Editor,
I apologize for the graphic nature of this letter. Please do not let the ugliness of the truth cause it to be hidden.
In 2005, the Texas Rangers documented how prison guards in Texas juvenile detention facilities would sexually abuse inmates. No charges have been filed yet.
States willfully allow cruel and unusual punishment to be performed on adult prisoners. Take the case of Stephen Donaldson. He attended a pray-in to end the Vietnam War at the White House in 1973 and was arrested. In state care, he was repeatedly gang-raped. From this, he contracted HIV, then AIDS, then died. In effect, because the state did not stop activity within its control, it condemned him to death for his peace protest. This is a common result of prison rape, because rates of HIV in prison are five to 10 times greater than the population as a whole.
This goes on every day. According to Human Rights Watch, "It must be emphasized that rape and other sexual abuses occur in prison because correctional officials, to a surprising extent, do little to stop them from occurring." That is willful neglect on the part of the state in providing adequate care for prisoners.
Just how often does male prison rape occur? Human Rights Watch, based on studies by the Prison Journal, estimates that more than 20 percent of male inmates in the U.S. have experienced incidents of forced sexual activity while incarcerated. The corrections industry, which has a vested interest in producing low numbers, gives a yearly estimate of the number of rapes in prisons greater than the yearly number of women who are raped in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York combined.
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Furthermore, rape of women tends to be a single incident, after which prosecution and healing can begin. In prison, once one has been raped, one will always be raped. After initial raping by a cellmate, it is typical to be sold into prostitution by gangs. Let me be clear: Your brother who smokes pot could go to jail, and he would have a one-in-10 chance of being habitually raped while there.
People arrested for sit-ins, pray-ins and minor drug offenses are arrested, jailed and raped. When did rape become a standard part of state punishment? Is it not cruel or unusual to have a nonviolent offender raped as punishment? The state can stop this.
Private corporations are now running many state prisons. Why are they allowed to continue when rape rates are so high? The Supreme Court, in Farmer v. Brennan, said prison rape violates our constitutional rights. Sure, the victims are prisoners, but their stories could be anyone's.
I have barely cracked the surface of this. What of female prison facilities where rape rates are 22 percent? What of the excessive rape of gays because they are assumed to enjoy it?
This is disgusting, and we must stop it.
Toby Kramer
UNM alumnus
