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 ...
Do you think that chain gangs would be better --- it has to be very boring inside a prison --- it seems some hard work would solve some of the problems that likely come on with all the idle time people have on their hands. I think they should segregate the prisoners based on what they did to get themselves into prison and on their behavior after they're in --- but the very violent having to live together are not going to live better than they would have anyhow.
Doesn't matter.
It matters if the 5'2 guy was raping or abusing children and now complains someone is doing the same to him. Or if the little guy raped women, or killed people --- then what does he have to complain about?
I am amazed at the low standards for becoming a correctional officer. I live in MD but near DE. The Delaware Dept of Corrections always runs radio ads stressing that you need no specific training and only a HS diploma. You are not even required to have any formal training in Criminal Justice. It is no wonder they are now being sued because a substance abuse counselor was recently raped by a prisoner and she is claiming inadequate supervision. Duh!
How much will it cost us taxpayers to provide each thug a nice separate apartment? Maybe if their families want to come up with the money to give them each their own separate cell --- but we're already spending far too much on the permanent prisoners. But I do think they should have three levels and segregate the prisoners. All the non violent --- who didn't commit violent crimes but ended up in prison should be kept together --- then a middle level where they might fight now and then but don't rape and kill --- then the worst level for those who are violent. I don't really care if a rapist gets raped.
In full agreement.
I would add one thing, decent food. I don't mean fancy food, just decent, nutritious food. Maybe they're already getting it. I just mention it because I think in conjunction with all you've listed, proper nutrition helps preserve mental status.
I remember not too long before Gotti died, it was reported that he was complaining about the lasagna that was served to him. I got the biggest kick out of that, number 1, because I'm Italian, and number two, because it demonstrated just how left of the bellcurve Gotti really was.
But you're right, and so is the poster who mentioned the convict's relative advantage of '3 hots and a cot.'
In the late eighties, the Kansas City Star published a piece by a convict who was about to be released and had acquired a Law degree during his stint in jail. The question posed to him was how to make jail an effective crime deterrant (sp?). He suggested that jail sentences be reduced but full time be served (i.e. instead of 25 to Life, and you're out in 7, 15 years and you serve them all), and jail conditions much as you described. He was an effective advocate for the point of view you're espousing.
It doesn't matter. The issue is not how one got into prison, but what goes on with approval from the prison administration, etc.
Yeah, you describe an extreme situation, and in this case the guy's treatment in prison might be a poetic justice. Honestly I'd have a hard time protecting his sorry skinny little arse if he had been a raper of kids - especially if he'd done this to my wife or young daughters. If I caught someone in the act doing something like this to my family, I'd be inclined to shove a broom stick up his ass... and then call police (maybe). But there's a small chance that he actually did this. And it's still unconstitutional. We claim to be a nation of laws formed under the watchful eye of a Constitution that protects our God given rights. It's the extreme situations that challenge our resolve, and extreme situations often provide the excuses that liberals use to bend the laws to their liking.
It matters to me as a taxpayer. If someone is in prison for serial rape or murder, abuse of a child, killing of store clerks for $20 or many of the other reasons --- why should I pay so they can live a country club existence?
I understand that there are certain prison designs that have been effective in stopping prisoner rape and other abuses. For instance a design in which all the cells are arranged in a round pattern with a guard platform in the center. The guards can see into all the cells at all times. The prisoners hate the lack of privacy, but are much better behaved.
Well --- like I said --- I'm all for having 3 levels --- put the bad check writers and pot smokers together in one prison, the moderately violent who get into an occasional fist fight together in another, and the killers, rapists, and child abusers together in another.
Why should you care about someone being raped in your town?
Why care about anything but yourself?
I am sickened by what happens in prison. This problem cannot be unsolvable, it just needs to be seriously addressed. Seems to me prisons could be designed better. Put video surveillance in every single room. Have more and smaller prisons. Move inmates around to different prisons every couple years to prevent the gang mentality. Prisons should be a model of law and order, not the opposite. I don't believe the purpose of prison is punishment. The purpose should be deterrence and public safety. I wish there was more political will to improving the whole system.
That makes sense from a security standpoint; then you can keep a better watch on the killers/rapists/child abusers. Still, if guards see bad stuff going on they should stop it. Not that anyone can stop what is a natural known consequence of bad behavior. Like, if some rapes my wife or daughters, and I catch them before anyone else does, a natural consequence might be me clubbing them about 10 times in the head, tying them up and pouring boiling water over their b&lls. In prison, a natural consequence of rape, is in turn being raped by someone (with or without soap).
But again, we need to follow our laws as well as we can, and states shouldn't habitually and deliberately ignore these sorts of things in prisons.
What I think --- they should have something like minimum security prisons for the non-violent, moderate security prisons for the semi-violent, maximum security prisons for the violent and dangerous prisoners. But for some of the hardcore violent life amounts to rape or be raped, kill or be killed --- both inside and outside a prison. You can't fix that.
prison design has taken leaps and bounds in the last 20 years. designs which allow for continuous observability, and few "blind spots" have slowed such issues down considerably, along with the use of cameras. the design you speak of is a "podular" design, which is what I worked in as a Corrections deputy. The block is shaped like a "Q" with the control bubble sticking into the center, which controls the cell doors and block access doors. common areas are in the middle of the circle and there are no blind spots, and are never far away fron the officers gaze. Physical plant design is very important in corrections management now.
CC
Thanks for your input and for the work that you do. I do not want to insult your profession--I really do think a few bad apples in a few spots can make it bad for everyone. I know I couldn't do your job.
I had a problem with the way that the appeals process was handled with this guy who knew he had a problem and complained about it. That's just one part of the whole system.
Strangely enough a similar round prison design called the "panopticon" was proposed in 1791 by the philosopher Jeremy Bentham.
I have some reservations about the truth of this story.
Texas prisons were under the control of a Federal judge and his monitors until very recently. During the almost twenty years of Federal control a lot of rules were put into the system to prevent this sort of thing.
1.Gangs were forbidden and identifed gang members were placed in isolated confinement. This doesn't mean that gangs didn't exist in secret, but their power was limited by the tough rules against them.
2.Openly gay prisoners are routinely put into separate protected gay cell blocks if they request that action to prevent just this sort of problem. Although its possible a request would be turned down, it doesn't sound right. The prison system doesn't want these problems and more prisoner lawsuits. Prisoners are very adept at bringing "pro se" lawsuits in Federal courts for the slightest breach of rules or civil rights.
As a result, the gay cell blocks are much like San Francisco bathhouses--even though there are penalties for sexual acts--because the guards either tolerate it or because the cellblocks are impossible to police every minute. There are lots of gay couples in these blocks.
3.There is no visiting among cell blocks, so a gang member having a "maid" and sexual slave in his cell seems unlikely if not impossible unless the 'slave' was his randomly assigned cellmate by accident. Hot pots are not allowed for safety reasons.
Inmates do not choose their cellmates because of a ACLU suit that banned segregation of inmates by race--and also because the system doesn't want to give the inmates that much power.
3.Any sexual activity is forbidden and penalties imposed. There are always those who seek opportunities for sexual behavior in showers and during work and recreation periods however, providing they could escape the vigilant eye of the guards. But its virtually impossible to stop all sexual activity, especially between consenting inmates, so this part of the story could be true.
4. As beargirl90 currently works with both the Federal and Texas penal systems, perhaps she can confirm if these observations are still generally true. Of course, any general observation may not take into account variations between different prison units which occur because of different personnel and management rather than because of different rules.
| 8 | “Our country and states must do more to stop this.” |
You are correct that there is simply no excuse for such criminality, in prison or out.
Don't let those who say "if you can't do the time, don't do the crime", or "one way to stop it is for criminals to not commit crimes", get you down. What they are really telling you by their tolerance (support) for prison rape is just their expression of their own demented latent homosexual fantasies in the only way that is still considered to be marginally socially acceptable.
Their is no excuse for tolerating prison rape. You teach what you tolerate.
--Boot Hill
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