Fyodor Dostoevsky once said, "The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons." Try it here in the U.S. But wear boots; it's a sewer.
You may know that our prisons are appalling. If you don't, you should; you're responsible. But even with what you think you know, you've certainly missed the disgusting secret of U.S. jails and prisons: rape. Rape is a method of control with the collusion, sometimes instigation, of guards. Men rape men; women are raped by guards, staff and other inmates. Rape, with the silent acceptance of wardens and staff, is the savage routine in our prisons. It is the initiation process for frightened "new fish;" it's the price of survival for the small, the weak, the defenseless, the gay. It is the fear that haunts the days and nights of those not yet turned out -- or turned into predators. Per the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun, its "horrors... border on the unimaginable."
Imagine it.
Those who object to it face denial, denial, and then denial. Stop Prisoner Rape, founded in 1980 to deal "with the problems of rape, sexual assault, un-consensual sexual slavery, and forced prostitution in the prison context," was formed by brave men who admitted their own victimization in order to save others from the same fate. After twenty years, they were finally able to open an office. Not until 2003 did they develop enough support to secure the passage of the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), the first-ever federal law acknowledging this hidden sin.
Now, the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission meets periodically to "study the impact of prisoner rape." While they study, rape continues. And to this day those who decades ago had the courage to challenge rape in prison are tortured for their audacity. In a biting irony, the Commission recently met in New Orleans, Louisiana. At Angola, the Louisiana State Penitentiary known as "The Farm," two of the Angola Three have been in solitary confinement for 35 years for standing up to protect "new fish" from the long established practice of sexual dominance by veteran inmates.
The three, Robert King Wilkerson, Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox, were sent to Angola in the late 1960s. Unwilling to submit to this depravity, they organized a chapter of the Black Panther Party -- said to be the first inside a prison -- in 1971, in an effort to end systematic rape and violence, desegregate the institution and offer help and hope to others. Their efforts so infuriated the authorities that they were separated from everyone else, tried on trumped-up charges, convicted and placed in solitary confinement in 1972. And there they remained, for decades. Robert Wilkerson was exonerated and released in 2001 after 29 years in solitary confinement. Herman Wallace, still in solitary, recently had his conviction reviewed by a state court commissioner who recommended it be overturned. Albert Woodfox lives in hope, alone for 35 years in solitary confinement.
As Dostoyevsky said, "A society should be judged not by how it treats its outstanding citizens but by how it treats its criminals." 35 years in solitary confinement for standing up against rape? Wear boots, it's a sewer.
Mike Farrell, President of the board of Death Penalty Focus, is the author of "Just Call Me Mike; A Journey to Actor and Activist."
Encouraging brutalization and callousnous inside prisons doesn't do one damn positive thing. Sooner or later most inmates parole, and if they are leaving the gate full of horrendous bottled-up trauma and rage, we are ALL in trouble. The "Lock 'em up" attitude has left California with a $14 billion dollar deficit and a prison system 170% at capacity with at best a small decrease in overall crime that is probably due to other factors. Something has to change. Being "tough" isn't being on the side of the victim if the readily foreseeable net result is simply the creation of more victims.
Temporary loss of libido, chemically induced, on one's first day of incarceration is the only practical answer. How many of you would OK such a move? Would the ACLU lay down? Let's hear some reaction.
As a gay man, my eyes were truly opened watching the devastation of AIDS to my community and the utter indifference of the US Government to the suffering and death of thousands of its citizens. That was my wake-up moment, at a very early age.
Truly, I am at a loss for words about what to say about this. How many young men are in prisons across this country, being raped and abused, being permanently damaged psychologically, because of the heinous War On Drugs? America is a barbaric country.
I really like that one. Alone, solitary, for life.
But rape is not justified.
He should have gone to prison for ten years and not been raped.
Not if you have cable TV or access to the entertainment media - Hollywood used "Oz" to turn prison rape into entertainment for the masses. There's no end to the ways American culture finds to profit from incarcerating a higher percentage of our population than any other developed nation in the world.
Also, since I don't belief in capital punishment, life with hard labor should be reserved for the most heinous criminals. I believe it'll be a strong deterrent for would be murderers. The knowledge that you don't just get electrocuted or injected and die within 45 seconds, but you're subject to a lifetime of hard gruelling, stone quarry work is enough to disuade any would be criminal. A lot of people in death row already hate life on the outside and so they don't care about being executed. It's a different case when they know it's not over once they get into jail.....
If the Anger centers of the brain are removed, & only applied to people who are emotionally unstable and violent, then we should do all we can to protect ourselves from those who would harm us or our families.
Then we can work on Brain Modification for those addicted to drugs of various kinds.
Agendas like this - however well meaning and obviously the way things should be - are part of the reason why the anti-war movement and liberalism in general, have been so ineffective. Does everyone remember the marches and rallies in early 2003? It's seemed like preventing the war was somewhere near third on the list behind freeing Mumia and destroying the World Bank.
Focus.
The same qualities required to engage yourself with dealing humanly with a problem like prison rape, applied to an issue like 9/11 or Iraq, would have resulted in a saner public discussion and could have helped avoid the Iraq debaccle altogether.
There are no utopias, no panaceas, on either the left or the right. The only solution is the gradual improvement of the imperfect human condition, issue by issue, by engaging our hearts and minds: Spending 10 minutes a day watching the news, voting in elections, and then otherwise diverting ourselves in various sensory gratifications like American Idol (not that American Idol itself is a problem. There is place in life for entertainment) is not going to cut it if we want a just and prosperous society for as many as possible.
I just think the American people are easily overwhelmed by issues, causes and scandals (real or fabricated). A tenant of marketing that I've always stuck with (I know, marketing, yuck. But look how the Neo Cons marketed Iraq.) is the idea of selling one idea at a time, especially if the larger thing you're trying to sell has a lot other difficult ideas and challenges associated with it.
I feel that the American public - and the media - has been completely played, in terms of marketing ideas - most of them criminal - by the Republicans and their allies. In a recent MSNBC poll 13% of the respondents said that Obama is a Muslim. Now, that's completely false. Same with WMDs, Hussein's non-existent ties to Bin Laden, etc, etc.
These lies were repeated often enough that they are now the truth to many people.
The current administration has been more than happy to hide their evil machinations behind a contsant barrage of Paris, Natalie Halloway, American Idol, Extreme Home Makeovers, the national menace that is steroid abuse, ad nauseum. Doesn't it make your blood boil to see Congressmen grilling baseball players when there are so many other issues that should have their attention, as well as the attention of the American public?
I've drifted way off topic. and I'm sure these issues have been debated many times on HuffPost and hundreds of other blogs. Just letting of some steam.
Oh, and thanks for accusing me of obfuscation. Very cool.