Rape Factories (Prisons in US)

reply to post by Illusionsaregrander


Seriously ya know, we have our own bent screws, but going that far is not something many British are willing to do. We think its sick and gross, we're happy being "normal" as I said previously even our most gruesome murderers hate the nounces, and hate people that dont use there manners..and are quite content with a cuppa tea.

I dunno..I guess we like to pride our selves on being sane in this insane world.

reply to post by iSwag


Erich Fromm said in

THE SANE SOCIETY

that in an insane society only the insane would be sane.

With corruption and evil so pervasive in the land . . .

it can be almost capricious--merely a facial expression or a tone of voice that has nothing to do with anyone in any negative way--as to what lands one cross ways with some powerful and very evil people in high places from corrupt police on up.

You need to bear in mind that rape is not a sexual thing, it is a power/dominance thing.

Guards and correction officers are attracted to the job precisely because it gives them power and makes them dominant over others who are completely at their mercy. Rape is a simple, irresistable extension and expression of their sociopathy.

One way to cure the abuses is to ensure that prisons are completely under public surveillance via online cameras that are inaccessible to both inmates and guards. I think that it would make both inmates and guards behave better.

I'll say that ten times out of ten the only people who will object to this will be the guards. the idea that the public, the families of those incarcerated would be able to see what they do to the prisoners would be too chilling for them and take all the fun out of the job.

Most often, I think, the worst criminals in prisons are the guards, not the inmates.

reply to post by Illusionsaregrander


I cant tell if you agree with me or are disagreeing.

The first sentence "No it isnt" makes me think you agree then you call my statement ridiculous?

Reading comprehension failure on my side or yours?

Originally posted by jonibelle
I know my joke on the first page was of bad taste but I couldn't help it. Am I making an excuse? No. But because I made the joke does it mean I think these men and women deserve to be sexually abused and assaulted? Definitely not. I wish no such thing on my worst enemy.

edit on 30-6-2011 by jonibelle because: (no reason given)

I think there is a double standard, since prison rape primarily happens to Men you think it's ok to joke about it, I doubt you'd be telling jokes if it was primarily women being raped in this context. The same thing happens to underage boys who are raped by adult women, big joke.

reply to post by woodwardjnr


Imagine being a young first time offender from the suburbs picked up for something petty and thrown in with complete monsters that are going to prison for a long time.

I just want to say THANK YOU for doing whatever you can to expose
this despicable, criminal behavior.

I am so saddened to read, hear the responses from the "people in charge"
who should at all cost be attempting to stop this from happening.
The fact that we send so many of the young people into this hell is unforgivable.

Again, as we see so often, the real criminals in our societal system
are those with the power.
Herein lies a lack of empathy that is truly soul chilling.
Thanks again.

reply to post by gabby2011


I'm working on identifying the prison workers who allowed it to happen.

Originally posted by iSwag

Originally posted by Drezden

Joking about prison rape, even in a minor way like you have is part of the problem. That's why it's not taken seriously. We need to protect people FFS.. not joke.

I'm joking about it because that's what's gonna keep me out of prison...

Not tryna have Big Bubba corner me in my cell and have you-know-what happen to me.

edit on Wed Jun 29 2011 by DontTreadOnMe because: BIG QUOTE REMOVED

So, with today's Patriot Act, you can be detained pretty much without cause. The three days they hold you could put you at risk for rape.

my life is so dull i don't even have a parking ticket to my name. being a homebody has it's advantages i guess. LOL

Here is an excerpt from a book written by a prison guard on rape in prison.

It is estimated that there are over 300,000 instances of prison rape a year.

196,000 are estimated to happen to men in prison

123,000 are estimated to happen to men in county jail.

40,000 are estimated to be committed against boys in either adult prisons or while in juvenile facilities or lock ups.

5000 women are estimated to be raped in prison.

Remember that these are all estimates. Most rapes are not reported.

Sexual attacks in prison are considered rape when penetration occurs. It is estimated that inmates are approached with unwanted sexual advances over 80,000 times per day in the United States alone.

Keep in mind that many experts consider county and local jails to be more likely places for rapes than prisons. There is a reason for this. You are more likely to be raped while in prison if:

You are young.

You come from a middle-class background.

You are white.

You are not street smart or have no gang affiliations.

Physically you are of small stature.

By the time repeat or career criminals get to prison they have normally made the circuit through foster homes, juvenile lockups and reform schools where rape is very common. So by the time they actually make it to the big time they are well schooled in this fact of prison life and quite often they are the attackers not the attackees.

This guide is for the person who has never done any kind of time. Do not think that rape will only happen in prison. If you have to go to county jail prior to your trial and while awaiting transfer to prison, a sexual attack is very likely to occur there. This can all depend on the area you live in. If you are in a rural area with a small jail, of course the chances will drop. But if you are in a metro area, Los Angeles County, New York’s Rikers Island, Miami’s Dade, and Chicago’s Cook being among the worst, your chances of being raped are going to skyrocket.

Especially, and this is not a racist statement, if you are white. Consider that of the total number of estimated prison rapes:

13% involved white inmates raping white inmates

29% involved black inmates raping black inmates.

56% involved black inmates raping white inmates.

This comes to a grand total of 85% of prison rapes being committed by blacks, with 69% of the victims being white. The rapes of white inmates are normally done by gangs of blacks and somewhat in the open so that other inmates, but not staff, can witness the attacks. The blacks involved are generally in the joint for crimes such as armed robbery or severe assault cases.

One of the reasons for this situation is that whites lack solidarity while in prison and unlike the population on the outside, are the minority on the inside.

Scenario #1. A white middle-class man, let’s say a car dealer, is picked up for sale of coc aine, and is locked into a communal cell with four black inmates, all whom have done substantial amounts of time in prison. The white man is of small stature and has no street smarts. The chances of him being raped:. Damn near 100%.

Scenario #2. Same situation only this time the white is a solid member of a biker gang that has ties to inside the prison walls. He himself has been in several times. Chances of rape in this situation: Practically zero. The black inmates are smart enough to know that they may be able to out muscle this man and rape him, but the long-term ramifications are not worth it. Without even talking to this man, the blacks’ years of experience in prison will give them the sense to leave him alone.

While I was an officer in Moose Lake/Willow River (Minnesota) prison I worked a unit that held two Native Americans, one black, one Asian, a younger white inmate, and an older seasoned inmate. When it finally came to the attention of the staff, it turned out that the young white inmate had been raped repeatedly over several months by the black and Indian inmates, but not by the Asian or the older inmate. It also turned out that no advances had ever been made toward either of those two. Note that the seasoned inmate did not join in on the rapes, but never tried to stop it either. That is just the way things are in prison. There is no brotherhood of man when you walk inside those gate

- Scott L Anderson

BBC Documentary about Miami mega-jail in the USA.

Imagine a jail where dangerous inmates awaiting trial live 24 to a room and fight each other under a violent gladiatorial code. This is life inside Miami's mega-jail, writes Louis Theroux.

For a bespectacled, peace-loving Englishman, there can be few places less congenial than a berth on the sixth floor of Miami main jail.

The place has to be seen to be believed. Up to 24 inmates are crowded into a single cell, living behind metal bars on steel bunks, sharing a single shower and two toilets.

Little of the bright Miami sun filters through the grilles on the windows. Visits to the yard happen twice a week for an hour. The rest of the time, inmates are holed up round the clock, eating, sleeping, and going slightly crazy.

But what is most shocking is the behaviour of the inmates themselves. For reasons that remain to some extent opaque - perhaps because of the bleak conditions they live in or because of insufficient supervision by officers, maybe because they lack other outlets for their energies, or because of their involvement with gangs on the outside, or maybe from a warped jailhouse tradition - the incarcerated here have created a brutal gladiatorial code of fighting.

Louis Theroux enters a higher security upper floor of Miami's mega-jail
They fight for respect, for food and snacks, or simply to pass the time.

With around 7,000 inmates, the Miami jail system is one of the biggest in America - a so-called "mega-jail". Most of these inmates are on remand - awaiting bail or being held until their trial dates - usually for fairly minor offences. In America, jails are distinct from prisons in that they hold people who are pre-trial and therefore unconvicted.

Most of these inmates reside at one of the two biggest facilities in the Miami jail system, large modern buildings where the cells are well-supervised and safe.

But the hardened few hundred who are either charged with particularly serious offences or have a track record of misbehaving behind bars get sent to the fifth and sixth floors of the main jail - a place with its own myth and lore.

Inmates throughout the jail speak with a sense of awe about the main jail, for it is here that the code of the jail is most stringently observed.

The idea of me spending time in the Miami jail grew out of a documentary I'd made about San Quentin in California in 2007. I'd been struck by the strange self-contained world of the prison - with its own rules and its own unexpected intimacies.

I'd come to Miami having heard that jails - with their more transient and therefore more chaotic population of new arrestees and defendants - were quite different, less settled and less domesticated. Inmates tended not to stay long enough to get comfortable or bond with officers or with each other.

Also, while prisons separate out their inmates so that the most serious cases are sent to "supermax" ultra-high security facilities, jails house the entire gamut of accused offenders.

Still, I was shocked by what I found.

Fighting is difficult to stop in the cells A few days into my stay I arrived at the jail to find there had been a fight on the sixth floor - a man had been badly beaten by several of his cellmates. I visited the cell and was told by several inmates that the victim had been testifying on other people's cases. "Snitches get stitches," one said.

I tracked down the victim, who'd just arrived back from the clinic, his eyes swollen shut, looking as though he'd just gone 10 rounds with Vitali Klitschko. He said his cellmates had taken it in turns to fight him, one after another, six or seven in a row - a practice called "line-up".

Gingerly, I raised the possibility that he might have aroused the ire of his compadres by co-operating with the state on his case, maybe against his co-defendants? He said the idea was absurd - he'd been arrested for driving with a suspended licence.

A day or two later I met an inmate called Robert Tosta, a sturdy guy with an extensive track record of muggings and burglaries. Tosta was sporting a black eye and he explained that he'd been in a fight with a man in his cell.

“Without privacy, sharing a single shower, many of the men had lost their sense of the normal social barriers”

He'd noticed that some personal items were missing and, even though he had no idea who was responsible, jailhouse rules dictated that he had to ask his bunk-mate to "strap up" - put his shoes on for a fight.

In some cells inmates boasted that they had a policy of "mandatory rec" for new inmates - meaning any inmate coming into the cell had to fight (or "rec") for a bunk, unless he was known to other inmates in the cell, in which case he might be granted a reprieve.

And yet, strange as it is, fighting is far from being the only predatory behaviour that flourishes on the fifth and sixth floors of Main Jail.

Early in our visit, I heard whispers from the officers accompanying us that some of the inmates were being "disrespectful" during interviews. I was confused. They were shouting? Making faces?

No, they were "gunning" - that is to say masturbating - "at" and "to" our female director and assistant producer.

I recalled that some of the men behind bars had been swaddled in sheets as they stood or had lain covered on their beds - I'd assumed this was because they were camera shy - but in fact, it was explained, this was the better to hide.

Undoubtedly the practice was strange and uncomfortable for all the members of our team. And yet, even this I came to see as symptomatic of the strange conditions of the cells in the Main Jail. Deprived of any outside sensory stimulus they were hyper-alert to the sight of young women from the outside.

And without privacy, sharing a single shower, many of the men had lost their sense of the normal social barriers - they were around each other continuously, using the toilets, speaking to loved ones on the phone, and, presumably, indulging in other physical functions. And when we were around them, the same rules applied to us - many of them, living like animals, had lost their grip on social norms.

“Up close and without the protective bars the men were actually less loud and less menacing”

From the off I was keen to get inside the cells. The prison authorities do not usually allow this but we managed to get special permission and I ended up making several forays into the men's quarters.

Not surprisingly, having been told by the officers that for safety reasons it was "inadvisable" for me to enter a cell, I was somewhat nervous when I did so - chaperoned by a couple of officers, it must be said.

And yet, the first surprise was a sense that up close and without the protective bars the men were actually less loud and less menacing - they seemed nonplussed by my being among them and unsure of how to act.

There was an odd moment when one inmate, a young man named Shug, pulled his trousers down. But when I asked him what he thought he was doing, he seemed to think better of gunning and took part in the conversation.

Another inmate, Rodney Pearson, known as Hot Rod, told me he'd been inside for several years awaiting trial. Prosecutors wanted to give him the death penalty.

Some inmates are on remand for long periods I asked him if, by some quirk of fate, I'd been arrested and sent to their cell, a bespectacled Englishman with a college education who was clearly not cut out to fight, they might let me off the "mandatory rec". The answer was an emphatic "no".

Horrible as it is, perhaps the biggest surprise in the main jail is that many of the inmates with the most serious charges choose to extend their stay as long as possible. Facing murder charges and prosecutors keen to give them life or even a death sentence, they figure that their odds of a better outcome at trial will improve the longer they wait, as witnesses die or disappear and memories fade.

It is a legal strategy known as "distancing". Some inmates had been inside for five years or more, still technically innocent, putting up with the most brutal conditions, for a chance of a better sentence.

Officers say there is little they can do to stamp out the fighting among inmates. They say it is the choice of the incarcerated men to participate in the code of the jail and that the inmate policy of no snitching means they can very rarely identify the chief culprits.

It is true that the layout of the jail - an old-fashioned design with a "walk" that runs past cage-like habitations that reminded me of nothing so much as a large multi-storey zoo - makes it difficult for officers to keep a constant watch on their charges.

One of the corporals said he thought the county might be happy to make reforms as long as I was happy to stump up the $600m for a new building.

Until then, he suggested, the strange code of the fifth and sixth floors will continue to hold sway.

Copyright (c) BBC 2011 Source

So.....everyone is feeling sorry for these inmates? I work in a prison and we do everything we can to prevent this kind of stuff. Ever hear of the Prison Rape Elimination Act? I'm guessing most of you haven't. While I agree some crimes shouldn't necessarily get you put in prison, the reason things like prison rape happen is because you have a bunch of selfish, manipulative, degenerates in one place. They don't care about the well being of other inmates just like they didn't care about the well being of their victims. I'm not saying everyone in prison is crap, but work in one and you will quickly realize that most are and they won't change. Sorry if that is politically incorrect and rubs some people the wrong way, but the truth is the truth. Back in the day, most of these people would have been "taken care of" and they would no longer be a threat to innocent people, but as long as there are all these bleeding hearts, citizens will continue to be victimized by these people...if you can call them that.

Maybe these criminals who are "sexually abused" in prisons shouldn't have committed crimes such as rape, child molestation, murder, or assault.

Just putting it out there

Originally posted by SeventhSeal
Maybe these criminals who are "sexually abused" in prisons shouldn't have committed crimes such as rape, child molestation, murder, or assault.

Just putting it out there

Or gotten arrested during a protest like Stephen Donaldson.

Or picked up for vagrancy as a youth.

Just putting that out there.

What a perfect little sheltered world it must be where only bad things happen to bad people huh.

I thought this was old news. Hasn't the possibility of rape always been a variable of jail time? I think the state tries to do as much as they can each year but they can only do so much. Its not a sunny vacation on a decadent island...its prison.

reply to post by Boogeyman1976


Now imagine your on a prison planet from an outside perspective. Do you see the same thing going on outside of the jails but on the sphere jail you are also in commenting about your own kind.............

Originally posted by Boogeyman1976
So.....everyone is feeling sorry for these inmates? I work in a prison and we do everything we can to prevent this kind of stuff. Ever hear of the Prison Rape Elimination Act? I'm guessing most of you haven't. While I agree some crimes shouldn't necessarily get you put in prison, the reason things like prison rape happen is because you have a bunch of selfish, manipulative, degenerates in one place. They don't care about the well being of other inmates just like they didn't care about the well being of their victims. I'm not saying everyone in prison is crap, but work in one and you will quickly realize that most are and they won't change. Sorry if that is politically incorrect and rubs some people the wrong way, but the truth is the truth. Back in the day, most of these people would have been "taken care of" and they would no longer be a threat to innocent people, but as long as there are all these bleeding hearts, citizens will continue to be victimized by these people...if you can call them that.

As a correctional officer...or an employee of the Department of Corrections...would you be willing to elaborate on the Prison Rape Elimination Act...kind of give us a run down of what it is and how you are personally involved with how the system protects inmates from rape (or whatever it does).

I think it would be interesting to get an insiders look at exactly what this system is and how it is put into effect in the prison systems throughout the U.S.

I am also curious if you are a federal or state prison employee...and what your direct responsibility's are involving the PREA system? How do you personally make the prison rape issue less of a concern for those that are so worried about the poor inmates that are barely people anyway?

Your view as an insider could have a huge effect on the bleeding heart crowd...and I would be very curious to hear it.

Thanks

Originally posted by jonibelle
I know, it was inappropriate, but I couldn't help myself.
And jokes aren't why the issue isn't taken seriously. It's the fact that it's PRISON.
You know those big places surrounded by electric fences with "top notch" security 24/7. The place designed to keep vile humans out of our society, are kept? I don't think doing time means you should get raped, but no one feels bad for a bad guy =/

How ignorant can one person be? Not everyone in prison is a "bad guy". You can go to prison for accidentally making a mistake while filing your taxes...

Originally posted by iSwag
It's totally under my control. It's me who makes the decisions, inevitably choosing where I will go in my life....

Therefore I avoid those decisions that risk my freedom.

No, it isn't under your control at all. Sure, you can say "I'm not going to murder, rape, or steal" but that doesn't mean you wont accidentally run someone over in a crosswalk and do time for manslaughter. You could go out and run a few errands real quick and find yourself in the slammer for the next 10 years.

reply to post by jonibelle


No one feels bad for the bad guy well what about the innocent guys in prison that didnt do anything or got framed, I guess you have no feelings for them either...lets get one thing straight this entire corrective system is a joke you can get put in prison for nothing basically and lets not forget the new laws that are made up everyday by people that will never be arrested