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Should We Rape Rapists?
How about DWI convicts? Money launderers? Any felony convicts?
Prison rape is a joke in American society. It shouldn’t be. And the fact that we consent to systematic, brutal abuse while grinning all along about it is a scary insight into our collective fascination with extra-legal violence.
Bumped due to a significant update/blog round-up in the post
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15 Responses to “Should We Rape Rapists?”
Ezra Klein concentrated on this topic recently. Read his stories, including some shocking stories of victims, here.
Read my post–it opens with three links to Klein’s recent posts on the topic.
Oops,sry. I thought it’s just a link to an example. You know,it didn’t write ‘read more’!
I was already wondering why the story is so short….
This is a great post, and an appalling story. The actions of American justice – as persuasively demonstrated here – are an abomination!
Yes, why is rampant rape in prisons a joke? Is it because it is men getting raped (i.e., rape only matters when it is women)? Or is it because most of the prison population are visible minorities and poor (i.e., who cares if a poor Black teenaged male is forced to take it up the ass, and perform oral sex, every day for years)?
The behaviour of the judges and the prison guards noted here, and in the links, is disgusting (not surprising, but disgusting nonetheless).
Why don’t judges honestly describe prison punishment in their sentences? …Five years, plus semi-daily anal rape.
On Shakespeare’s Sister, in the links, there was an interesting comment:
American society spends so much time/money/energy preoccupied with denying consensual sexual relations between men?
Why is American society not interested at all in denying violent, nonsensual sexual relations between men in prison?
Is is race? Gender? Politics?
I think it’s a desire for incarceration to have a punitive, deterrent value. That’s a misguided desire, of course, because it rises to the level of cruel and unusual punishment and because that’s not only morally wrong but also counterproductive. Treat people like animals and they will become that way.
But I still think that there’s simply not the will to fix this problem in prisons because doing so would make the punishment of imprisonment seem much less harsh. And of course, what politician is going to campaign on the issue of making prisons safer for criminals?
As to why prison rape is often used as humor, I have to say that I suspect it’s part of a larger category of offensive/provocative humor.
As to the specific phenomena of prison rape, I think it’s an aspect of the control prisoners have over most prisons (I doubt it happens much in tightly controlled super-maximum security prisons).
You can consider it part of a “criminal society”, so to speak: In prison, the criminal essentially create their own society, one consistent with their own values. And given the depravity of those values, it’s not surprising that physical assault and rape are common. Justice has little value with them.
How to solve that, without making all prisons “super-max”, I don’t know.
I think we should segregate prisons much more thoroughly. Violent offenders should be in their own prisons separate from the non-violent ones. If a non-violent offender commits a violent offense on the inside they get transferred.
60 Minutes had a story on Sunday about the Michigan prison system and a death descibed as ‘torture’ by a judge. Being tough on crime doesn’t mean warehousing criminals and ignoring negligent treatment.
I agree, Rudi, but unfortunately I think that any politician who champions this cause will be committing career suicide.
How about DWI convicts?
After numerous DWI convictions DWI becomes a felony with incarceration in prisons were rape and violence is typical. The war on drugs and MADD are filling prisons with non-violent prisoners amougst the truely violent. Maybe Scotter will share a cell with a violent bear – LOL.
And of course, what politician is going to campaign on the issue of making prisons safer for criminals?
Maybe Paul Bremer can be appointed as ‘prison czar’ to fix the security problems. His record in Iraq gave him a Presidental Freedom medal……..
Fantastic post topic. I couldn’t agree more, the state of prisons is ghastly. Not only rape as well, but other crimes go on that simply can only occur with help from the guards. Two years ago here in CA there was a death row inmate who OD’d on heroine. He got enough H to overdose in one of the most heavily guarded cells in the prison. How the guards on duty weren’t fired immediately tells me the system must have some pretty severe problems.
My guess is that the state of US prisons is up there with Iran and China.
And let’s not forget that the prison system is a massive profit machine. Surely there are lobbyists working hard on behalf of Wackenhut, Corrections Corp of America, etc.