Posted on 02/12/2007 11:22:29 AM PST by B-Chan
"I've been sentenced for a D.U.I. offense. My 3rd one. When I first came to prison, I had no idea what to expect. Certainly none of this. I'm a tall white male, who unfortunately has a small amount of feminine characteristics. And very shy. These characteristics have got me raped so many times I have no more feelings physically. I have been raped by up to 5 black men and two white men at a time. I've had knifes at my head and throat. I had fought and been beat so hard that I didn't ever think I'd see straight again. One time when I refused to enter a cell, I was brutally attacked by staff and taken to segragation though I had only wanted to prevent the same and worse by not locking up with my cell mate. There is no supervision after lockdown. I was given a conduct report. I explained to the hearing officer what the issue was. He told me that off the record, He suggests I find a man I would/could willingly have sex with to prevent these things from happening. I've requested protective custody only to be denied. It is not available here. He also said there was no where to run to, and it would be best for me to accept things . . . . I probably have AIDS now. I have great difficulty raising food to my mouth from shaking after nightmares or thinking to hard on all this . . . . I've laid down without physical fight to be sodomized. To prevent so much damage in struggles, ripping and tearing. Though in not fighting, it caused my heart and spirit to be raped as well. Something I don't know if I'll ever forgive myself for."
***
The letter excerpted above was one of the first to reach Human Rights Watch in response to a small announcement posted in Prison Legal News and Prison Life Magazine, two publications with a wide audience in U.S. prisons. Having been alerted to the problem of prisoner-on-prisoner rape in the United States by the work of activists like Stephen Donaldson of the organization Stop Prisoner Rape, we had decided to conduct exploratory research into the topic and had put a call out to prisoners for information. The resulting deluge of letters--many of which included compelling firsthand descriptions such as this--convinced us that the issue merited urgent attention. Rape, by prisoners' accounts, was no aberrational occurrence; instead it was a deeply-rooted, systemic problem. It was also a problem that prison authorities were doing little to address.
The present report--the product of three years of research and well over a thousand inmate letters--describes the complex dynamics of male prisoner-on-prisoner sexual abuse in the United States. The report is an effort to explain why and how such abuse occurs, who commits it and who falls victim to it, what are its effects, both physical and psychological, how are prison authorities coping with it and, most importantly, what reforms can be instituted to better prevent it from occurring.
***
The Scope of this Report
This report is limited in scope to male prisoner-on-prisoner sexual abuse in the United States. It does not cover women prisoners, nor does it cover the sexual abuse of male prisoners by their jailers. Human Rights Watch investigated the problem of custodial sexual misconduct in U.S. women's prisons in two previous reports and the issue has been a continuing focus of our U.S. advocacy efforts. As to custodial sexual misconduct against male prisoners, we decided not to include that topic within the scope of this report even though some prisoners who claimed to have been subject to such abuse did contact us. An initial review of the topic convinced us that it involved myriad issues that were distinct from the topic at hand, which is complicated enough in itself.
Even though the notices that Human Rights Watch circulated to announce our research on prisoner-on-prisoner sexual abuse were written in gender-neutral language, we received no information from women prisoners regarding the problem. As prison experts are well aware, penal facilities for men and women tend to differ in important respects. If the problem of prisoner-on-prisoner sexual abuse exists in women's institutions--a possibility we do not exclude--it is likely to take somewhat different forms than in men's prisons.
For several reasons, the primary focus of this report is on sexual abuse in prisons, rather than jails. Most importantly, all of our information save a handful of letters came from prison as opposed to jail inmates. Many of these prisoners did, however, describe sexual abuses they had suffered when previously held in jails, allowing us to gather some information on the topic. Nonetheless, the bulk of our prisoner testimonies and documentation--and all of the information we collected from state authorities--pertain specifically to prisons. Already, with fifty separate state prison jurisdictions in the United States, the task of collecting official information was difficult; obtaining such information from the many thousands of local authorities responsible for city and county jails would have been infinitely more so. Yet we should emphasize that our lack of specific research on jails should be not interpreted as suggesting that the problem does not occur there. Although little research has been done on sexual assault in jails, the few commentators who have examined the topic have found the abuse to be similarly or even more prevalent there.
It is evident to Human Rights Watch, even without having completed exhaustive research into the jail context, that the problems we describe with regard to prisons generally hold true for jails as well. This conclusion derives from the fact that most of the risk factors leading to rape exist in prisons and jails alike. We therefore believe that our recommendations for reform are largely applicable in the jail context, and we urge jail authorities to pay increased attention to the issue of prisoner-on-prisoner sexual abuse.
While this report does not deal specifically with juvenile institutions, we note that previous research, while extremely scanty, suggests that inmate-on-inmate sexual abuse may be even more common in juvenile institutions than it is in facilities for adults. Indeed, a case filed recently by the U.S. Justice Department in federal court to challenge conditions in a Louisiana juvenile institution includes serious allegations of inmate-on-inmate rape.
Finally, our choice of U.S. prisons as the subject of this research, over prisons elsewhere in the world, in no way indicates that we believe the problem to be unique to the United States. On the contrary, our international prison research convinces us that prisoner-on-prisoner rape is of serious concern around the world. We note that several publications on human rights or prison conditions in other countries have touched on or explored the topic, as have past Human Rights Watch prison reports.(8) Interestingly, researchers outside of the United States have reached many of the same conclusions as researchers here, suggesting that specific cultural variables are not determinative with regard to rape in prison.(9)
***
Methodology
The report is primarily based on information collected from over 200 prisoners spread among thirty-seven states. The majority of these inmates have been raped or otherwise sexually abused while in prison, and were therefore able to give firsthand accounts of the problem. Numerous inmates who were not subject to sexual abuse also provided their views on the topic, including information about sexual assaults that they had witnessed. A very small number of inmates who had themselves participated in rape also contributed their perspectives. Much of the information was received via written correspondence, although Human Rights Watch representatives spoke by telephone with a number of prisoners, and personally interviewed twenty-six of them. Prisoner testimonies were supplemented by documentary materials such as written grievances, court papers, letters, and medical records.
Prisoners were contacted using several different methods. Human Rights Watch posted announcements in a number of publications and leaflets that reach prisoners--including Prison Legal News, Prison Life Magazine (which has since ceased publication), and Florida Prison Legal Perspectives--informing them that we were conducting research on the topic of prisoner-on-prisoner sexual abuse and that we welcomed their information. Several organizations that work with prisoners, including Stop Prisoner Rape, put us in contact with additional inmates.
The prisoners who collaborated in our efforts were thus a largely self-selected group, not a random sampling. Previous researchers have conducted quantitative studies using statistically valid techniques in certain U.S. prisons -- most recently, in 1998 in seven midwestern state prison systems -- but, given that there are some two million prisoners in the United States, this would be difficult to achieve on a national scale. The research on which the present report was based was thus qualitative in nature: it sought to identify systemic weaknesses rather than to quantify actual cases of abuse. The result, we believe, sketches the outlines of a national problem, bridging the gap between academic research on the topic and the more anecdotal writings that occasionally appear in the popular press.
The prisoners with whom Human Rights Watch was in contact, we should emphasize, did not simply serve as a source of case material. Rather, their comments and insights--based on firsthand knowledge and close observation--inform every page of the report.
Besides prisoners, we also obtained valuable information from prison officials, prison experts, lawyers who represent prisoners, prisoners rights organizations, and prisoners' relatives. Written materials including academic studies, books, and articles from the popular press supplemented these sources. In addition, Human Rights Watch conducted an extensive review of the case law relevant to prison rape in the United States.
I had a similar experience years ago in Chicago. Six plainclothes police officers burst into my motel room in the middle of the night, me naked out of bed, handcuffed me and took me to jail.
Turned out that I looked like an escaped murderer from Minnesota who the police thought had headed for Chicago. The desk clerk had called the police and reported the murderer was in his motel. Unfortunately I had left my ID in my car and they wouldn't let me get it to prove who I was.
I was released after 3 hours (thank goodness with my virginity intact), but it was a very scary situation. What really terrified me is that I didn't believe they were police at first. They were all Italian looking and wearing dark suits. I thought it was a Mafia hit gone wrong. After it was all over, I got no apology from the police, and no apology from the motel.
They didn't even refund my night's lodging.
Try to keep up with the context of the conversation. First of all, as you state, a "prisoner" has no "liberty." Taking one's "liberty" and ALL that encompasses is the whole concept of "prison." Second, no one ever said sodomizing other inmates, or shanking other inmates, or doing drugs, or.... any of the other laws inmates break ARE "LEGAL." But then inmates don't care about what's legal or illegal. If they did the likelihood is they wouldn't be "inmates" now would they?! Third, A "minister" is to minister to the condition of a person's soul when he or she is a prisoner of 'sin'; that's when the minister steps in and then ONLY when the prisoner lets him. Fourth... It is NOT the minister's problem if a person's freedom (liberty) is taken from them by governments.
Here... Let me try to break it down for you in a simpler manner. ANYONE that is not a member of the Body of Christ is bound by the laws of nature and of Moses. Each (the laws of nature and Moses) will kill a non-repentant sinner. It's the law.
If a person violates the law of the land and does not repent for his or her sin he or she is at the mercy of nature and/or man or both. Just look at the sodomite for example. Each sodomite is a prisoner to his perversion. Nature will eventually kill the sodomite with HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, etc. and... if the sodomite does not repent and stop his abominable behavior God will cast the sodomite into outer darkness and hell. This is an example of "paying the uttermost farthing" if one does not agree with his adversary "quickly."
The adversary of the man in the case that started this thread is society. The man that is now suffering his own living hell in prison had three opportunities to repent and to reconcile with society’s sobriety laws. He didn't and now, by his own actions, his liberty has been taken away from him: This is how prisons should work.
Part of the prison experience is what the other inmates do to you. The US Constitution only protects convicts from the guards inflicting "cruel and inhuman punishment" on the inmates. It says nothing about what the inmates as a whole will do the individual convict. And again... that is ONLY the US Constitution. In other countries the prisoners are cast into jail, forgotten about, and the key is thrown away.
Another thing... we are all tried by the hottest fires. Circumstances and even other people are used by God to drive us to repentance. If the fire gets hotter and we don't repent then it is our own stubbornness that keeps us separated from God and His grace. Each are always there but if we don't reach out and grab Him and it then we are to blame. NOT GOD or God's ministers.
The man that is the subject of the article that started this thread needs to repent and to stop blaming everyone else for what has befallen him. He needs to confess that he and he alone is the sinner that got him landed in prison. Not God, his family, his teachers, his friends, the other inmates or the guards. HE and HE ALONE is to blame.
When he accepts this and truly repents then, and only then, will God be there as a sanctuary for him to escape his punishment.
Bleeding heart liberals that care more for the criminal than the victims in no way help either. How many of you that are crying for this man's aching anus and poor little psychie would give a rat's rear about whomever he would have killed had the cops not gotten him off the road?
I'll bet that once again it would be George Bush's or law enforcement's fault; right?
"Wasnt' that against your constitutional rights to throw away your head covering?"
Probably. They also took my belt and shoe laces --- which got "lost," too. I bought a cheap baseball cap on the street, got on the T, and called it good.
"but if he was a 3 time loser that killed my blood..."
He's obviously an alcoholic who has not sought treatment/help and not gotten a handle on his addiction, leading to a third DUI. He's made bad choices and put others at risk. But there is no such evidence that he killed anyone, or his current sentence would not be for DUI but for negligent homicide, which is the usual charge when a DUI condition leads to a fatality. There is nothing in the facts to suspend normal human compassion to anyone in his situation who becomes a victim of rape.
One crime is not a cause, excuse, justification or reason for lack of compassion towards victims of another crime. We gain nothing of benefit to ourselves or anyone by it. Revenge is mine sayeth the lord.
Howdy, AnnaZ! It has been a long time since we FReeped a thread together. I knew you were still here and still appreciate your posts when I see them. I remember the good old days when we battled with Fred25 on those mega-post death match threads. LOL I miss that crusty old fart. He was funny. (waves back) TE
--HRW is wrong about a lot of things, but this isn't one of them. --
Why not?
--Those tempted to gloat would be well advised to remember that it is very easy to end up in slam in the United States, even if you're 100% innocent.--
None of the thousands of friends or professional associates that I have known over my lifetime have ever been to jail.
"None of the thousands of friends or professional associates that I have known over my lifetime have ever been to jail."
Are you a priest??
"None of the thousands of friends or professional associates that I have known over my lifetime have ever been to jail."
-Are you a priest??--
No. Just a typical law-abiding engineer.
I disagree- during my divorce I was jailed twice for doing nothing
Both times it was on nothning but the word of my diagnosed psychopaht ex-wife, and thank GOD I was able to prove both charges were false, or I could be sitting in jail right now.
In one instance she claimed I hit her in the head, but I was able to prove I was not even home at the time, and that she had filed 4 different contradictory statements.
After I proved she had filed false charges they even refused to arrest or prosecute her for it, until I filed a writ of mandamus to compel them to do their jobs.
The next time the child support collection agency processed my payments incorectly, and creditted them to the wrong account. I though nothing was wrong because I saw the payments deducted from my checks. She retreived the mail warning me that my license woul be suspended if I did not pay. After it was suspended she called the police and told them I was driving on a suspended license, so I was arrested.
So as you can see it is VERY EASY to go to jail for NOTHING in this country. Especially in a court system whenre a mother can do no wrong and a father can do no right.
If only we could all be as perfect as you are.
--If only we could all be as perfect as you are.--
How many times have you been in jail?
Oh, gosh, I've heard that brutal, smelly, strong, handsome men rape other men in prison. Sure hope it doesn't happen to me! I sleep with my buttocks slightly up in the air, but that's not a sign -- even if I do wiggle them from time to time. I sure hope that it never happens to me.... (sigh)
Once, if you count the brig on the ship.
Me too, but the state should be executing the child molesters, etc. It's unfortunate that society has to hope that some psycho will administer the justice that our legal system will not.
they told me that the kippa (a yarmulke) was "gang related" somehow.
Haven't you heard of that gang the Chosen Ones?
There. That's better;
--There. That's better;--
I feel sorry for you to have not had the pleasure of surrounding yourself with decent people as friends and co-workers.
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