Should rape in prison be stopped?

uh, I would say yes….

but hey, large men anally violating other large men is probably good for our society…

Well, considering rape can put you in jail in the first place…yes.

Of course. Sending people to jail, as that article points out, is effectively sentencing them to cruel and unusual punishment. It’s sickening to think that people see it as appropriate.

“Punishment”?

“Tool for prisoner obedience”?

Are you nuts?

A few years ago there was a series of articles in the paper talking about how guards would punish out-of-line prisoners by putting them in the same cell as Walter (the boody bandit) Johnson. Guaranteed rape.
How this continued was beyond me.

Yes, of course. Rape is a crime of dominance and power wherever it occurs!

Naughty, naughty, though! You have been taking data from wikipedia, haven’t you? It is not at all a good primary source. You’re absolutely wrong about the number of men raped annually vs. the number of women raped annually.

“According to the most recent UCR publication, 95,136 forcible rapes were reported in the United States for the year 2002 (FBI, 2003). This equates to an incidence of 64.8 reported attempted or forcible rapes for every 100,000 women and girls. Approximately 91% of these victims reported rapes by force, with the remaining 9% reporting attempts to commit forcible rape.” Source

“Extrapolated to the national prison population, an estimated 60,500 State and Federal prisoners were sexually abused during that 12-month period.” Source Note: that number includes women prisoners who are also raped.

How should it be stopped?

Prison guard doesn’t seem to be a great job in the first place. Imagine having to patrol the cells stopping rape among these twisted men. I’m not saying they shouldn’t do anything about it, but what’s the best option really?

I doubt it can be stopped.

@DominicX Some of the worst offenders in prison rapes are the guards who certainly have no right to rape prisoners.

@Facade it certainly can, and a way should be heavily sought after. Complacency about crimes are just as dangerous as the crimes themselves.

@Marina Sorry… I quoted the link above with the numbers.

I don’t think anyone actually condones it but I think it’s a strong deterrent for people on the criminal fence. I was a bad kid at times but I never went to prison. The fact that these types of activities occurred was a strong motivation among my circle in suburbia to avoid at all cost these environs.

@DominicX Twisted men? They’re human beings, ya know. Most of them incarcerated on weak charges.

@Facade Very true.

Anyway, why would anyone want the prison system to become more of a cesspool? That makes no sense.

The reason we have the prison system is to punish those who have broken the law; in most cases, they are to be released back into society. A prison should function as a “teaching tool”, if you will.

Not hell on Earth.

A progressive, intelligent society should be probing the minds of criminals, either learning from them (to prevent similar cases from arising; nip it in the bud, as it were), or, for those that have insubstantial charges, attempting to assimilate them back into society once therapy/rehab has done its job.

@Grisaille

I never said they weren’t human beings. The implications of “twisted” being that normal people don’t rape each other willy nilly. My question remains the same: what should be done about it?

For one thing, I don’t think marijuana possession should result in prison. No more drug charges leading to prison. Prison should be for murderers, rapists, molesters, etc., people who are dangerous to others, not people who like to get high. That’s a start, at least.

@boots Thanks, I should have read the details closer. What is the source of his number?

heh heh…. willy nilly…

@Marina He links to them in the article.

The female’s number

The male’s number

@DominicX
Yes drugs are harmless and personal drug use has no damaging ramifications

@SeventhSense That wouldn’t happen if drugs were legal. No illegal drugs=no illegal drug trade.

And please stay on topic.

@SeventhSense

Okay, then, what’s your solution?

@DominicX
Cut off the demand and the upstream is out of business. I’m just being provocative because there’s often talk on any number of topics about how we can do things that “don’t affect or bother anyone”.

The fact of the matter is that the world is slowly coming to the awareness that there is no more room for isolationism. We either come to an awareness of our interdependence and interconnectedness or we all go down with the ship. And whether that be someone who is raped in prison or someone south of the border trying to feed their family. If I sneeze it affects the planet. But I don’t condone harsh sentences for persons who may be served by rehabilitation. That’s like shooting pigeons with an anti aircraft gun. And I do think it’s insane the amount of effort and money we spend on things like uprooting plants in California when they can’t even balance the budget, Though the idea of allowing free and open use of drugs(even marijuana) could be a very fatal error for society. The long term effects on productivity, child care, and health could be devastating. So maybe it’s stemming the tide. But ultimately if there’s no demand there is no need for a supplier.
oh and rape sucks…i’m on topic see?

I wonder how many crimes have been prevented just from the thought of having to endure such a thing. How many would be car jackers stopped and thought “wait a minute.. if I get caught I’m going to get ass raped… maybe I should rethink this”.

Should it be stopped in prison? Of course.. but I don’t see it happening.

lol wow totally misread this, sorry bud, almost jumped the gun, been a long day.

Of course it must be stopped. So many diseases can and are passed on through rape in prison. Furthermore, it’s a violation against one’s own personal dignity. Sure, you may argue that as criminals they don’t have any more rights, but we already placed them in prison. We don’t need to ‘go the extra length’ to make them suffer even more.

And for guards to use rape as a form of obedience is just sick. It’s a total abuse of power and they’re treating the prisoners simply as sex tools.

It could be stopped permanently with radical castration.

Yes…except in the case of rapists and child molesters, let’s see how THEY like it.

@dalepetrie probably would do a lot more harm than good, if that wasn’t said jokingly that is. can never tell

When a convicted felon gets sentenced to prison, rape is not included on his/her social agenda.

You people advocating rape as a form of punishment…and you who say, “gosh oh golly gee, rape is a terrible thing in prisons, but really, what can we do about it..” You are the kind of people who actually allow this to continue.

No, the rape is not and should not be considered a part of their punishment. Humans should be treated with dignity even when they do awful things. I would no more support rape in prisons than I would support rape in the general populace.

No, rape should not be tolerated – even in prison. @DrBill makes an interesting (if a bit brutal) point. Maybe chemical castration is an option for these guys.

@ABoyNamedBoobs03 – yes, jokingly, well half jokingly anyway. I’d actually institute a death penalty for these people if I ran things…my rules would be that if you intentionally hurt, kill or victimize another human being, society doesn’t need you. And yes, I know it’s not practical in today’s world where we have a system where some people are convicted of crimes they didn’t commit….I’m saying in cases where there’s no doubt that a person violently victimized another, it’s adios motherfucker. Though I wouldn’t mind if these folks were allowed to rape each other whilst awaiting their lethal injections.

i actually did have to think about this for a second. but yes, definitely. largely because rape is an awful thing and i’m sure a lot of people who are being raped in jail are there for something far less horrible than rape. which is just another reason why someone who is found with a tiny amount of drugs shouldn’t be thrown into a cage with a serial killer to be raped over and over again…

@dalepetrie

Wouldn’t the death penalty “intentionally hurt, kill or victimize another human being”?

As much as rape and poor living conditions are designed or seen as a deterrent to prison.

What prevents the “human rights” violations from stopping is money.

The last place the state and the people want to put its funding is into the prison system.
So we are back to, don’t do the crime if you cant do the time.

@Ivan – to clarify, it would “intentionally hurt, kill or victimize another human being,” it would NOT “intentionally hurt, kill or victimize an innocent human being.” I have no problem taking rights away from people who would chose to take those rights away from others. I believe in do what you want as long as you don’t choose to harm another…I believe each of us should have the right to do this, and to live without being harmed by another intentionally. If someone breaks that rule and harms another, then they lose their right to not be harmed. I see it as a voluntary code of conduct, which if you’re going to break it, then you are no longer bound by it (and neither is society as it relates to you).

I think that prisons should be rehabilitation centers and that we should uphold our own standards of law when we enforce them.

@dalepetrie You have no idea whether the people in prison are actually guilty or innocent. Let’s face it, the way the supposed “justice” system works, innocent people are sent to prison. As a rape victim, I can tell you that I don’t wish it on anyone; not even those who raped me. No one deserves that. When you start the judging process, be careful because when pointing fingers, fingers can always be pointed back.

I am against the death penalty. People can be rehabilitated, as mentioned by @Ivan. We need to focus on that. The same rules that apply outside of jail should apply within it.

@jeanna – I can respect that, and like I said originally, our system puts innocent people away, I wouldn’t espouse this except in cases of clear, beyond the shadow of a doubt guilt. People can point fingers in any direction they want, but I’m never going to intentionally hurt someone, you have no right to take away another person’s rights. In the case of rape, I consider it the next most vile act next to murder. For me though the keys are 1) no doubt of guilt and 2) intent. If you actually intend to rape someone, I see no reason society should try to rehabilitate you, and I sure think prison is an ineffective way to try. In my view, execution at that point does 2 things 1) it punishes the criminal in a fashion which is essentially no more harsh than that which they “punished” their victim, and 2) it makes sure there is no such thing as a repeat offender. If you think the person who raped you should have another chance to potentially rape someone else, more power to you.

@dalepetrie I wonder how you’d feel if your son or daughter was the rapist. People can overcome things. I think my rapists deserve the chance to prove people like you wrong, to actually have a chance to be better.

As much as I love my son and would do just about anything to protect him and keep him safe, I’ve taught him to be decent to other people, I’m actively teaching him that it is wrong to victimize people. If he doesn’t learn that lesson and hurts someone, he gets what he gets….harsh though that may seem. If I as a parent can’t teach him right from wrong, prison sure as hell isn’t going to do it, and I’m sorry, but you impede someone else’s right to live their life, you should lose your right to have your life go as you’d like it to, them’s the breaks, I don’t care whose kid you are. I hope for the sake of the potential future rape victims of your rapists that they do earn that second chance society will surely give them, I’d love nothing more than to be “proven wrong”, but in my experience, it generally doesn’t work out too well. Sure, I’ll be the first to admit it’s not a 100% black and white thing, there can be extenuating circumstances for any crime…poor upbringing, peer pressure, impaired judgment, etc. There can be circumstances where a person is genuinely caught up in the moment and acted spontaneously in a reckless manner. But in genuinely pre-meditated instances of intentional victimization of another human being where there was clear intent AND there is no question of the perpetrator’s identity…if my kid did that it would break my heart, but I’d feel the world would be a better place without him in it if he were capable of carrying out something that cruel. I’m 99.9% liberal on most things, but for me there’s a solid red line between right and wrong when it comes to intentionally hurting others, and I think for the betterment of our society we need to be far more aggressive in protecting the public interest than we are today, if you think that makes me a heartless bastard, so be it. I sympathize with you and what you’ve gone through, and I applaud you for your forgiving attitude…I however take a longer view on this one and say some times death is the only answer as it is both deserved and necessary for the betterment of society.

Well I think that therapists are good for society..oh the rapists...my bad

do women think its funny when male gets raped in jail?

@handsomecat I am a woman who does not think it is funny in the least when an incarcerated male (or female for that matter) is raped. Rape is a brutal crime and no matter whom it is perpetrated upon.

@handsomecat No way do I,a woman, think it is funny when men are raped in jail. It just shows that evil, powerful men rule inside and outside jails.