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Viewpoint Rape used as control in U.S. prisons
By NEVE GORDON
Many prisoners are targeted for
sexual exploitation the minute they enter a penal facility; their age, looks,
sexual preference and other characteristics mark them as candidates for
maltreatment. In a new groundbreaking report, Human Rights Watch documents the
widespread prisoner-on-prisoner rape in U.S. mens prisons. The rights
group accuses state authorities of not taking measures to prevent and punish
rape and, in many cases, for allowing this cruel form of abuse to persist.
One reads that in extreme incidents prisoners find themselves the
slaves of their rapists. Forced to satisfy another mans
sexual appetites upon demand, they may also be responsible for washing his
clothes, massaging his back, cooking his food and cleaning his cell. They are
frequently rented out for sex services, sold or even auctioned off
to other inmates.
One prisoner from Arkansas wrote to Human Rights Watch: I
had no choice but to submit to being Inmate Bs prison wife. Out of fear
for my life, I submitted to [him]. In all reality, I was his slave, as the
Officials of the Arkansas Department of Corrections
did absolutely
nothing.
Rapes are unimaginably vicious and brutal, writes
Joanne Mariner, deputy director of the Americas division of Human Rights Watch,
and author of No Escape: Male Rape in U.S. Prisons. Gang assaults
are not uncommon, and victims may be left beaten, bloody and even dead; they
almost always suffer from extreme psychological stress, including nightmares,
deep depression, shame and self-hatred, which may lead to suicide. There are
also known cases whereby the victim has contracted HIV.
No conclusive national data exists regarding the prevalence of
this phenomenon, but the most recent statistical survey, published in the
Prison Journal, revealed that 21 percent of inmates in seven Midwestern
prisons had experienced at least one episode of pressured or forced sex since
being incarcerated, and at least 7 percent had been raped in their
facility.
Correctional authorities generally deny that rape is a serious
problem. In Human Rights Watchs survey of all 50 states, not one
correctional authority reported abuse rates even approaching those found by the
rights group. The authorities reluctance to acknowledge the scale of the
violation is reflected not only in misleading official statistics, but also in
a glaringly inadequate response to incidents of rape.
When an inmate informs an officer he has been threatened with rape
or, worse, actually assaulted, his complaint is seldom investigated, and only
in rare instances is an inmate protected from further abuse. U.S. state
prisons have failed to take even obvious, basic steps necessary to tackle
prison rape, Mariner writes. This deliberate indifference has had
tragic consequences.
In the report, one reads of M.R., a Texas inmate who was violently
raped and beaten several times over a period of several months by the same
prisoner. Fearful for his life, he reported the abuse to the prison
authorities, but received no protection. In fact one investigator dismissed the
complaint as a lovers quarrel. Finally one day the rapist
showed up in M.R.s cell and attacked him. M.R. suffered a broken jaw,
left collarbone and finger, a dislocated left shoulder, lacerations to his
scalp and two major concussions that caused internal bleeding. The rapist was
never criminally prosecuted.
Why, one might ask, do prison authorities turn a blind eye to this
horrific phenomenon? While Human Rights Watch does not directly deal with this
issue, it appears that the authorities lack of response is premeditated.
Rape is an effective, albeit ruthless, mechanism of inmate control.
By allowing rape to go on, the correctional
authorities ensure that prisoner violence is contained within the cells.
Frustrated prisoners are permitted to release aggression on condition that they
direct it against other inmates, not the authorities. That the victims, who
comprise as much as 20 percent of 2 million inmates held in U.S. prisons and
jail, live in perpetual fear is also conducive to control. Divide and conquer
is the name of the game; the fact that it amounts to horrendous violations of
human rights does not really interest the prison authorities.
Neve Gordon teaches in the department of politics and
government at Ben Gurion University, Israel.
National Catholic Reporter, September 14,
2001
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