Hunting The Muse

Prison Rape Prevention

Hooray!!

You know, I have no idea why I care so deeply about this issue in particular. I just do.

10-15% of our male federal prison population are nonviolent drug offenders who are victims of rape.

Update: According to this article, our overall prison population is rising while our overall crime rate is dropping. That's just stupid. And there's the obligatory quote where a justice department official says that white collar criminals are especially scared of prison, so it's a good deterrent. This after the justice department changed policy so that less white-collar and nonviolent offenders would be assigned to halfway houses and instead go to major prisons. They know that prison means a high likelihood of rape for these nonviolent offenders. They know that that's the deterrent, and they're not only condoning it, but taking advantage of it. Why are they deliberately sending men to a place where they are more likely to be raped, a punishment that isn't even close to fitting their crimes?

Posted by Curt at July 27, 2003 09:06 PM