February 15, 2007
Constant rape in America's prisons.
The problem of rape in America's massive gulag of prisons, detention centers and concentration camps continues to worse. It's not just at Baghram or Abu Ghraib or outside the country. The worst of it is inside the US itself. The whole world ignores it since everyone knows the USA is a great place and they don't do that kind of stuff there.
Well they do, and it's getting worse. Human Rights Watch has released an important and horrifying
report on the wide and rampant amount of rape and other abuses in America's massive domestic prison complex. It's just unbelievable that the situation is so bad, and even more unbelievable that it's gone on for so long and no one even mentions it or does anything about it. People just don't realize how huge the US prison population is now, or what living hell the prisons are.
When I first came to prison, I had no idea what to expect. Certainly none of this. I'm a tall white male, who unfortunately has a small amount of feminine characteristics. And very shy. These characteristics have got me raped so many times I have no more feelings physically. I have been raped by up to 5 black men and two white men at a time. I've had knifes at my head and throat. I had fought and been beat so hard that I didn't ever think I'd see straight again. One time when I refused to enter a cell, I was brutally attacked by staff and taken to segragation though I had only wanted to prevent the same and worse by not locking up with my cell mate. There is no supervision after lockdown. I was given a conduct report. I explained to the hearing officer what the issue was. He told me that off the record, He suggests I find a man I would/could willingly have sex with to prevent these things from happening. I've requested protective custody only to be denied. It is not available here. He also said there was no where to run to, and it would be best for me to accept things . . . . I probably have AIDS now. I have great difficulty raising food to my mouth from shaking after nightmares or thinking to hard on all this . . . . I've laid down without physical fight to be sodomized. To prevent so much damage in struggles, ripping and tearing. Though in not fighting, it caused my heart and spirit to be raped as well. Something I don't know if I'll ever forgive myself for. ...
My name is Rodney Hulin and I work at a retirement home here in Beaumont, Texas. I am here today because of my son. He would be here himself if he could . . . . But he can't because he died in [an adult prison]. . . . [At age seventeen], my son was raped and sodomized by an inmate. The doctor found two tears in his rectum and ordered an HIV test, since up to a third of the 2,200 inmates there were HIV positive. Fearing for his safety, he requested to be placed in protective custody, but his request was denied because, as the warden put it, "Rodney's abuses didn't meet the 'emergency grievance criteria.'" For the next several months, my son was repeatedly beaten by the older inmates, forced to perform oral sex, robbed, and beaten again. Each time, his requests for protection were denied by the warden. The abuses, meanwhile, continued. On the night of January 26, 1996--seventy-five days after my son entered Clemens--Rodney attempted suicide by hanging himself in his cell. He could no longer stand to live in continual terror. It was too much for him to handle. He laid in a coma for the next four months until he died.
There are thousands, tens of thousands of accounts like this. It's not just a few people at a few prisons, but nearly everyone at nearly all prisons, in all 50 states. And the wardens, guards and other government officials are involved, and are makiing money off of it as well.
Another problem, nearly as heinous, is the growing extent of slave prison labor by American corporations, which has grown enormously under the Clinton and Bush administrations. Some say slave labor prisons may be one of the largest employers in the country now. That may be exaggerated, no one knows the real extent of it, just that it's incredibly profitable and a booming growth industry. But no one wants to talk about this, it's easier to spread this nonsense about how jobs have moved to Mexico and China and other places.
There are laws to prevent this of course, but the unspeakably vile lawyers who have taken over the government and the legal system (both liberals and conservatives, there's no difference) couldn't care less about the law or human rights. They're interested in making money off the cheap slave labor, and keeping people of color in line. The only organization really working to deal with this problem is
Stop Prisoner Rape, which could use your help.
The horrific violence Americans are inflicting in Iraq and other places around the world, is just a reflection of and stems from the violence inside America itself. Until we deal with the core problems, there's no chance of dealing with the warmongering and other stuff, which are just symptoms. Our prison system is nothing more than an organization designed to breed vicious violent people. People, prisoners AND guards, come out there as less than human, and incapable of decency.
