Prison Rapes Spreading Deadly Diseases

NewsMax.com | 7-29-02 | N/A

[babygene]

Since the prison has (or could have) DNA samples from each inmate and even gaurd, it would be very easy to weed out and punish offenders.

I believe this could be stopped, but nobody is willing to for whatever reason.

Prisoners have a right to have asults against them investigated to the same extent that people on the outside do...

[Mark17]

Once the general population sees these rapists "disappearing" and never coming back, there won't be many people wanting to commit the act any longer.

I am not so sure on this. You may be right, but think about this too. The only real punishment these guys get, is from each other. Just being locked up is not punishment. These guys get three meals a day. They get cable TV, telephone, limited access to computers (no Internet) law library, hobby programs, sports programs, trade schools and a host of other things. Even guys in a SHU (which I think can be up to 2 years) get some of the same thing, just less of it. The perp usually has to deal with the victims hommies, and that can be dangerous.

[Mark17]

I'm not sure a prison could even function if it had hundreds of inmates segregated. Even if you had the staff to deliver all the meals, how do you allow each of them to shower alone?

Yep. They might have to hire 10 times the number of staff, and the people would riot in the streets over the taxes they would have to pony up.

[Jhoffa_]

There is a school of thought that believes these people deserve to be raped in prison simply by virtue of their being criminals. After, all.. they are criminals so who cares what happens to them! Let them be raped, that will serve as a deterant! They should have thought about that before they committed the crime! And so on and so forth.

This is completely wrong. They were not sentenced to rape by a jury of their peers and, as the article points out most of them WILL be released at some point and society will have to deal with them..

You know what I hate? I hate people who ignore posted minimums and drive too slow.

Because I hate them and they broke the law, should I look the other way if a cops roughs them up during a traffic stop?

Should I tell them they "deserved it" and that I consider it to just be part of the punishment? Tell them they should have thought about that before getting out on the road?

[Clara Lou]

Everything you say should happen is common sense, but even prisoners have the courts to fall back on. Any inmate who gets moved to a cell for his own protection still has the right to file a complaint against the warden (or whoever) if he wants to fight it. The threat of constant inmate lawsuits squelches a lot of things that should or could or would happen. You've read yourself, I'm sure, how inmates are tying up the court system with their suits.

I hate to bring money into this, but we are a nation of over-taxed people. Do you have any idea how billions of dollars (nationwide) that you are talking about when you say "put them in solitary for life?" That's not the solution- for the inmates or the taxpayers.

We at FR are so big on personal responsibility-- and rightly so. When do these criminals become responsible for what they chose to do to themselves by committing crimes?

[SamAdams76]

Just being locked up is not punishment. These guys get three meals a day. They get cable TV, telephone, limited access to computers (no Internet) law library, hobby programs, sports programs, trade schools and a host of other things.

Not if you are in solitary. In that case, you only get an hour a day in the yard which is supervised. If that. As for TV, federal prisons do not allow TVs in the cells for anybody. Instead, they have TV rooms in which the channels are selected by the guards, and usually they pick only mindless sitcoms, soap operas and game shows. However, if you are "in the hole" (solitary), you aren't getting any of these things no matter what kind of prison you are in. Except the three meals a day, which is nothing anybody on the outside would even touch.

[Paleo Conservative]

There are a couple of ways to control prison rape. One is castration, another is to keep the HIV population confined to their own area. Either would be effective.

Not only should both be done but prisoners convicted of raping other prisoners should be totally emasculated.

[Clara Lou]

Remember, the raped inmate has to have the desire, the courage, to say that he's been raped. (Hard to admit for a man, don't you think?) He has to be willing to say who did it, and face the consequences if his charge falls through. (Unless there's a tape, all the accused inmate has to do is to say "he was willing." Then it devolves into a he says-he says. One gets or both get a hand-slap for sexual contact, and then the accusee takes revenge against the accuser. Wouldn't you be afraid to accuse?)

Prisoners have a right to have asults against them investigated to the same extent that people on the outside do...
I have absolutely no argument there.

[Lessismore]

The timing, rate of decline and magnitude of the decline in criminal offenses during the '90s is consistent with the high rate of AIDS among felons and intravenous drug users. Death and disability from AIDS, whether contracted in prison or outside, is much higher in those populations than for the general populations.

AIDS has had a much greater favorable impact for reducing crime in this country than anything else.

[Clara Lou]

Paleo-- what "should be" done and what "can be" done are two completely different things.

[SamAdams76]

We at FR are so big on personal responsibility-- and rightly so. When do these criminals become responsible for what they chose to do to themselves by committing crimes?

I fully agree. Criminals should be responsible for their crimes and like I said before, prison should be no picnic for anybody. People getting out of prison should have absolutely no desire to ever go back there. But I do sincerely believe that our prisoners should not be subjected to cruel & unusual punishment. Many of these prisoners will someday be released back into society. Is our society really served by sending prisoners back to society who have endured brutal rapes and inhumane treatment?

As for the prisoners filing bogus lawsuits, I agree that this is a problem. But the kind of animals who prey on others sexually usually don't have the intelligence to string two sentences together. When they are removed from the general population, they aren't going to have their jailhouse lawyers around to help them with the paperwork anymore.

All the same, I think tort reform is long overdue. Not just in prisons but in everyday life. Let's fix the system and make it more difficult to file bogus lawsuits. Then the prisoners can sit around filing all the bogus motions they want.

[Clara Lou]

But the kind of animals who prey on others sexually usually don't have the intelligence to string two sentences together.
That's a generalization that's true occasionally.

[Jhoffa_]

AIDS has had a much greater favorable impact for reducing crime in this country than anything else.

Fine, let's sentence people to "aids"

Till we do though, they owe time to the state and nothing more. When you take someones freedom for a length of time to repay a debt you become responsible for them to some degree.

Let's be responsible about such issues and follow the Constitution. Too many people consider rape to be the "cruel and inhumane" punishment that we dole out off the record.

[TommyDale]

I wasn't saying that was the end to rape in prison -- that will always be there when you have captive criminals. I was suggesting a way to prevent rapes that spread HIV, which is what the original story was about.

[wardaddy]

AIDS has had a much greater favorable impact for reducing crime in this country than anything else.

Whimsical but untrue. Give credit to the 1987 Federal Sentencing Guidlines and the States that have followed suit as well as a declining crime perpetuating age group....males in particular.

Simply put....much of the opining on this thread of what goes on in the joint about homosexual contact and rape is hilarious. How many ex-cons are on this thread? We have one hack's wife as an authority. Prison threads on FR are a hoot. Where's ExCon when we need him? I must confess that folks on this thread have been more sympathetic to a raped inmate's humanity than I expected when I first saw this on Drudge knowing full well it would be posted here.

BTW, you are correct to a degree. AIDs (and violent death) have impacted the crime breeding pool...no doubt.

[wardaddy]

Whoops, I made the classic error. Inmates are in asylums. These folks in question are either prisoners or convicts depending on their attitude and criminality.

[Temple Owl]

Good post, Sam. (#51) I totally agree.

[Mark17]

Not if you are in solitary.

That is called a SHU program. Feds may be just as you say, but state joints are different, with each joint having its own system of what they can and cannot have. I am not sure of all the ins and outs, oops, bad choice of words, so I am not sure how much the courts have to do with assigning SHU terms, if at all. Also, I am not sure how long SHU terms can run. I have heard up to 2 years, and after that, I just don't know, but those low on the totem pole have no control over it. As I mentioned, the guys give it up willingly a whole lot more than they don't, and it is disgusting. Mostly it happens at night when you have about 1 officer to watch 1,200 inmates in 6 different housing units. It's about an impossible situation. Later.

[Mark17]

When they are removed from the general population, they aren't going to have their jailhouse lawyers around to help them with the paperwork anymore.

Because of a law suit, that the inmates filed, they still have access to the law library, even while locked up in Ad Seg, and can get just as much help as they did while in GP.

[Mulder]

The easy solution is to take all the cameras off our highways and put them in the prisons.

Any inmate found assaulting another inmate would be taken out to the yard and either hung or shot (whichever is cheaper) the next day after a fair and speedy trial (I emphasize "speedy").

But the gov't really doesn't want to solve the problem. They use the threat of prison rape as a way to control the people. Just look at the Project Exile commercials or the comments of the Kalifornia AG regarding Ken Lay.