Prison Rape is Unacceptable

by VectorportalI live in Washington, D.C. I go to policy school. I read about politics, policy, and economics for fun. The news doesn't outrage me anymore.  I like to consider things in a cool, analytical perspective; think about what would be more efficient, or how to convince someone who had different values than I did.  

Usually.  

But right now I'm fucking furious.

The U.S. Department of Justice recently released its first-ever estimate of the number of inmates who are sexually abused in America each year. According to the department’s data, which are based on nationwide surveys of prison and jail inmates as well as young people in juvenile detention centers, at least 216,600 inmates were victimized in 2008 alone. Contrary to popular belief, most of the perpetrators were not other prisoners but staff members—corrections officials whose job it is to keep inmates safe. On average, each victim was abused between three and five times over the course of the year. The vast majority were too fearful of reprisals to seek help or file a formal complaint.

That's unacceptable.  There is no two sides of this issue.  There is nothing to convince another person of, except to give a damn that our country systematically rapes hundreds of thousands of people, often for nonviolent crimes.  Maybe you think I'm being hyperbolic, it isn't America's fault that these people get raped. Stopping prison rape is like trying to make the sun come up in the west.

Except:

Sexual violence is not an inevitable part of prison life. On the contrary, it is highly preventable. Corrections officials who are committed to running safe facilities train their staff thoroughly. They make sure that inmates who are especially vulnerable to abuse—such as small, mentally ill, and gay or transgender detainees—are not housed with likely perpetrators. And they hold those who commit sexual assaults accountable, even if they are colleagues. 

You know what, I don't care how much it costs.  This isn't optional.  If you can't run a prison without a bunch of people getting raped, THEN YOU CAN'T HAVE PRISONS!  Rape is pretty much the worst thing there is, so how can you punish non-violent drug and property criminals by sending them to "rape factories"? 

It’s easy to feel numbed by the Justice Department’s estimate that almost 600 prisoners are sexually victimized each day. But behind that number are real people like Jan Lastocy. While serving time for attempted embezzlement in a Michigan prison in 1998, Lastocy was raped. Not once, not twice, but several times a week for seven months. The rapist was an officer who supervised her at a prison warehouse. Lastocy was so afraid of him that she did not even dare to tell her husband of 30 years, John, what was going on. 

These are our sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers. They are powerless, vulnerable, and they wake up knowing today it might happen again and there is nothing they can do to stop it.  Because we don't care enough to do anything about it.

This is un-American, to the core.  Cruel and unusual. No due process.  No equality before the law. No freedom.  There is no freedom if this is out there.  You, or someone you love, could be stripped of all human dignity and locked up with a rapist.  Someone we pay to go to work and rape people.  

It will not change unless people make it change.

Call your Congressman.  Write a letter to your state representative.  Write a letter to the editor.  Go to a prison.  Tell someone.  Care.  Do something.  This is unacceptable, and it should not happen in our name.