Guards are the worst prison-rapists - Boing Boing
The National Prison Rape Elimination Commission final report is grim reading, especially the finding that prisoners report more rape committed by guards than by other prisoners.Technorati Tags: prison, rape, crime, law, correctional officers, inmates, incarceration
More than 7.3 million Americans are confined in U.S. correctional facilities or supervised in the community, at a cost of more than $68 billion annually. Given our country's enormous investment in corrections, we should ensure that these environments are as safe and productive as they can be. Sexual abuse undermines those goals. It makes correctional environments more dangerous for staff as well as prisoners, consumes scarce resources, and undermines rehabilitation. It also carries the potential to devastate the lives of victims. The many interrelated consequences of sexual abuse for individuals and society are difficult to pinpoint and nearly impossible to quantify, but they are powerfully captured in individual accounts of abuse and its impact.
Former prisoner Necole Brown told the Commission, "I continue to contend with flashbacks of what this correctional officer did to me and the guilt, shame, and rage that comes with having been sexually violated for so many years. I felt lost for a very long time struggling with this. . . . I still struggle with the memories of this ordeal and take it out on friends and family who are trying to be there for me now."
Earlier this month the Denver Post (http://www.denverpost.com/ci_12565561) reported that a female inmate at Denver's Women's Correctional Facility was awarded $1.3 million after being raped by a guard. The story of her abuse and the way the system treated her afterwards is simply abhorrent.
ReplyDeleteThe guard, who injured the woman so badly she required corrective surgery, was given a plea bargain--misdemeanor conviction and 60 days. The real question, though, is whether Colorado DOC (which is actually far better than departments in other states) will investigate the systemic issues that permit such things to happen and then actually have the will to implement the needed changes.