Posted on 10/16/2004 6:35:02 AM PDT by HostileTerritory
The inmates at the Allred Unit, a tough Texas prison, mostly go by names like Monster, Diablo and Animal. They gave Roderick Johnson, a black gay man with a gentle manner, a different sort of name when he arrived there in September 2000. They called him Coco.
Under the protocols of the prison gangs at Allred, gay prisoners must take women's names. Then they are assigned to one of the gangs.
"The Crips already had a homosexual that was with them," Mr. Johnson explained. "The Gangster Disciples, from what I understand, hadn't had a homosexual under them in a while. So that's why I was automatically, like, given to them."
According to court papers and his own detailed account, the Gangster Disciples and then other gangs treated Mr. Johnson as a sex slave. They bought and sold him, and they rented him out. Some sex acts cost $5, others $10.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
If they continue their criminal activities in prison, we will suffer when they get out. We must stop it an make them conform to 'society regulations' or put them in isolation and never let them out.
LETS TRY THIS AGAIN. . . .
As to this lawsuit, Coco is a fraud. He/sheit went into prison to ready and willing to be a "punk." The sexual slavery was voluntary and the lawsuit is BS (since some of you are so pristine). It shutters the sensibilities of those who don't know any better. The real fear in prison is for the preceived "weak" man who is straight. He will be severely tested (read beaten, and even tortured). His path is to carefully walk the line between fighting back to preserve his safety and not crossing the line of getting more time. The tragedy is the kid who goes in with a 2 year stint and ends up with life because he is protecting himself. Let me tell you why I know this....
I should probably keep my mouth shut, but when have I ever done that. I'm 37 now, but when I was 20 I got deeply involved in the Contra aide movement and as a result got involved with distribution of cocaine. None of you really want to know the extent that even our conservative officials are involved in drug trafficking.
Anyway, I took a 20 year sentence for the team, yes I was stupid. I did 4 years of it. Before you try to label me, I was at the top of my class in politics and finance at Liberty University (yes Jerry Falwell's university). I helped build the largest college republican chapter in the country there. A year later I was in maximum security prison.
I don't hide it and I'm not ashamed of it, it happened, it's well over. But I can tell you I have more grounds to comment on this post than most any of you here.
I was a young, clean-cut, straight, never-been-on the street in my life kid when I went to prison. The first year was hell. I spent more than have my time in solitary confinement with half or more of my face beaten black from assaults. They usually don't try to rape you, they want to break you and make you a "punk" like coco. And NO, for those of you who wonder, I was never successfully raped.
When I learned to deal with the threat it all got better, but never entirely stopped. When I went up for parole I was in the hole for beating the %$%# out of a would-be preditor.
Anyway, if any of you care, I would be happy to share reality about the "fun" time that prison becomes with tv and ping pong. Or how prisoners are coddled or "should be raped for their crimes."
Common sense isn't going to sway those who either harbor some private fetish fantasy about male rape in prison.
strike 'either'
Good morning.
The prisons are full with people who are not predators. Drug crimes account for the majority with a significant number being 'victim-less' crimes.
Once in the system, usually at county jail level, people are marked for life.
mtbopufyn, if you leave your house you probably break some law at some point. We should all hope you don't cross the path of an over enthusiastic young cop or a jaded old one who then turns you over to a prosecutor of the same sort.
"If you can't do the time don't do the crime' is simplistic at best.
Michael Frazier
Response: Ergo do nothing?
I'm not sure about this man, but plenty of straight guys get put through the same thing.
It isn't. The purpose of prison is to punish those who have committed crimes, and to remove them from society for a specified period of time.
That said, I don't approve of the types of things written about in this article.
>>>They usually don't try to rape you, they want to break you and make you a "punk" like coco. And NO, for those of you who wonder, I was never successfully raped
YOu spent much time in solitary for fighting -- had you not fought, surely you would have been raped. I think you know that if you didn't stand your ground, you would have been fair game.
Not everybody has "street smarts" and can survive well in prison. What does a 115lb 5'2 man do in prison to really protect himself? Think about it.
Not every gay man is punked either-- some do it themselves for favors, etc.
>I have to ask you a tough question: Maybe the poor man GAVE them inmates, AIDS, did you think of that one?
Um, actually, yes. I did consider that scenario, but I've read horror stories of heterosexual men, of small stature, being sent to prison for non-violent crime, and then contracting AIDs from prison rape.
And, nobody should be forced to perform sex acts against their will.
Predators are readily identified. Believe me, if you've ever been up close and personal with one, you'll never forget it.
You can keep them in solitary for life if you want to pay for it.
I think, once identified, they should be killed.
If they continue their criminal activities in prison, we will suffer when they get out. We must stop it an make them conform to 'society regulations' or put them in isolation and never let them out. Exactly. If the thugs we put away for being lawless on the outside can get away with being lawless on the inside, what have they learned? That prison is just a different address.
>>>>>>>Not everybody has "street smarts" and can survive well in prison. What does a 115lb 5'2 man do in prison to really protect himself? Think about it.
Not every gay man is punked either-- some do it themselves for favors, etc.
<<<<<<<<<
I agree with you completely, although I was a 5'9" 120lb kid. The point is they don't come at you to rape you, they want you to submit and be a "punk."
Coco is like many in the system who came there gay and had no intention of not being a "punk."
Despite all the bravatto on this post about how to treat criminals, allowing the torture and rape of people who committed crimes would make all of us criminals. Prisons have to make confinement as safe as possible.
Crime pays?
Nevermind the fact this sexual slavery probably makes people worse, not better, and that they'll get out of prison eventually unless they are killed there.
This "sexual slavery" is not appropriate under any circumstance.
States, violate the 8th Amendment when they knowingly ignore this type of abuse. As Conservatives, we must not selectively choose which Constitutional protections we will require our governments to enforce. The Constitution is not negotiable, because it protects our GOD GIVEN rights.
Stay with me on this. To play loose with the Constitution presumes that the CONSTITUTION is the instrument that gives us rights; it presumes that MAN gives us rights through the Constitution and can thus enforce them whenever MAN feels like it.
So a big difference between liberals and conservatives, is that liberals believe man (through Big Government) gives and takes away rights. They feel that Big Government is the big provider; not ourselves and certainly not God. So liberals "construe" the Constitution any which way they see fit, and they do it in a way that empowers their vision of big government.
Conservatives know that Liberals are wrong: GOD gives us rights, and the Constitution merely guards what God has given us. Not big government. GoD. And We The People are ultimately responsible for protecting those rights. Government merely works for us, it is not our god, and as Conservatives, we must not try to become gods about which rights are worthy of protection. Leave that to the Liberals.
It's important for us to internalize this and to stay consistent; otherwise we empower the liberal cult.
Gonna have to take issue with you on this, hostile. I am a career corrections professional. Some people don't care about their job, but most do. It's very difficult dealing with criminals day after day. It's the one place where paranoia is a job skill. Trust only your fellow C/O's and SOME supervisors, the rest will play you in a heartbeat, yes even some supervisors and administration. I get really sick of the dime store novel characterization of the Corrections officer as a neanderthal brutalizer of men. Let's pretend that you're a police officer on the street. now take away the gun, and the car, and everything but your uniform, keys, set of cuffs, a radio or a body alarm. Now the average street officer has a Roughly 1 in 5 chance of running into a felon out on the street in a given day. Inside make that 5 in 5 ... times 100, or 200. Now your jobs include, but are not limited to paperwork, data entry, access control, supervision of prisoner workers, keeping accurate counts,counseling prisoners, determining need and providing access to medical/dental/psychiatric services,controlling prisoner property, and controlling the introduction and spread of contraband, handling of inservice requirements, fire , health and safety codes for both prisoners and staff. Now imagine that you and one other officer is doing this for between 200 and 300 prisoners at a time for between 8 and 16 hours at a time (did I mention that there is a hiring freeze, and you are REQUIRED to work over 1 to 2 times a week?). I am not complaining, I am explaining. I know what I got into when I took the oath, and I accept it every day I put on my badge. I just want to dispel the notion that We are uncaring knuckle draggers. the fact is We are attempting to manage a group of people who don't want to be managed, and whose internal discipline is faulty or nonexistent. What do you get with a group like that? Chaos, in 3D and technicolor. Secondly, corrections is the "out of sight, out of mind " branch of government service. The only time you hear ANYTHING about corrections is when A: the legislature wants to build a prison in a community, which is when you get a reaction somewhat akin to the townspeople in the last reel of "frankenstein", or B: when the "feces" has hit the "rotary cooling device" somewhere. you will never see a headline that says "At xyz correctional facility today, absolutely nothing happened ". But due to the hard work of your correctional services, that's what happens most of the time. Gee, could it be the sensationalistic, lurid nature of prison stories that makes the MSM report it?. The same MSM, people that We turn the gimlet eye to for virtually everything else?. but a prison story gets put up , and it's "those lazy A**H*LE prison workers are letting a awful lot of stuff happening in there!". Do bad things happen in prison ? yes. Is it as bad as The MSM make it ? sometimes,Usually not. Do the MSM exaggerate or outright *lie* to sell papers sometimes? Well, they do about everything else, why not prisons? . Believe what you will about prisons, but please apply the same skepticism to prison stories as we do to other MSM stories on this site on a daily basis. And those of us in the "red headed step- child of law enforcement"(aka corrections) will still proudly serve the citizens of our country to the best of our ability.
FWIW,
CC
But what did the 115lb 5'2 man do to get himself into prison?
Did Coco himself commit a violent crime and is that why he's in prison? I very much doubt he's just some gentle law abiding soul who somehow found himself tossed into prison for no reason at all.
Doesn't matter because it's wrong.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.