Prison Rape

All inmates are powerless, women most of all, making them especially vulnerable to abuse, including rape and other forms of sexual assault, despite federal and state laws criminalizing forced or nonconsensual acts. Yet they repeatedly happen, many unreported for fear of recrimination or inability to provide proof. Other times out of shame or expectation that charges will be scoffed at.

In addition, women at times reporting them are isolated, ostensibly for safety, but the effect takes a physical and emotional toll. According to Deborah Golden, staff attorney for the DC Prisoners’ Project of the Washington Lawyer’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, many women don’t view sex as an abuse. Most experienced sexual and other physical mistreatment before prison, reports Sarah From, Women’s Prison Association public policy director.

In 2004, AI reported nearly 2,300 sexual abuse cases against men and women, the true totals far higher according to experts believing the problem is systemic and growing.

According to a 2007 Bureau of Justice Statistics report titled, “Sexual Victimization in State and Federal Prisons Reported by (male and female) Inmates,” 4.5% of prisoners (108,000) reported being abused in the past year – also grossly understated because most incidents aren’t reported. In addition, they’re equally common against men and women, Human Right Watch saying at least 140,000 males are raped during incarceration.

In her 2006 paper titled, “Sexual abuse of women in United States prisons: a modern corollary of slavery,” Brenda Smith compared the similarities, explaining that custody is the common thread even though, unlike slaves, prisoners ostensibly have rights under Eighth Amendment protections against cruel and unusual punishment, the Thirteenth Amendment outlawing slavery and involuntary servitude, and US law.

Abuse, however, remains unchecked, Angela Davis calling prison rape “an institutionalized component of punishment behind prison walls,” men, women, and children victimized. Further, they’re almost never provided mental health services to handle trauma, nor are guards given proper training or mandates to prevent sex crimes in the first place. This issue was addressed by the 2003 Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), the first federal law regarding sexual assault on prisoners, aiming to curb it through a “zero-tolerance” policy, as well as research and information gathering.

It calls for developing national standards to prevent, detect, reduce and punish sexual assault, making data on them more available to administrators, and holding officials and guards more accountable for their actions. But laws without enforcement are hollow, prisoner rights historically America’s lowest priority. Those incarcerated are society’s most abused and mistreated, especially vulnerable women out of sight behind bars.

Male Rape in Prison

Against women or men, rape inflicts pain and suffering. As a result, human rights and humanitarian groups as well as international courts now recognize it as torture. Most US states define it as forced, nonconsensual sex. California’s law mirrors others saying:

It’s sexual intercourse carried out “against a person’s will by means of force, violence, duress, menace, or fear of immediate and unlawful bodily injury on the person or another.” It’s also when “the perpetrator threatens to use public authority to imprison, arrest, (otherwise punish), or deport the victim or another, and the victim reasonably believes the perpetrator is a public official.”

This article focuses on torture against men and women, inflicted by prison guards and officials. Male rape is generally inmate-on-inmate. As a result, the topic is covered briefly, very much deserving detailed discussion in a separate article.

In April 2001, Human Rights Watch (HRW) published a report titled, “No Escape: Male Rape in US Prisons,” citing studies showing about one in five men raped at least once during confinement. Documenting it with dozens of first-and accounts, HRW explained its long-lasting effects, including depression, PTSD, and HIV-AIDS, one victim saying:

“I remained in shock and paralyzed in thought for two days until I was able to muster the courage to report it. This is the most dreadful and horrifying experience of my life.”

According to HRW, “Rape is not an inevitable consequence of prison life, but it certainly is a predictable one if little is done to prevent it and punish it.” Indifference to prisoner rights perpetuates it against vulnerable men, women and children.

http://revolutionaryfrontlines.wordpress.com/2010/11/18/torture-other-forms-of-abuse-widely-used-in-us-prisons/