The Role Of Sexual Abuse In Prisons

Marsha was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole, which she would serve at Tutwiler Prison for Women, one of the most dangerous prisons in the United States. Bryan Stevenson writes, “Women at Tutwiler were being raped, sexually harassed, exploited, and abused by male prison guards in countless ways. . . EJI (the Equal Justice Initiative) had asked the Department of Corrections to install security cameras in the dorms, but they refused” (205). In the passage above, Stevenson elucidates the gross corruption occurring in Tutwiler Prison. During Stevenson’ time at Tutweiler Prison he attempted to help some of the many women being sexually harassed, assaulted, and even raped.

In the case of the California’s Corcoran State Prison the prisoners were being mistreated. The situation that brought this case to the forefront was Dryburgh (2009) found that “Preston Tate was shot and fatally wounded by a corrections officer after Tate and his cellmate fought against two rival Hispanic gang member. Tate death was at the hands of a prison guard prompted two whistle – blowers to approach the FBI with tales of abuse and brutality toward inmates by correction officers”. Moreover, this was not the first time that an inmate had been shot by a correctional officer.

Prison culture or the “values, norms and attitudes that inmates form in terms of institutional survival” (Bartollas, 2013), can be described in one of three models. The Deprivation Model describes the inmate’s behavior as the product of the environment, more specifically the attempt to adapt to that which he is deprived of as a result of incarceration (Bartollas, 2013). An example of such would be the pseudo family unit or physical relationships that inmates form as a result of the absence of such relationships while incarcerated.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics conducted a survey of prisoners from over 300 parole offices in 40 states with 17,738 prisoners participating and a 61% response rate (Beck & Johnson, 2012). The focus of the survey is sexual victimization during the entire length of the prison term served by each inmate. In all, 9.6 percent of former state prisoners, or 2,096, reported one or more events during their most recent time in prisons, jails or community-treatment facilities. To create national level statistics, the number was weighted and applied to total 49,000 prisoners nationwide or 9.6 percent of all underactive supervision at the middle of the year 2008. Therefore, the unit of analysis is each individual of the incarcerated prison population of the United States.

“I never realized that once I was labeled as a criminal, I had forfeited my right to be considered a victim,” says Elizabeth Reid at the end of an article she wrote describing her horrific experience as a resident at one of Washington Department of Corrections Work Release facilities (Reid 2013). Elizabeth was led to a secluded room of the facility where she was raped by one of the staff/ guards. She was forced to face the wall as he forcibly raped her. At first she did not report the rape because she feared that he would cause her to be sent back to prison. However, instead of telling someone inside the facility, she went to the local police to report the rape. To her amazement, the cops did not follow through because they were informed that she was on a form of supervised release. As a result, Elizabeth’s rapist was never charged or apprehended for her rape. Sexual misconduct between female inmates and male correctional officers (CO) has been a problem that

Chair holder and Executive Director of Just Detention International, David Kaisner and Lovisa Stannow, in their article, “The Rape of American Prisoners”, divulge into the harrowing statistic of inmates across America. Kaisner and Stannow’s purpose is to shed light on the frequency of inmate-on-inmate rape, staff sexual misconduct, and what ensues afterwards. They adopt an empathetic yet informative tone in order to convey to their readers that these treacherous deeds in fact occur on a daily basis, and many times, the violators do not receive the proper punishments.

It is dreadful enough to get raped, but having to see your perpetrator every day and possibly raping you again is a constant fear that many inmates have to encounter. According to the Bureau of Justice (BJS), in 2008 correctional administrators reported 7,444 allegations of sexual abuse in prisons. About 46 % of the sexual abuse involved staff with inmates. But these statistics do not include the many cases that go unreported due to victim’s fear of being punished by their perpetrators and/ or to embarrassment and humiliation that comes with rape. Although prison rape is prevalent, many individuals find it normal and even find it a laughing matter. Prison rape is abnormal and has huge consequences if not dealt with. Some of the

Many women who have been released from federal prison have reported that they have be either sexually or physically assaulted by a guard. Research has shown that the women prisons have 30% women guards and 70% male officers, this percentages give powerlessness and humility among female inmates which led to records of rape of the inmates or inappropriate and unnecessary groping during body searches.There was even a record of the case of Robin Lucas shows how the sexual identity of a woman may led to further abuse or torment by a guard. Robin Lucas was placed in a men’s prison where guards allowed male inmates to rape her. The guards teased her about her homosexuality, telling her that they could “maybe we can change your mind”. The worst part of having these rapist guards is having them instil fear and threats to inmates to not report them because the guard could easily just say how it was their fault. Even when reports of guards performing these acts, they are only transferred to another prison location instead of being terminated because of the prison not wanting any negative criticism on the situation that occurred between an inmate and a federal guard. Women inmates suffering from treatable diseases such as asthma, diabetes, cancer, previous miscarriages, and seizures have little or no access to medical attention, in most cases resulting in death or permanent injury. The failure to deliver needed drugs for inmates with HIV/AIDS has also been issues that haven't changed since reported. Many women in these prisons have had past history of drug abuse, domestic abuse, negligence, and sexual assault all leading to long term mental turmoil and illness like depression, post-traumatic disorder, and mood imbalance. With many of these mental illnesses in prisons it has led to many cases of out of control

Oppression is commonly defined as a prolonged unjust treatment or control. It's where one group dominates another or when one team has unfair advantages and power over another. We live in a society where people of a particular race are denied opportunities and equality. Because of social inequalities, specific groups of people are discriminated against, mistreated and oppressed. This oppression happens because of the inequalities of the system that assists the upper classes at the price of lower levels. Most of these individuals are minorities like myself are in the lower class which are also communities of color. Minorities will not benefit from these systems if those privileged keep making the rules. The social class is set up in a way where it's impossible or challenging to climb the social ladder through exploitation in our institutions.We live in a society where people of a particular race are denied opportunities and equality because of social inequalities, specific groups of people are discriminated against, mistreated and oppressed as I experienced

University of Tennessee Knoxville was recently involved in a lawsuit for enabling athletes to sexually assault women by silencing the victims and failing to provide disciplinary actions or even investigation onto the accused. While this is a recent case, this is not the first time this sort of behavior involving a school has been brought into light. One in four women will be sexually assaulted by the end of their undergraduate career (Posluszny). Sexual assault happens throughout society no matter what the gender or age, seeming to be in increasing epidemic over the last few years. While the idea of sexual assault is largely met with public hostility in theory, actions often contradict this. This contradiction lies heavily in a culture that is unwelcoming to the victims and often leads to the perpetrators being tolerated. The existence of rape culture in western society occurs due to the preservation of violent media, patriarchal standards, and the state of the criminal justice system. This culture cannot be improved until we confront each of these problems to their roots.

Prison Rape is no secret in today’s society. The American media has portrayed prison rape as a joke (Don’t drop the soap) in countless films, television shows, and in music, but have not realized the extent of how dangerous this crime is. Some cops even use this method as a means to get a confession from a suspect. A major obstacle in solving Prison rape is the notorious under-reporting of the crime. Only 16 percent of prison rape victims report their victimization. Reasons for under reporting are fear of consequences, shame, guilt, embarrassment, and refuse to relive painful details. This paper explores prison rape and its psychological and physical harm to not only inmates, but to society as well. It also discusses recent efforts to

Sexual victimization has become a growing issue throughout prisons in the United States. In 2011, correctional administrators reported over 8,763 allegations of sexual assault within correctional facilities (Beck et. al, 2014). 52% of these reports were sexual victimization of inmates only and 48% were incidents involved staff on inmates (Beck et. al, 2014). The Bureau of Justice classifies each sexual act that is conducted in prison by perpetrator staff or inmate and type of acts. There are currently four types of sexual victimization that occurs in prison, jails and other adult correctional facilities. These four include inmate-on-inmate nonconsensual sexual acts, inmate-on-inmate abusive sexual contacts, staff sexual misconduct and staff sexual

The issue of sexual assault in correctional facilities is very complex and the implications reach far beyond the walls of the institution. Congress found that “prison rape endangers the public’s safety by making brutalized inmates more likely to commit crimes when they are released.”

Sexual violence against transgender prison inmates have reached a crisis point and reveal an epidemic of discrimination. In general, transgender people face many challenging obstacles, but transgender inmates have an even harder time in the correctional system due to sexual violence, harassment and discrimination. Any inmate can be violently sexually assaulted while incarcerated, but transgender inmates are the most vulnerable population. On June 6, 1994 the Supreme Court ruled in the case of Farmer v. Brennan that prison officials must operate without “deliberate indifference” as they have a legal duty to protect inmates from harm. This means they cannot just ignore circumstances, like being transgender that may affect how a prisoner is treated. The Eighth Amendment right against cruel and unusual punishment is often violated when these circumstances are ignored (Gender Identity Watch, 2013). Dee Farmer, a transgender woman imprisoned in a federal prison in Indiana for credit card fraud, was given a twenty year sentence for a nonviolent crime. Farmer was placed in general population at a maximum

My initial interest in researching male rape victimisation in prison evolved from attending a Continous professional development seminar in which one of the speakers presented a paper titled, Life behind Bars, and of interest was the section on rape among male inmates in Kenya. From then my curiosity was sparked. The more I read the available literature which was mainly focused on incarcerated men in the united states, the more I realised how understudied the subject of male rape was in the Africa, and especially in Kenya and that research had not investigated how consent was negotiated and its metamorphosis among male inmates.