't care. It's that in my opinion there are so many causes more close to my heart and my values for which I choose to invest my time and money, that's all. I am happy people like you are willing to utilize the lion's share of your time on this worthwhile cause.

[KataVideo]

America doesn't approve of prison assault? Perhaps you haven't seen cable TV lately.. How many comic references to prison assaults are there in a week's worth of programming? How many "don't drop the soap" jokes? And it's not like America has only recently been awakened to this, I was watching Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison on one of the cable channels recently, he was joking about it 40 years ago.
America knows all about it, has known all about it for a long time, expects and approves of it. Americans think it's funny.
That's the society we've become. That's why it was so easy for Charles Grainer and the rest of the Abu Ghraib gang to appear and go to work. Sure, they were scapegoats for higher-ups, but it's not like they had to look that hard to find a Charles Grainer.
Hey, mma... shaved heads and goatees.. that the country we've become.

[glarblBlarbl]

Indeed, reducing prison overcrowding would certainly help this situation. We have nearly two million people in our corrections industry, unfortunately, with most of those being non-violent drug offenders. We should end Prohibition (again), and tax and regulate drugs instead of locking up such huge numbers of otherwise law-abiding people.

[EuripidesTheYounger]

"Non-violent drug offenders" is one of the most oxymoronic phrases I have ever read.
Show me someone who uses that phrase (as you have) and i'll show you someone who uses.
Self-delusion does not good policy make.

[Diane Dimond - Huffpost Blogger]

Can't disagree with that - and I've written columns about decriminalizing of drugs before. ~DD

[baseballmom]

I agree. In a civilized society criminals should be punished by losing their assets through fines or their freedom and other privileges through incarceration. An inmate who has been locked up shouldn't have unsupervised free time; he or she should be doing hard physical labor and should fall into bed each night too tired to get in trouble.

[LifeIsBrief]

Good article, but you didn't even mention the fact that many, if not most, sexual assaults in prison go unreported because of fear of retaliation. Almost by definition, both parties will remain in close proximity to each other and the threat of further assault, sexual or otherwise, is very real. Even if the original predator is removed from population, cohorts could carry out further violence.

The fact is that ignoring sexual assault in prison remains a form of increased punishment, of torture, for those unfortunate enough to find themselves in that circumstance, by a society that lusts for revenge.

[Diane Dimond - Huffpost Blogger]

Life is Brief, You're right I failed to mention that just like sexual assaults on the OUTSIDE, rapes on the INSIDE of prisons often go unreported. So the figure of 60k annually is woefully under-reported.
DD