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Panel on Prison Rape Hears Victims' Chilling Accounts
NY Times ^ | August 20, 2005 | CAROLYN MARSHALL

Posted on 08/20/2005 11:18:38 AM PDT by neverdem

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 19 - T. J. Parsell was a lanky pimple-faced adolescent bent on mischief. So when he found a toy gun one evening in 1978 while wandering home from a high school party, he thought nothing of pointing it at a store clerk and grumbling, "Your money or your life."

He got $50 for what he now calls "a stupid impulsive prank." The incident landed the 17-year-old Parsell in an adult jail, where on his first night, an older inmate spiked his drink with Thorazine and sexually abused and raped him.

"While my friends prepared for our high school prom, I was being gang raped," Mr. Parsell testified on Friday to a Congressional commission investigating prison sexual abuse and rape.

Mr. Parsell, now 45, and a successful software executive who lives on Long Island, was one of six victims of prison rape to relate disturbing accounts with a bipartisan panel of The National Prison Rape Elimination Commission here.

"What they took from me went beyond sex," Mr. Parsell said. "They'd stolen my manhood, my identity and part of my soul."

The panel, which also heard from state and federal legislators, law enforcement and prison officials and mental health experts, has been investigating the prevalence, cause and possible solutions to a problem that many experts say has escalated as the prison system is collapsing. Overcrowding, staff shortages and budget cuts have contributed to an often taboo topic.

"As a society, we have an obligation to protect the people we lock up, even though they have harmed society," the commission chairman, Judge Reggie B. Walton of Federal District Court in Washington, said. "Some people say inmates get what they deserve. But they don't think about the overall impact on society."

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Extended News; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events; US: California; US: District of Columbia
KEYWORDS: barbaralee; bush; georgewbush; lee; prisoners; prisonrape; prisons; rape; sexcrimes
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To: Mrs Mark

Well, all right, if that is germane at all. If you are implying that prison rape is okay, then I can see another poster.


61 posted on 08/20/2005 12:05:49 PM PDT by jammer
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To: trubluolyguy

Really bad place to go - especially if you are innocent.


62 posted on 08/20/2005 12:05:57 PM PDT by ladyjane
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To: Mrs Mark

"The stupid ones are the ones who commit crimes knowing the may have to go to prison and "toss the salad"."

Was that sarcastic?


63 posted on 08/20/2005 12:06:25 PM PDT by happinesswithoutpeace (You are receiving this broadcast as a dream)
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To: jammer

Yes. That video turned my stomach and made mad beyond belief that he was having the time of his life while locked up and those poor nurses were rotting in their graves where he put them.


64 posted on 08/20/2005 12:06:37 PM PDT by processing please hold (Islam and Christianity do not mix ----9-11 taught us that)
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To: neverdem
"What they took from me went beyond sex," Mr. Parsell said. "They'd stolen my manhood, my identity and part of my soul."
I don't think your "soul" is down there!
65 posted on 08/20/2005 12:09:21 PM PDT by jimboster (Vitajex, whatcha doin' to me)
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To: HangnJudge

" To do this, you must engage in criminal behavior to obtain drugs"

A victimless crimes, the act of which would harm no one if the activities in question were legal.


66 posted on 08/20/2005 12:09:21 PM PDT by adam_az (It's the border, stupid!)
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To: jammer
Well, all right, if that is germane at all. If you are implying that prison rape is okay, then I can see another poster.

I believe the loony left wants to pass out condoms for prisoners, if the left was so horrified by prison sex, why would they be handing out condoms?

67 posted on 08/20/2005 12:10:09 PM PDT by Mark was here (My tag line was about to be censored.)
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To: trubluolyguy

"Losertarian?"

No.

Loser?


68 posted on 08/20/2005 12:10:49 PM PDT by adam_az (It's the border, stupid!)
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To: neverdem

Rape is a crime, male or female, in prison or out. Enforcing the law is the simple answer.


69 posted on 08/20/2005 12:11:11 PM PDT by SouthTexas
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To: jimboster

I hope you're lucky enough to never be raped. It scars the soul.


70 posted on 08/20/2005 12:11:55 PM PDT by processing please hold (Islam and Christianity do not mix ----9-11 taught us that)
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To: ladyjane

"Yep really bad place to go-especially if you are innocent"


Gee, good thing the guy in this story WASN'T innocent.


71 posted on 08/20/2005 12:12:16 PM PDT by trubluolyguy (If you think you're having a bad day, try crucifixtion.)
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To: happinesswithoutpeace
Was that sarcastic?

No, it means you have to work in the kitchen. tossing salad.

Sorry, yes there is a joke behind the comment.

72 posted on 08/20/2005 12:13:16 PM PDT by Mark was here (My tag line was about to be censored.)
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To: SouthTexas
Rape is a crime, male or female, in prison or out. Enforcing the law is the simple answer.

The best reply yet.

73 posted on 08/20/2005 12:13:23 PM PDT by processing please hold (Islam and Christianity do not mix ----9-11 taught us that)
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To: Mrs Mark

What is the joke?


74 posted on 08/20/2005 12:14:44 PM PDT by happinesswithoutpeace (You are receiving this broadcast as a dream)
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To: pbrown

Good bye.


75 posted on 08/20/2005 12:15:28 PM PDT by processing please hold (Islam and Christianity do not mix ----9-11 taught us that)
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To: SouthTexas
Enforcing the law is the simple answer.

Problem is there is no money in it for LEO types, they can make a more money working speed traps.

76 posted on 08/20/2005 12:16:01 PM PDT by Mark was here (My tag line was about to be censored.)
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To: neverdem
The incident landed the 17-year-old Parsell in an adult jail, where on his first night, an older inmate spiked his drink with Thorazine and sexually abused and raped him.

Is it legal to have thorazine in jail?

77 posted on 08/20/2005 12:16:51 PM PDT by operation clinton cleanup
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To: pbrown

I'm with you on that.


78 posted on 08/20/2005 12:17:18 PM PDT by jimboster (Vitajex, whatcha doin' to me)
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To: adam_az

Some people here openly display a lack of brains, just disregard them.


79 posted on 08/20/2005 12:18:44 PM PDT by cynicom
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To: adam_az
A victimless crimes, the act of which would harm no one if the activities in question were legal

Say this to the children of the meth lab owners in my home state
Coming into the hospital with clothes soaked in poison
malnourished, filthy, dehydrated.

Say this to the tax payer who is paying for the AID's patient's care after
catching if from doing injectables.

Say this to the parents / siblings of these people as their greatest treasure in this world is being whittled away by their addiction.

Say this to the people assaulted in the addicts quest to obtain money

Do not tell me that their drug use is victimless
80 posted on 08/20/2005 12:19:52 PM PDT by HangnJudge
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