
US Government: Guards may be responsible for half of prison sex assaults - GuiA
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/1/26/guards-may-be-responsibleforhalfofprisonrapes.html
======
joshfraser
Adam Gopnik's piece on The Caging of America does a good job explaining what's
going on and summing up my feelings on the topic:

"Prison rape is so endemic—more than seventy thousand prisoners are raped each
year—that it is routinely held out as a threat, part of the punishment to be
expected. The subject is standard fodder for comedy, and an uncooperative
suspect being threatened with rape in prison is now represented, every night
on television, as an ordinary and rather lovable bit of policing. The
normalization of prison rape—like eighteenth-century japery about watching men
struggle as they die on the gallows—will surely strike our descendants as
chillingly sadistic, incomprehensible on the part of people who thought
themselves civilized."

[http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2012/01/30/120...](http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2012/01/30/120130crat_atlarge_gopnik)

~~~
brc
I remember reading that piece when it came out. I've never made a prison rape
joke since, and I always am willing to be the person who makes an
uncomfortable pause to hose down someone prison rape joke. Racist and gay
hatreds found their support in 'harmless' jokes, and for that to change, the
jokes had to change. People still tell prison rape jokes (and include in
plotlines) where they would never use a racist or homophobic joke.

So the best way forwards to work against the prison rape meme is to be that
person who says 'well, I don't find jokes about rape funny at all.' You'll get
rolled eyes and mutterings behind your back, but people _will_ look back at
this period and wonder why this was such a big public joke instead of a
terrible injustice.

------
scarmig
American prisons are a disgrace and a national shame, and prison rapes are one
of the most viscerally appalling reminders of that.

These statistics are likely misleading, though: it only includes the 9k or so
cases that jail administrators reported. That's likely at least an order of
magnitude less than happen in reality, and it's likely that the small minority
that are actually reported by administrators have special aspects of them that
make them highly non-representative of all sexual violence in prisons. They've
passed through (at least) three filters already, for instance: the prisoner
deciding to report it at all; the guard reported to seeing fit to report it to
higher ups; and the higher ups deciding to report it to the overseeing agency.

Not sure which direction that'd go in, for the record, but it's worth keeping
in mind while parsing this report.

------
eurleif
It seems that a majority of these cases were actually consensual, not assault:

>Among the substantiated staff-on-inmate cases in 2011, 54 percent were
committed by women, the report said. From 2009 to 2011, 84 percent of the
substantiated staff-on-inmate cases involved a sexual relationship with a
female staff member that “appeared to be willing,” compared to 37 percent of
the cases involving male staff members during the same time period.

Those numbers imply that overall, 62% of substantiated staff-on-inmate cases
were actually consensual. The headline seems inaccurate given that.

Of course, there are extreme sampling bias issues with this data. I wouldn't
draw any conclusions from it at all.

~~~
pmorici
There is a new Netflix series out called "Orange is the New Black" based on a
true life story of a woman who gets sent to prison for being a drug mule for
her lesbian lover and only gets caught many years later when she is leading a
normal suburban life.

At any rate, one of the plot lines is about a relationship between a prison
guard and one of the female inmates. It comes up in the course of events that
basically any relations between a guard and a prison inmate are considered
rape because you can't consent when you are in prison to someone who has power
over you. Sort of how a minor can't consent even when another minor is
involved. Apparently it is illegal under any circumstance between a guard and
inmate as a matter of law in all 50 states as of 2006.

[http://www.7dvt.com/2013prison-guards-pregnancy-tests-
vermon...](http://www.7dvt.com/2013prison-guards-pregnancy-tests-vermont-law-
prohibiting-officer-inmate-sex)

~~~
thaumasiotes
To my knowledge, it is generally true that sexual contact between an inmate
and a prison guard is legally rape no matter whether consensual or not.

This is a kludge in the law; obviously, female guards falling in love with
inmates and sleeping with them are not being "raped" in any conventional
sense, and neither are the prisoners (who are the notional victims).

However... we definitely do want to criminalize that conduct, and should be
punishing it much more than we actually do; those guards are not on our side;
they are on the criminal's side and routinely compromise the security of the
prison.

[http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/baltimore-jail-case-
depi...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/baltimore-jail-case-depicts-a-
corrupt-culture-driven-by-drugs-money-and-
sex/2013/05/04/d0cde8a6-b33f-11e2-9a98-4be1688d7d84_story.html)

~~~
scarmig
There's some small bit of gray area here, but I think most of those situations
should still qualify as rape.

Prison guards have immense power over inmates. Their decisions can give a
prisoner a plush gig or a terrible one; can allow for the prisoner to receive
medical care or not; can result in a prisoner being punished severely for an
infraction or escape with just a slap on the wrist or even nothing at all. The
discretion of prison guards can even determine whether a prisoner will have
the opportunity to be raped by another prisoner or not, or determine whether
the prisoner ends up the sexual property of a nice owner or a brutal one.

In those circumstances, it's incredibly problematic to say that the prisoner
had free choice in the matter: it's akin to asking a woman to have sex with
you and at the same time off-handedly mentioning how unfortunate it'd be if
she made you angry. It's a choice without a real choice.

The idea that men cannot be raped while being the penetrator is one that has
to go.

~~~
ams6110
Guards don't necessarily have the power you imagine. They are vastly
outnumbered by the prisoners for one, and it's not uncommon for a guard to be
intimidated into running drugs or other contraband for prison gangs. In many
prisons housing violent offenders, its probably more accurate to say that the
prisoners and the guards work in a tense sort of truce most of the time.

~~~
scarmig
Power is situational: in one context someone might have power over the other,
while in another a minute later the roles might switch. And yeah, people do
form a sort of truce or understanding about how power is to be applied and
when.

But when it comes down to it, guards have the power to use legitimated state
violence on pretty much any offender. Simply because that might be politically
costly (with respect to prisoner-guard relations) doesn't change the fact that
the power exists and is real.

------
summerdown2
Uk point of view here. I have no understanding what Americans want out of the
prison system. This was brought home to me when I watched (ex UK minister)
Micheal Portillo's programme on Death Row.

He is a believer in the death penalty, but went through the programme appalled
by the torment suffered by prisoners. During the programme he researched, and
found, a humane way of killing a prisoner. Then, he took it to a leading
advocate of capital punishment in America, only to be told it wasn't painful
enough.

Like I say, I have no understanding of this attitude, but I suspect the prison
rape issue in the US won't change until the majority of people get past the
idea that the prime thing to do to criminals is punishment.

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9YgWXKAwNY](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9YgWXKAwNY)

~~~
genieyclo
If the point of prison for criminals isn't punishment, then what is it?

~~~
coldpie
To keep them out of general society. Possibly to put them in a situation where
they can be reformed to rejoin society. Setting aside ethics entirely, prisons
cost resources and also take human resources out of society. It's in society's
best interest to reform a prisoner and release them ASAP, provided the reform
works and they are no longer a danger to society.

Obviously there's a lot of vague terms and wiggle room in that paragraph, but
there's certainly a purpose to prisons aside from punishment.

~~~
narag
I agree that keeping criminals out of the streets is the first reason. But
also to make an example, so future crimes are prevented. Then, while we're at
it, rehabilitation.

Punishment is a barbaric way to look at it. Revenge doesn't mix very well with
a legal system. (emotions vs objetive POV)

------
adaml_623
So we are all agreed that all prison guards should wear cameras that record
100% of the time that they are inside the prison?

~~~
blueskin_
So should police, etc. Footage automatically goes both to the police force, a
neutral third party, and the the ACLU/whatever equivalent, so as to avoid any
accusation of 'missing' footage.

------
sdegutis
I don't know much about prison, having fortunately never been there. So I just
can't understand how an officer can have any kind of unsupervised and unseen
time with inmates. I just assumed everything everywhere in a prison is
monitored and recorded.

~~~
scarmig
Modern prisons are, ironically enough, reverse panopticons. Governments do
very little to monitor and protect the people it's placed under bodily
control, even going so far as to create vast dark privatized spaces where it
can maintain a careful ignorance of all the horrible things that go on in
them.

~~~
InclinedPlane
And this is by, at least implicit, intent. Prison in the US fits into a
punitive, even retributional model. If you hurt society you get hurt in
return. If you do something bad you get punished. Fear and rememberance of
punishment is what keeps people in line. In such a model it's undesirable for
prison conditions to be mild or tolerable, the more intolerable and brutal the
better, because that makes them a more effective punishment.

It's a model that has continued to be used in the American justice system for
centuries, but it's not a system based on any scientific principles. Worse, it
doesn't actually work. As often as not prison breeds worse criminals rather
than keeping people on the straight and narrow.

~~~
scarmig
It works exactly as it's supposed to: as the primary instrument of white
supremacy in a war against racial minorities. That's why the Drug War figures
so prominently in explaining why we have a higher rate of imprisonment than
any other country in the world, and why minorities are so disproportionately
targeted in the drug war for petty offenses like using and selling crack
(despite it being less pure than coke) or marijuana (itself a term that
Anslinger brought to prominence in the 1930's to racialize the drug and the
war against it).

~~~
InclinedPlane
In practice it may work out that way, but I don't believe that the majority of
actors within the criminal justice system are acting in bad faith or are
intentionally advancing a racist agenda. Indeed, many LEOs are racial
minorities.

I don't think it's helpful to characterize the actions of officers or DAs as
racist per se but rather to point to the racist consequences of drug laws, LEO
behavior, and so on. I think the number of people within the system acting in
good faith far outweigh the number of bad actors and if we desire change it'll
be easier if we can convince such folks into coming to "our side" rather than
vilifying them.

~~~
vacri
LEOs don't make legislation or push for harsh sentences.

~~~
wavefunction
Their unions do, however. I'm not anti-union, but do tend to be anti-police
union.

The California Correctional Officers union is routinely accused of pushing for
harsher punishments as a job guarantee, which of course is a problem in a
state with such over-crowding of its prisons like California. I would accuse
them of gross moral indecency but it takes a pretty indecent person to become
a CO anyways.

~~~
scarmig
Jacobin just came out with a great article about this:

[https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/01/the-bad-kind-of-
unionism/](https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/01/the-bad-kind-of-unionism/)

------
InclinedPlane
It's funny, it's so easy to look down on the norms of the medieval era as
barbaric but in many ways there are elements of our society which are just as
bad, but somehow we continue to tolerate them. Fortunately there are aspects
that are better, and maybe we can bootstrap ourselves out of this mess, it's
still rather distressing to see how much work is left to do. But we've made a
lot of progress on several fronts that is rather remarkable when you think
about it. Growing backlash against drug prohibition, increasing acceptance of
homosexuality, improving (gradually) racial relations, and so on. Even in the
'90s the idea of interracial couples used to be a "big deal" now for the vast
majority of folks under 35 it's fully normalized. And the issue of our broken
criminal justice system is gaining more and more traction, so I have hope that
we'll make progress there as well.

------
alexeisadeski3
Well, technically they're responsible for all of them. Any crime which befalls
someone within their custody is by definition their fault. The fact that the
US government isn't held liable for such crimes is bizarre.

~~~
valleyer
Counterexample: parents aren't in general held liable for the murder of their
children.

~~~
hessenwolf
When they forcibly lock their children in with murderers, they are held
liable.

------
Zigurd
Some commenter here recently compared the likelihood there was a COINTELPRO-
like operation in our DoJ to space aliens, implying that only stupid and
paranoid people could believe such a thing.

Some people here are entirely too impressed with helping catch "bad guys" and
need to put away their Cracker Jack badges and realize they are part of the
problem.

This is the system that Manning and Assange and Snowden face. If you think
they are cowards, think again. If you think Swartz was a coward, shame on you.

~~~
dannypgh
Ugh, I didn't see that post. Implying that the probability that the US
government engaged in COINTELPRO is significantly below 1 requires far more
paranoia than belief to the contrary, given that the program was exposed,
studied and publicly reported on at just about every level of government, and
that the FBI itself confirms[1] that COINTELPRO did in fact exist.

Unless you meant the poster on here was saying that you'd have to be paranoid
to believe that there is any sort of modern form of COINTELPRO. We are quickly
going into the unknowable (to outsiders) and therefore faith-based, but
certainly I wouldn't call it crazy to think that the US government might be
engaging in some sort of covert operations today that are similar to covert-
but-exposed operations from 40 years ago. To rule that out as inconceivable or
stupid requires quite a lot of faith.

The DoJ itself has called various 21st FBI investigations of political
dissidents troubling or improper[2]. And as far as I know, not one person in
the FBI even so much as lost their job over COINTELPRO, so I'm not sure how
one could suggest that we live in a world today where COINTELPRO-like programs
simply couldn't exist. Of course the tactics would be different today, but
that's probably more a reflection of the fact that technology enables all
sorts of surveillance that wouldn't have been imaginable decades ago, than any
sort of fundamental shift in what is or isn't considered reasonable or
possible by the top echelons of the intelligence and law enforcement
communities.

[1] [http://vault.fbi.gov/cointel-pro](http://vault.fbi.gov/cointel-pro) [2]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO#Post-
COINTELPRO_oper...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COINTELPRO#Post-
COINTELPRO_operations)

~~~
Zigurd
So, what are you saying?

1\. We're so much cleaner it couldn't happen again

2\. History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme

I'll go with #2

------
pessimizer
Guards and administration are also responsible for some portion of inmate-on-
inmate sex assaults.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donny_the_Punk#Washington_jail...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donny_the_Punk#Washington_jail_experiences_and_aftermath_.281973.29)

"On August 14 Donaldson was one of 66 demonstrators (including Daniel
Berrigan) who took part in a CCNV-sponsored pray-in at the White House
protesting the bombing of Cambodia, where he was again arrested. Donaldson
again refused to post bail. In a 1974 account under the pseudonym Donald
Tucker, he explained:

"'I also was protesting against the bail system, under which the privileged,
the white, the middle class escape the pre-trial confinements which go
automatically to the poor and black. In good conscience I could not take
advantage of the privileges available to me.

"'Even in jail, however, I could not escape those privileges. I was sent
directly to cell block four, third floor — the privileged area where I could
and did play chess with Gordon Liddy, where one-man rooms for 45 respectable
prisoners were never locked.'

"Liddy wrote in his autobiography that he heard that Donaldson worked for The
Washington Post and, suspected him of being in prison 'to try to steal a
march[(?)]' on Woodward and Bernstein by getting a first hand story", and
expressed the wish that he be transferred elsewhere.

"However, Donaldson himself in 'The Punk Who Wouldn't Shut Up', states that
guard captain Clinton Cobb had him moved to the most dangerous cell-block in
the prison and his subsequent rapes arranged as he believed him to be writing
a piece on prison corruption for The Washington Post.

"That night, Donaldson was lured into a cell by a prisoner who claimed that he
and his friends wanted to 'discuss pacifism' with him in their cells. He was
then anally and orally raped dozens of times by an estimated 45 male inmates.
He suffered additional abuse a second night before he escaped from his
tormentors (two of whom were pimping him to the others for cigarettes) and
collapsed, sobbing, at the cell block gate where guards retrieved him. After a
midnight examination at D.C. General Hospital (during which he remained
handcuffed) he was returned to the jail hospital, untreated either for
physical injury or emotional trauma.

"Donaldson later claimed that the guards told him he'd been deliberately set
up by Captain Cobb. The following morning, Lucy Witt, one of the White House
Seven, posted his bond and took him to a doctor."

~~~
jessaustin
Thanks for the link. What a fascinating man.

------
yeukhon
After watching "Orange is the new black" I thought prison was a really really
dark place. Sexual assault is probably worse than worrying about next guy stab
you.

While reading this article, I entertained the possibility of robot guards. The
only problem is that prisoners can break them or alert the robots. Any idea
how to keep these robots safe?

~~~
corobo
Deploy more robots! For every robot that is damaged send out two to replace
it, one in a "get the job done" mode and the other in a "cover that guy" mode

------
omegaham
A few things. My girlfriend is a prison nurse, and a good friend's brother is
a CO at another prison.

1\. The population of guards is pretty bad. The job pays approximately $shit,
(Good overtime possibilities, though) and the staff's quality suffers as a
result. Frequently, you end up with criminals guarding the criminals. Said
guards are often compromised and either become indifferent to criminal
behavior or actively aid it.

2\. Female guards perform poorly compared to male guards. This is due to a
variety of things, but the biggest reason is that inmates are much more
willing to test female guards. "Testing" involves intimidation, trying to
bribe them, seducing them, harassing them, etc. A male guard commands a
certain amount of respect simply by existing that a female guard does not get.
My friend's brother summarizes it by saying, "A male guard can point to the
rules and say, "Sorry, just doing my job," and an inmate will understand that
it's the Man keeping him down and not the man. A female guard, because she's
perceived as weaker, doesn't get that ability. Prisoners think they can get
away with it because the woman isn't going to enforce the rules." From this,
he asserts that the ideal male guard is an unthinking robot. "Sorry, you have
violated Rule 21. I have to write you up. No exceptions." Meanwhile, an ideal
female guard is a "crazy, man-hating, psychotic bitch" who takes sadistic
pleasure in making prisoners' lives hell. She won't get any respect otherwise.

Due to most women being decent human beings, this leads to even higher rates
of women being compromised compared to men. Whether it's from being
intimidated or seduced, women end up giving favors, fucking inmates, or
turning a blind eye to drug activity, rape, and violence. Men do it too, (see
the "criminals guarding criminals" section) but at lower rates.

3\. Due to a variety of factors, including too many prisoners, not enough for
them to do, and a pervasive atmosphere of the animals running the zoo, drama
is the primary occupation of most of the inmates. After all, they have nothing
better to do. So they make excitement. They fuck with guards, fuck with each
other, gamble, (which leads to fucking with each other because debts are
created) rape each other, try to seduce the female guards, harass the medical
staff, do drugs, make bullshit accusations against the prison just because
they can, and so on. To counter this, prison staff frequently collaborate with
the gang bosses. They tell the gang boss, "Hey, Jerry's being a pain. Can you
take care of him for us?" Jerry gets his ass kicked, and the problem goes
away. In return, the prison turns a blind eye to the things that the gang boss
is doing. This, of course, leads to prison-sanctioned violence and rape.

Fixing this requires a hard look at what we use our prison system for. I think
that we use it for far too much. We shouldn't be sentencing minor drug
offenders and petty criminals to prison; it overloads the system and turns the
place into a teeming madhouse where the prison staff is focused on survival,
not actually rehabilitating the inmates.

In combination with this, we need to get better quality guards. Currently,
corrections officers are frequently the failures who couldn't become cops. We
need to change that by offering competitive pay. Doing this requires the
prison system to shrink and become a smaller organization. Prisons should be
focused facilities rather than being a Walmart.

Finally, I'd also suggest segregating prisons by race, but all the hippie
Integration Uber Alles people would whine about it.

------
BrandonRead
I strongly recommend checking out Dean Spade for more information on this. He
has a very detailed book as well.
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcYxqD1aElk](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcYxqD1aElk)

------
calroc
_Hacker_ News? (Maybe I'm not getting it. That happens a lot.)

~~~
streetnigga
Considering the negative connotations of the word "hacker" in the justice
system, what with the federal penitentiaries and all, this news is relevant.

~~~
calroc
Ah, I'll buy that. Thanks.

------
bayesianhorse
Consent is a complicated issue. Inmates in a prison can fully consent, but to
determine if they are consenting is beyond even a simple psychological
evaluation, and certainly beyond the judgement of a horny guard.

On the other hand, in Aljazeera's home country "sexual assault" is punishable
for the victim, and if anything about conservative sharia based marriages
holds true in Qatar, most sexual assailants are actually husbands. (Minors
can't consent, and having sex with non-consenting minors even if she is
married to her assailant is technically called a sexual assault)

To be clear: I'm not overly judging, not calling for action or hatred against
the people of Quatar, just pointing out a perspective for Al Jazeera accusing
the US. I do think the US needs to get its penal system in shape though, for
the benefit of all concerned...

~~~
tobiasu
The author
([https://twitter.com/marisahtaylor](https://twitter.com/marisahtaylor)) looks
as American as it gets. Your smoke screen in the form of Quatar criticism is
pathetic.

Look! The leader of the free world is better than North Korea. Everyone should
shut up and be happy. Ridiculous.

~~~
bayesianhorse
Calling someone on hypocrisy does not imply asking him to shut up.

