No Escape: Male Rape In U.S. Prisons

"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.

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)

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 don't think I'm Jackie Chan, just gritty and savage enough to fight off a pack of assailants.

I don't care if you are Jackie Chan. You've got to sleep sooner or later.

With all due respect: in my experience, this sort of tough guy talk comes from guys who have never actually had the living shit kicked out of them by a group of guys. I have. I've been beaten so hard that the guys who did it could have shoved a beer keg up my ass and I'd've been helpless to stop them. The fact that I am alive, reasonably whole, and so far unsodomized is entirely due to God's protective Hand.

I'm no Ali, but in my salad days I was a better-than-average rough and tumble fighter. However, I've had my ass handed to me more than once. The truth is that no matter how tough you are, there's someone (or a group of someones) out there that can beat you stupid. I hope you never have to have your illusion of invinicibility shattered by Real Life. Believe me, it ain't fun.

"No, I said I ran out of sympathy. In other words, I don't give a damn about him or the plight he placed himself in."

I must say that I, too, find your comments more than simply inhumane. As a conservative I always thought that my contemporaries were concerned with the concept of justice in our judicial system.

Unless we're willing to apply a certain set of moral standards to the way our prison population is treated and housed, we really don't have a system of justice for criminals, anymore, but a system of revenge.

To take your concept of "if he didn't do the crime he wouldn't have suffer that fate" philosophy further down its own path, shall we all say that a young girl who gets raped after sneaking out of the house at night "deserves what she got," because she did something wrong?

If I see your wife walking down the street in a low-cut top and barely enough to cover her ass, and she gets pulled into the bushes by some rapist, should I walk away and tell myself that she got what she asked for?

Do we really want inmates to become part of the punishment process, thereby being able to set up a secondary system of punishment within prison walls. Do we want hardened criminals to have that much control over the lives of someone else?

Solitary confinement under Spartan conditions should be the rule.

Uh, I know you didn't mean it that way, but the Spartans were famous for this kind of stuff...

I agree with you 100%. Prisons shouldn't be "fun"--but there's absolutely no excuse for rape. It should be an offense that results in the perp being put in solitary for life. Or else, executed.

"How can a man who has no respect for innocent life expect others to have respect for his "quality of life"?"

So, using your philosophy, a man who is routinely negligent about buckling his kid in the booster seat while he drives should be ass-raped, too?

How about the "mother" who uses drugs or alcohol and isn't coherent enough to ensure the safety of her kids at home? Shall we drag her in the bushes, too?

How about the guy who speeds through my neighborhood every afternoon? Shall we ask a few of the local "bubbas" to pump his butt full?

Oh, but that beautiful high school girl who lives near me whose always doing her makeup as she drives past kids at the school bus stop every morning...

Read my post/s again. I never prescribed the abuse we're discussing. I simply said that most of my sympathy goes to the innocent victims of repeat offending drunk drivers. When someone you're close to is maimed or killed by one of these drunks, you will know what I mean.

> Ministering to those in prison does not include stopping the punishment that comes with being in prison.

Ummm... being in prison *is* the punishment. Anything done to the prisoner beyond depriving him/her of their liberty is and should be illegal.

And those who do perform crimes against prisoners, be they fellow prisoners or guards, should be punished toward the more severe end of the tariff: prisoners because they are *already* in prison on other offenses and are obviously not rehabilitating, and prison guards because they should know better.

> Whether you like it or not, society needs it's testosterone filled warrior class. They allow women like you to make comments on this forum in pretty blue colors.

Sounds like a decisive argument to me, chock full of impeccible logic and brilliant insight from a Testosterone Filled Classy Warrior! Bravo... /s

"That's not all...

This makes an Islamic group look real good when you're inside... for protection.

I wonder how many conversions may have this as a root cause."

I bet a lot do, especially for blacks. I'm a public defender, so I talk to a lot of people who have been to prison. At least in the prisons in my state Muslim "gangs" are big. A lot of blacks join the "Muslim Brotherhood" or whatever for protection. Then they take their new religion with them when they get out. I haven't heard of any of these groups for whites, although they may exist, but whites don't tend to be welcome in the black Muslim groups. The whites tend to join these meth dealing white supremacist groups, also for protection, and they take that crap with them when they get out too.

I am never one to gloat over this topic, and it not only scares me to death but I am so angry at our "system" that allows this.....

I don't know what to do.....I think if I had a kid or other relative that was sentened to prison I might very well help them to another country rather than allow them to face this....

Monday: "Even if it was as rare as you state however, if it was you, or your sister, or mother, would you still say rape was acceptable punishment for having the misfortune to be arrested and incarcerated?"

Nick,
Building on that, would you think rape was appropriate for your mom when she "thought" she had time to get a deposit in the bank in time to cover a check she wrote at Target? Because that is a crime you can go to prison for...

Does anyone here think that it would be just fine if Border Patrol Agents Ramos or Compean get raped while they are in prison? (If they haven't already that is.)

Building on that, would you think rape was appropriate for your mom when she "thought" she had time to get a deposit in the bank in time to cover a check she wrote at Target? Because that is a crime you can go to prison for...

GB, you have nothing to "build on", I never said anything in any way, shape or form that "rape was appropriate". see #134. Only a nut would condone rape in prison or anywhere else for that matter.

"White gangs are evil; Black and Hispanic gangs are cultural"
Surely this is sarcasm. Many Whites join racist gangs for survival in prison. A lone White to survive unscathed in prison today has to be one bad hombre.
The Aryan Brotherhood is the toughest and meanest gang in the prisons today. This poor soul with "feminine characteristics" would need to become the "Bitch" of one of their members and they would protect him from the Black and Hispanic gangs.

I feel bad for the guy, but he certainly brought this setting on himself. One would think that if you are in prison, you can be protected, but prisons are terribly understaffed. I have a very close relative that worked at a miniumum security prison farm (he quit because of the atmosphere) the prisoners run the prison. There is only an illusion that the correctional officers are in charge.

nd being the guy with the kippa

Wasnt' that against your constitutional rights to throw away your head covering? I hope you were alright, but I know that was scary. I would not survive an hour in prison.

I don't like the death penalty...but there are times when I just look the other way and am comfortable with that. Being in Texas, I had better be!

Or as the comedian Ron White puts it, in Texas, if you kill someone, we kill you right back.

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