[Pnews] Americans’ complicity in the prison rape crisis

[Prisoner News]

  Americans’ complicity in the prison rape crisis

*http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2014/4/united-states-prisonrapesexualassaultovercrowdedprisons.html*

*The target of jokes and indifference, sexual assault has become part of 
the American prison experience*

April 28, 2014 3:15AM ET
by Arjun Sethi 
<http://america.aljazeera.com/profiles/s/arjun-sethi.html> @arjunsethi81 
<http://www.twitter.com/arjunsethi81>

The Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women, a maximum-security prison in 
Wetumpka, Ala., was built in 1942 to house 400 inmates. Today the 
facility houses more than 900 women and is the subject of a major 
investigation by the Department of Justice. In a report in January, the 
DOJ called Tutwiler a “toxic, sexualized environment,” citing a sordid 
history of overcrowding, poor staffing and limited oversight. More than 
a third of the prison staff have had sex with inmates.

Rape and sexual assault are as basic to the American prison experience 
as bars and bunk beds. The statistics are not entirely reliable, but in 
2011 alone, the Justice Department estimates, roughly 200,000 
inmates were sexually abused 
<http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2013/oct/24/shame-our-prisons-new-evidence/?pagination=false> 
in detention facilities by prison staff or fellow inmates. Some were 
forced to perform sexual acts in exchange for sanitary supplies or to 
avoid punishment, while others were attacked, and submitted out of sheer 
powerlessness. The majority of these rape victims are men, leading some 
to ask whether the U.S. is the only country in the world where more men 
are raped than women. <https://nplusonemag.com/raise-the-crime-rate> The 
prison rape epidemic is part of a broader human rights crisis. Home to 
less than 5 percent of the world’s population, the U.S. houses roughly a 
quarter of the world’s prisoners. Many are nonviolent offenders and 
suffer from drug addiction, mental illness or crushing poverty.

The majority of inmates live in overcrowded prisons. In California, for 
example, conditions were so appalling that in 2011 the Supreme Court 
ruled that they amounted to cruel and unusual punishment, violating the 
Eighth Amendment 
<http://www2.bloomberglaw.com/public/desktop/document/Brown_v_Plata_131_S_Ct_1910_179_L_Ed_2d_969_2011_Court_Opinion>. 
Dozens of prisoners shared a single toilet, suicidal inmates were held 
for prolonged periods in cages without toilets, and hundreds of 
prisoners slept in bunk beds in gymnasiums. Many state penitentiaries 
and federal correctional facilities face a similar crisis.

In such conditions, sexual assault isn’t necessarily foreseeable. But is 
it surprising? Human rights abuses left unchecked deteriorate into human 
rights crises.

While deplorable prison conditions have facilitated the epidemic, our 
indifference has sustained it, making us complicit. The bodily integrity 
of prisoners has become a laughing matter. Just turn on your 
television. Prison rape is the target of countless jokes on reality 
shows and late-night comedy.

Much of this is political. Prisoners are typically poor, can’t vote and 
have few advocates. Political power is not even within their 
imagination. Victims of sexual assault have even less power. The 
majority never report the crime for fear of retaliation or further 
abuse. In a world of meritorious causes and limited resources, prisoner 
rights often go ignored.

The U.S. incarcerates a larger share of its black population than South 
Africa did at the apex of apartheid, and states spend more on prisons 
than on public education.

Nor is the public a reliable ally. Although one in roughly 32 Americans 
<http://sentencingproject.org/doc/publications/inc_Trends_in_Corrections_Fact_sheet.pdf> 
will be incarcerated at some point during their lifetimes, most 
Americans see prison as reserved for the truly deviant. Thus, so long as 
crime and sexual violence takes place in prisons rather than backyards, 
it’s not considered a pressing problem deserving of government resources.

As repeatedly seen during rape trials, some even shift the blame to the 
victims. In a cruel version of caveat emptor, aggressors defend their 
actions by highlighting victims’ sexual history and clothing. Prison 
rape is sometimes explained in a similar way: If prisoners hadn’t 
violated the law, they wouldn’t have been assaulted. In both cases, the 
victims have diminished rights and are seen as having invited the invasion.

Fortunately, for the first time in decades, there’s real momentum for 
criminal justice reform. Fiscal austerity has spurred unlikely 
bedfellows, and “tough on crime” has given way to “smart on crime 
<http://www.justice.gov/ag/smart-on-crime.pdf>.”

And rightly so. The U.S. incarcerates a larger share of its black 
population 
<http://www.policymic.com/articles/86519/statistics-show-how-mass-incarceration-represents-a-new-racial-caste-system> 
than South Africa did at the apex of apartheid, and states consistently 
spend more money on prisons than on public education. The moral and 
financial costs of mass incarceration are simply untenable.

Liberals and conservatives are now rethinking the war on drugs, 
advocating for shorter sentences, and considering out-of-prison 
penalties for nonviolent crimes. Restoring fairness and balance to the 
American criminal justice system is the first step to eradicating 
inhumanity within it.

There has been recent progress on the issue of prison rape, too. In 
February, the Justice Department threatened to withhold funding 
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/12/doj-prison-rape_n_4775411.html> to 
states that failed to meet certain standards in detecting, preventing 
and responding to sexual abuse in prisons. Last month, the Department of 
Homeland Security finalized comprehensive guidelines 
<http://www.correctionalnews.com/articles/2014/03/18/dhs-finalizes-prison-rape-regulation-standards> 
to eliminate prison rape in immigration detention centers and holding 
facilities.

For the women of Tutwiler prison, and countless others, change can’t 
come soon enough. For more than a generation, we have tolerated — nay, 
mocked — a human rights catastrophe of our own making. It is time to 
marshal the necessary will and resources, and conclude this shameful story.

Arjun Sethi is a lawyer in Washington, D.C., and a frequent commentator 
on civil rights and social-justice-related issues. He is on the board of 
directors of Grassroots Leadership.
-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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