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.
Sounds about right, bill. Michigan was under a similar consent decree with virtually the same provisions until 3 -4 years ago. virtually all states meet the standards as you list above, as they are both federally mandated, and a part of the prison certification process (american corrections association) it could have happened, but some of it was probably consensual (which doesn't matter legally). the prisoner could be a victim, and in some senses, he probably is. But the FIRST time it happened, all he had to do was report it to a staff member, and he would be in segregation in 5 minutes, and likely transferred to another institution fairly briefly. but my view is from a different vantage point.
Freegards,
CC