United Press International - Tuesday, 20 February 2001
Lou Marano

Who benefits from prison rape? It has become common knowledge that prosecutors use its threat to intimidate defendants into pleading guilty to lesser charges. Of course, the innocent -- who normally don't settle their differences through violence -- have even more reason to fear incarceration than the guilty.

Former inmate Donald Tucker wrote: "Rape exists...in confinement institutions because it serves the interests of too many powerful elements of jail and prison societies, including the administration. Officials use it to divert prison aggression, destroy potential leaders and intimidate prisoners into becoming informers."

Guards may put prisoners who annoy them in cells with known rapists or turn a blind eye to the ambush of young inmates by rapist gangs.

Adding to the problem is prison overcrowding, which hampers guards' abilities to protect either prisoners or themselves. "They could take this place anytime they want," a guard lieutenant told the St. Petersburg Times in 1996. "The only thing that matters here is me and my staff going home at night safe."

Anne Morse, writing in the Feb. 3 issue of World magazine, said some poorly paid corrections officers accept prisoner bribes to put youthful new inmates into their cells. Especially in demand are "men who are young, slender and white," Morse wrote.

In answer to a question, Hudson Institute senior fellow Michael Horowitz allowed that staff malfeasance is part of the problem, but he quickly added that "demonizing prison guards" won't solve the problem.

Horowitz told United Press International that prison reforms need to be rocketed out of the "white noise" category. "Then we can develop a zero-tolerance rape policy," he said. "We're going to pass historic legislation in this session of Congress," Horowitz predicted, referring to the Prison Rape Reform Act of 2001.

"We're going to force accountability here," he said.

The bill mandates annual reviews that would expose prisons with the highest rape rates. Officials running those prisons would be summoned to Washington for grilling before Congress, he said.

But how could mere legislation change conditions in penitentiaries when prison rape already is contrary to the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution, which forbids cruel and unusual punishment? U.S. jurisdictions already are obligated to safeguard those who are in their custody, and they don't.

And if in this age of AIDS a death sentence for petty theft isn't cruel and unusual punishment, what is?

In New York State, more than 10 percent of inmates test positive for the HIV virus. The Red Cross won't take your blood if you've been in jail for more than 72 hours.

"Once released," Morse writes, "rape victims bring AIDS into their communities, along with a flood of rage."

Why, when people can get worked up about the fate of the snail darter, has prison rape registered so low on the public's radar? Morse cited a 1996 Boston Globe study which found that about 50 percent of Americans accept prison rape as part of the price criminals pay for breaking the law.

Further, Morse writes that human rights organizations often are dominated by feminists who appear to care more about "politically correct" prison assaults, such as male guards raping female prisoners, "even though male victims vastly outnumber female victims."

Of course, it's not impossible for conscientious officials to protect prisoners in their custody. Morse reports that San Francisco County Sheriff Michael Hennessey has had good results by separating violent and nonviolent offenders and "steering the vulnerable away from the dangerous."

The burly sheriff has designed two new jails to avoid "blind spots" where rapes may occur and -- instead of denying or dismissing prisoner complaints, as other officials have done -- Hennessey has developed a procedure for dealing with rape victims.

In the interests of taste and common decency, the horrific particulars of prison rape have not been represented here. But citizens who type the keywords "prison rape" into a search engine and read victim accounts will never be the same.

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