Student in jail for drugs is raped

Gainesville Sun (FL) ^ | June 10. 2003 | Kathy Ciotola

[MrLeRoy]

An Alachua County college student in jail on marijuana charges was raped over the weekend by his cell mate, a man already being held on sexual battery charges, authorities said Monday.

The 19-year-old student was serving four weekends in jail on charges of delivering marijuana, said Alachua County Sheriff's Sgt. Jim Troiano. Last weekend was the first weekend of his sentence.

His cell mate held a ballpoint pen to the teenager's neck at about 9 p.m. Friday and then forced himself on him, Troiano said. A member of the victim's family reported the incident to authorities on Saturday.

Jail detention officers, who check the cells at least once an hour, heard nothing and nothing was reported to them Friday, Troiano said.

Randolph Jackson, 35, was charged with sexual battery. Jackson has been in jail since July on charges of sexual battery in a different case that is still pending.

The two were put in a cell together because they were both charged with felonies, Troiano said. Also, there was very little room in the jail last weekend, Troiano added. There were 918 inmates and the jail's capacity is 920.

"If there was space available, absolutely we would rather keep our weekenders in a pre-designated area," Troiano said. "But because we don't have much space available we have to do with circumstances on hand."

Inmates are assigned to cells based on their charges, their history and other factors, he said.

These two inmates were being held in a two-man cell in pod 1-B. Inmates who are awaiting trial or who don't yet have a jail classification are kept in this section, Troiano said.

Jail officials don't house inmates who are charged with misdemeanors, which are less serious crimes, with those who have felony charges, he said.

Troiano said this was the first sexual battery reported at the jail in the memory of jail officials.

Jackson never showed any signs of having sexual tendencies toward other inmates, Troiano added. He has since been moved to his own cell.

[far sider]

Which would be worse?

Student in jail for drugs is raped,

or

Student in jail for rape is drugged?

[Mr. Mojo]

In that case, I'd beat the crap outta the guy.

But let's say your daughter is also around the same age (a legal adult). What could you do then? Nothing, I'd imagine. Similarly, how do we know the kid (or kids) who received the drugs in this story were not also of legal age? If they were, we as parents really can't do shit about.

[mitchbert]

As the vast majority of inmates are not serving life sentences the "corrections" side of the incarceration equation must be considered along side the "punishment" side. There will always be lawbreakers, the goal should be to reduce re-encarceration for another crime down the road. For a kid like this story describes, the shock of being in prison alone can be sufficient motivation for him to avoid doing anything that will get him sent back. If on the other hand he's raped while in the joint you run the risk of releasing a much angrier and anti-social individual than the one imprisoned at the outset. Perp gets released, is bitter as all get out with what was allowed to happen to him, and decides to spend the rest of his life taking it out on the cruel society that subjected him to it, in his mind.

Not only is he not "corrected" he's bitter, brutalized and bent on revenge. All for some pot. Insane.

[Frapster]

Whereas the act itself remains equally abhorrent, the victim in each case induces differing levels of sympathy (the latter generally none).

So what you're dancing around here is the pedophile got what was coming to him - right?

[stuartcr]

If something is a felony in one state/country, and a misdemeanor in another state/country, is it morally wrong, less morally wrong, or what?

[Freedom2specul8]

Bitter? especially if he gets an STD or worse...AIDS!

[AxelPaulsenJr]

Serves him right for toking the demon weed.

Glad to see that you've finally seen the light.

[MrLeRoy]

It happened when I watched the documentary Reefer Madness.

[AntiGuv]

No. My statement recognizes that comprehensively confronting the endemic prison rape phenomenon will indirectly benefit the pedophile in the interest of a much greater moral good, and does not require that one directly sympathize with the pedophile himself, but only with those who merit sympathy (and, in this case, are unjustly incarcerated, to begin with).

Sorry about the run-on sentence but I wish to minimize the blanks which one might incorrectly read into..

[bird4four4]

No what were saying is a 19 year old 'kid' being raped because he was probably doing a friend a favor, garners much more sympathy than a person who abducts and molests little girls. Why is that difficult to comprehend?

[r9etb]

Would you have posted this if the headline had been, "Student in jail for burglary is raped?"

Nope. Didn't think so.

You're grasping at straws here: this is not a good argument against the WOD. The rape would have happened regardless of why the boy was put in jail.

[MrLeRoy]

[headsonpikes]

"Jail is jail and it isn't supposed to be a vacation."

Echoes of Solzhenitsyn's 'Gulag Archipelago'!

This type of gratuitous violence becomes an essential part of the prison management system under modern conditions.

People like you are absolutely necessary to maintain the orthodox view in any socialist system, including America's prisons.

Give yourself a pat on the back for a wise career choice.

[NittanyLion]

The rape would have happened regardless of why the boy was put in jail.

The reason he was put in jail cannot be ignored.

[robertpaulsen]

"Similarly, how do we know the kid (or kids) who received the drugs in this story were not also of legal age?"

That may very well be the case. My original comment only compared this 19 year-old's encounter with Bubba to his encounter with me if he sold to my children.

[MattAMiller]

The War on Drugs: Delivering concubines to dangerous pyschopaths

[Dane]

It's pretty clear to any intelligent reader that new sexual battery charges were brought against Jackson as a result of this episode.

Really? Huh it seems prtty cryptic to me. Here is the poriginal quote again.

Randolph Jackson, 35, was charged with sexual battery. Jackson has been in jail since July on charges of sexual battery in a different case that is still pending

JMO, but it seems that the writer was trying to make it cryptic. It only says that that Randolph Jackson was charged with sexaual battery.

This is what we know. Randolph Jackson was in jail for sexual battery.

And yet, the "different victim" is never mentioned about the charge.

JMO, but it seems that the writer is being intentionally cryptic.

Bad journalism, IMHO.

[NittanyLion]

And yet, the "different victim" is never mentioned about the charge. JMO, but it seems that the writer is being intentionally cryptic. Bad journalism, IMHO.

On that we can definitely agree. What crime the "was" applies to is a bit unclear.

[fml]

I guess a little sensitivity training wouldn't be wasted on me.

[Mr. Mojo]

I understand, but what if your "children" were of legal age? Would that matter? It better, else you might find yourself in jail with your own bubba for a cellmate.