On 11 Jun 2005, at 11:04 pm, Ronn!Blankenship wrote:
At 04:28 PM Saturday 6/11/2005, Warren Ockrassa wrote:
On Jun 11, 2005, at 11:06 AM, Ronn!Blankenship wrote:
At 01:02 PM Saturday 6/11/2005, Warren Ockrassa wrote:
On Jun 11, 2005, at 10:33 AM, Ronn!Blankenship wrote:
If you have any suggestions on how to fix the problems in the
regular prisons, I'd be glad to hear them.
For rape? One solution springs immediately to mind.
For the non-clairvoyant among the members of the list, what would
that be?
Castration, chemical or otherwise, of course.
While the redneck side of me may agree (and in fact suggests that
the "chemical" method ought to involve something like pouring a
liter or so of concentrated H2SO4 in their lap), my real opinion as
to what should be done is to get the correction officers back in
control of the prisons (and not in an abusive or sadistic way,
either). If what it takes is keeping the inmates locked in their
cells so they can't get to each other to rape each other or kill
each other, so be it. If it involves a return to the practice of
"making little ones our of big ones" so that when they return to
the cell block they are too exhausted to commit mischief, so be
it. Perhaps someone else has a better idea of how to fix the
problems in the regular prisons . . . ?
http://www.spr.org/en/academicarticles/odonnell.html
"Why is it that an aspect of prison life that appears to be so
tightly woven into the prisoner's experience in the United States is
not to be found in any concentrated form in the UK?"
"Ian O'Donnell a1, Prison Rape in Context, 44 Brit. J. Criminology
241 (March 2004)
Fear of sexual violence is a defining characteristic of the prison
experience in the United States. Rape has been a key theme in the
literature on imprisonment since at least the 1930s. There is
evidence--from prison argot and epidemiological studies in
particular--that this problem is not as ingrained in the UK. Clearly
there is more at play here than sexual deprivation and the pains of
confinement, which know no jurisdictional boundary. It is suggested
that the answer may lie, to some extent at least, in the poisonous
history of race relations in the United States: prison rape can be
seen as a legacy of slavery and the lynch mob. The particularity of
the US situation may also be explained in part by higher levels of
violence in society more generally and a cynical attitude on the part
of prison staff.
Introduction
In today's world the judge who sentences a young person to reform
school or prison passes male rape on him as surely as the sentence.
Every inmate has a very short time, once inside, to pick a 'wolf' (a
tough protector) or face gang rape, becoming the 'girl' of the
institution, or death. Many of the prison suicides we read about can
be traced to this choice. Worse, prison officers might even have sold
the boy to aggressive inmates in order to keep the institution quiet.
(Scacco 1982: vii)
The above quotation encapsulates several of the main themes to be
addressed in this paper. First, the notion that prison rape is a
quotidian experience, that it is an inevitable secondary effect of
incarceration. Second, that this is a recent development, peculiar to
'today's world'. Third, that the existence of this practice is so
firmly rooted in prison life that it has generated its own argot.
Fourth, that there is an intimate connection between the fear of
sexual assault and violence (whether directed inwardly as suicide or
at other prisoners in self-defence or retaliation.) Fifth, that
prison staff may be complicit in the continuation of this practice.
Scacco presents in stark form an argument that is found throughout
the literature on imprisonment in the United States.
Prisoner biographies and litigation, academic treatises, popular
'entertainment' and reform groups (such as Stop Prisoner Rape) are at
one in their emphasis on the subculture of sexual violence that
permeates prison life. Penal institutions are shown as crucibles of
masculinity; places where distorted--and destructive--forms of male
identity are forged. In this bleak view, those who do not fit the
mould are destroyed. Only 'real men' can survive the unrelenting
struggle for domination that marks the passage of time behind bars.
According to Smith and Batiuk (1989: 30):
the threat of sexual violence actually dominates the prison
environment and structures much of the everyday interaction that goes
on among inmates. In fact, the threat of sexual victimization becomes
the dominant metaphor in terms of which almost every other aspect of
'prison reality' is interpreted.
To give one example of this reality, consider the following account
from a terrified eyewitness in Terrant County Jail in Forth Worth,
Texas. This prisoner escaped rape when a 17-year-old youth, admitted
to the same communal cell shortly after him, was raped until he
passed out:
... while the boy was still unconscious, the attackers jabbed his
arms, neck and body with the burning tips of erasers of pencils, so
that the boy's body twitched making it more sexually exciting for the
aggressors. Then one of the attackers, in a final sadistic gesture...
shoved his fingers deep into the boy's rectum and ripped out a mass
of bloody haemorrhoids. (Rideau and Sinclair 1982: 18)
More recent cases, such as those described by Sabo et al. (2001) and
Human Rights Watch (2001) are identical in their depiction of human
degradation and destruction.
Prison sexual violence is seldom heard of in the UK. While
victimization is routine it usually takes the form of assault,
intimidation, robbery and verbal abuse rather than rape and sexual
exploitation (see for example O'Donnell and Edgar 1998). Sampson
(1994: 84) gives the example of a prisoner who raped his cellmate
when he discovered that the latter had been convicted of rape.
However what makes such events noteworthy is that they seem to be
isolated cases. Generally speaking, academics and activists are more
exercised about institutional abuse when the perpetrators are those
in authority. Recent special issues of the British Journal of
Criminology dealt with prisons (1994: 34/suppl.) and masculinities
(1996: 36/3). However the issue of prison sexual violence was
conspicuous by its absence. An issue of The Prison Journal (2000:
80/4) was devoted to prison sexuality, but the discussion was
entirely limited to the United States. Similarly in a literature
review, Coxell and King (2000), two London-based researchers,
depended on information from the United States. Why is it that an
aspect of prison life that appears to be so tightly woven into the
prisoner's experience in the United States is not to be found in any
concentrated form in the UK?"
My own take on this is that a country that is more religious than the
UK is bound to exhibit more depraved and bestial behaviours across
the board - more murder, more rape and so on. A country mired in
primitive religious superstition is hardly likely to shine on respect
for human rights.
--
William T Goodall
Mail : [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Web : http://www.wtgab.demon.co.uk
Blog : http://radio.weblogs.com/0111221/
"Aerospace is plumbing with the volume turned up." - John Carmack
_______________________________________________
http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
