Feature: Prison Rape and the War on Drugs
Sexual assaults on prisoners is an endemic problem in America, not an isolated one, the war on drugs is making the problem worse, and drug war prisoners are among those most likely to be victimized, according to a report released Thursday. The report, "Stories from Inside: Prisoner Rape and the War on Drugs," by the human rights group Stop Prisoner Rape, calls prisoner rape "a human rights crisis of appalling magnitude."
[inline:spr-report-cover.gif align=left caption="SPR report cover"]Hard numbers are hard to come up with for a crime in which humiliation, stigma, the fear of retaliation -- and perhaps officials' fear of embarrassment or lawsuits -- inhibits reporting, but according to preliminary reports from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, which is setting up a nationwide, anonymous reporting system, 4% of prisoners reported being sexually assaulted within the last year. According to survey research cited in the report, as many as 20% of male prisoners and 25% of female prisoners have been victims of sexual assault in jail or prison. With a jail and prison population now nearing 2.3 million, the number of victims could be in the hundreds of thousands.
For male prisoners, the most common pattern is sexual assault by other male prisoners. For female prisoners, it is most often sexual assault by guards or other prison staff.
Even the reported numbers may be low, according to some experts. Dr. Terry Kupers, a psychiatrist specializing in mental health in prison and especially the mental health of prisoners who have been sexually assaulted, told Drug War Chronicle the numbers may be much higher.
"My estimate is that it is much more widespread than the statistics show," said Kupers, who has published frequently on prison rape and testified as an expert witness on behalf of prison rape victims. "I think the 20% figure is low for a couple of reasons. First, people don't report because they're afraid of the stigma. Men feel it is unmanly and won't admit it. There is also the fear of retaliation in prison, whether from staff or other prisoners. Secondly, a lot of sexual activity is not defined as rape by the participants. A young and fair male enters prison and is told by an older prisoner 'I'm going to have sex with you, and if you agree I won't beat you up and I'll protect you from other prisoners.' The young man agrees and becomes a 'willing' partner, but it's rape, it's coerced out of fear. These guys might say they're not being raped, but they are."
What happened to Chance Martin in 1973 was not pretty, but not unusual. The university-bound Indiana youth was arrested at a hotel party after another guest dropped a piece of hashish in the lobby and thrown into the Lake County Jail in Crown Point. There, he was attacked and sexually assaulted by six other inmates in an unmonitored group cell.
"'General pop' was a large cage holding about 40 men," he recounted in the report. "It was the dead of the night when I got there. My cellmates were all awaiting trial or serving county sentences. One was a blond man with a mustache whose face was beaten to a pulp -- and who kept strictly to himself. Finding me sitting hopelessly on my bunk, a trustee insisted that I join a card game to 'cheer me up.' The game only lasted three hands. It then became a demand for sex. Threats were made pointing out the example of the cellie with the battered face.
"Driving their point home, four other trustees jammed my ribs with broomsticks and mop handles. I tried to call for help. Repeatedly I had my breath beat from my lungs. Curled up on the floor, my arms protected my head. Dark memories recall being dragged to a bunk obscured by army blankets at the farthest end of the cell from the turnkey's office. One guy said, 'Now you have to give me head.' I had never even heard the term before. The scariest part was I lacked the first clue what was going to go down until it already happened. I'm glad that there were only six guys. Six is only the best of my recollection. It might have been more. I don't recall their faces, except a couple. I didn't even see most of their faces.
"There was near-zero supervision in that jail. No guard had line of sight into that cell. The guards' office was at the end of a hallway at the cellblock's end, and their TV was blaring 24/7."
From jail, Martin enlisted in the armed forces and went to Vietnam as part of a plea bargain to avoid any further time behind bars. There, he began drinking heavily and using drugs, a pattern he kept up back in the States. He suffered emotional problems and blew through three marriages. Now, he's a social justice activist in San Francisco who works in a law office by day and manages at low-income high-rise at night.
"It's been a long time and I don't get nightmares about it anymore, but I can still get panicky and I tend to fall into not trusting people," Martin told Drug War Chronicle. "I'm suspicious of hidden agendas when people are being nice. I can't form concrete interpersonal relationships. I'm not a complete basket case, but it's something that's always there," he said.
While Martin confided in friends about his rape, he didn't come out publicly until he found himself trying to explain to a San Francisco Chronicle reporter interviewing him about his homeless activism why he had ended up joining the military during Vietnam. "One of the Stop Prisoner Rape people read that and contacted me, and before you know it, I'm a survivor advocate," he laughed. "You try to create something good even out of a negative experience. This is going on every day, and I'm doing anything I can do to stop it from happening to the next person."
As a San Francisco resident, Martin is now a card-carrying medical marijuana user. "I knew when I got here I had been waiting my whole life for a place like this," he said. "I wasn't a criminal when I was smoking hash in high school and I'm not a criminal now. But for the sake of the drug war, I had my most basic human rights stripped away and was subjected to a brutal assault that left me with issues that lasted for years."
New York City resident Michael Piper wasn't raped, but was violently attacked fending off a failed attempt in jail in Tempe, Arizona, in 1974, after he was arrested for possession of a roach. The attack left him with serious head injuries, and a commitment to work for change. "My life has been challenging in many ways, and that attack was part of experiencing life for what it is," he told the Chronicle. "It's part of my motivation for speaking out. But I don't like the victim role; I don't play that," he said. "That attack increased my resilience."
It also hardened his attitude about the drug war. "Drug use is a personal choice," he said, extolling the virtues of various plants. "When we recognize we are not victims of drugs and they are not something we have to be protected from, then we can alter our environment and take responsibility for the way we live. It's a violation of natural law when a government says I can't interact with a seed that's a gift from the Creator."
Marilyn Shirley was sent to federal prison in 1998 on methamphetamine charges after a customer of her and her husband's auto repair business attempted to pay his bill with the drug. She was raped by a prison guard. In a rare turn of events, she was able to see him jailed after she kept the sweat pants she was wearing hidden in her cell for seven months.
"I didn't tell anyone at the prison except my welding boss, and I swore her to secrecy," Shirley told the Chronicle. "I didn't feel like I could trust any of them. But five minutes after I was released, I walked into the prison camp administration office and said 'Am I free?' and the lady said 'yes' and I handed her the sweat pants with his DNA on them. They called the FBI immediately and now he's doing 12 years himself."
Even with her tormentor now behind bars, it's not easy for Shirley. "I get severe panic attacks, I have to see two psychiatrists, I'm on five different kinds of medication," she said.
As with Martin and Piper, Shirley's experience has led her to speak out. "You can't just keep it bottled up inside you; it'll kill you," she said. "I spoke out because I feel like it might give other people confidence if I did. Something has to change. It's so easy to end up in prison; nowadays, it doesn't hardly take anything. It could be your wife, your kids, your mother."
"We hear stories like these from survivors from across the country on a daily basis," said Lovisa Stannow, co-executive director of Stop Prisoner Rape. "It's the most widespread and neglected human rights crisis in the country, and it's alarming on many levels," she told the Chronicle. "Prison rape is a form of torture, a human rights violation. No one should have to endure that as part of their sentence. It's also well-known that prisoners who are sexually abused suffer for years or decades from that trauma. We talk to people all the time who years later are still unable to function."
"They suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder," said Dr. Kupers. "There is an unofficial term we use, rape response syndrome. The effects of rape or sex abuse can last a life-time and be very serious and cause a lot of grief. Like in the Vietnam War, there is a lot of drinking and pot smoking, and we don't know how much of it is self-medicating. There are a lot of people affected who don't realize it," he said.
It is worse in prison, he said. "One of the things that makes it so severe for prisoners is the captivity. If you are raped, you try to do things to make yourself safe, you move away or you change houses, but when you're in prison, you can't do that. At worst, you are held in sexual captivity, where you are made into another prisoner's woman or punk, a repetitive hell of sexual abuse."
"We chose to highlight the role of the drug war in this because we felt the link hadn't been made," said Stop Prisoner Rape's Stannow. "Because of the war on drugs, we have seen a very dramatic swelling of the prison population, with half a million incarcerated on drug charges and hundreds of thousands more for drug-related offenses. The prisons are overcrowded, and that sets the stage for sexual violence. And a lot of nonviolent drug offenders fit the profile of inmates targeted for sexual violence -- young, nonviolent, inexperienced when it comes to prison life -- and are very much in danger."
It doesn't have to be that way. Changes can and should be made both in institutional policies within the prisons and in the US approach to drug policy in general, said Stannow.
"Sexual violence in prison is largely a management problem. In a well-run prison, you don't have rampant sexual violence," she pointed out. "One thing that needs to be done immediately is to make sure our prisons and jails are safe, so inmates don't get assaulted. Corrections officials can do this with proper classification and housing, and by taking immediate action when someone has been assaulted. They can also ensure that abused inmates receive counseling and access to medical care. There is a lot that can be done at the institutional level," she said.
Changing policies inside prisons is critical, Stannow argued. "We receive hundreds of letters a year from survivors, and one in four comes from Texas," she said. "On the other hand, some places, like the San Francisco County Jail, have very good policies in place to address prisoner rape and sexual violence. There are vast differences between prisons and prison systems across the country, and we are concerned about states where we receive a very large number of complaints," she said.
"But we also need to reduce the incarceration rate for people convicted of nonviolent drug offenses," Stannow continued. "We need to take treatment and diversion programs seriously and not automatically send everyone to prison."
Comments
Prison rape and drug war
The solution is quiet simple. The Narconon program and the criminon program has the best solution to stop rape in prison. We must allow their members to practice in prison. The Hubbard program is the only way out.
Dr. Hermon Mihranian
addictologist
Email: [email protected]
In reply to Prison rape and drug war by Anonymous (not verified)
Scientologist nonsense
Go peddle your mind-control somwhere else.
In reply to Prison rape and drug war by Anonymous (not verified)
Prison Rape
WHEN ARE PEOPLE GOING TO DO MORE THAN JUST TALK ABOUT PRISON RAPE? GET RID OF PRISON RAPE. THIS IS AMERICA AND PRISONS ARE BARBARIC, HORRIFIC PLACES TO DWELL. YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT REALLY GOES ON IN PRISON/JAILS. DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT AND NOT JUST TALK ABOUT IT. MEDIA, UNDERCOVER AGENTS IN THE PRISONS. DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. IT'S CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT AND THE WHOLE PRISON/JAIL SYSTEM SHOULD BE SUED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DRUG USERS ARE NOT THE ONLY VICTIMS. NO INMATE SHOULD EVER BE ABUSED OR RAPED. C'MON IS THIS AMERICA? IS THIS WHAT AMERICA IS SUPPOSED TO BE? DO SOMETHING!!!!!!!!!
The truly amazing thing is
The truly amazing thing is that the rate of sexual assaults committed against women outside of prison are even higher than those cited here for men in prison! Talk about a human rights crisis...
uhhh...
... perhaps you'll be forgiving of me on my first outing here. Let's hope...
I'm more of a dilettante than a "addictologist" (God help us!), and it's been twenty years since I worked as a substance abuse counselor. But back then the word was that Synnanon was the greatest thing since sliced bread... until the rattlesnakes started turning up in people's mailboxes.
Witness Alfonso Acamporo, a sobered-up horse thief who came out of Synnanon and its offshoots to found Walden House here in SF. Then he started setting up his abusive peer - pressure model in CA prisons like McDonald's franchises.
Then, when the CA Attorney General conducted an audit of his state contracts, Alfonso holed up in a Berkeley conference center and did the dutch act with a handgun. Hmmmmmmmm.
I'm happy to practice harm reduction. It's actually the official public health policy of these 7 x 7 miles. In a harm reduction model most drug "offenders" would never see the inside of a prison. And frankly, what Dr. (are you really?) Mihranian proposes smells more like another means to export prison culture into the mainstream.
I'd like to think it might be more humane to export harm reduction into prisons.
primum non nocere
chance
Every seed-bearing plant….shall be yours for food. (Genesis 1:
"See, I give you every seed-bearing plant that is upon all the earth, and every tree that has seed-bearing fruit; they shall be yours for food. (Genesis 1:29)
Has the USA started a war on seed-bearing plants or do they agree with Genesis 1:29…?
Torah Sparks: Vayikrah from Manhigut Yehudit
And if a person sins... though he knows it not, he is guilty. (Leviticus 5:17)
“One who knows for certain that he transgressed, brings a sin offering; one who doubts if he transgressed, must atone with a guilt offering. Why does the one who has perhaps not transgressed require the more valuable offering? Because his regret is not as complete.â€
(Raavad)
“The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government.â€
- Thomas Jefferson
Our Justice system
While you are waiting to go to court, the Gaurds try to make your stay as uncomfortable as possible.
Most inmates will "plea bargain" to avoid any further time behind bars !!!
This explains the high conviction rate, which the DA is so much proud of.
In reply to Our Justice system by Anonymous (not verified)
Our justice system
Thank you!!!!!!!!!!! Here in nashville,tn . inmates(both guilty and not guilty[ the state prides it's self on it's record of never having incarcerated an innocent person{which is a complete lie}]. I was forced to choose between pleading guilty to a misdemeanor simple assualt or wait ,after having been locked up for 7 months,6-8 months to go to trial where the state(who took over the case after my lying accuser tried to change her mind about pressing charges) was ready to crucify me for the charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. I still have the motion of discovery. It shows no weapon was "discovered"( I had no weapon ,so there was nothing for the DA ( I refer to them now as the "devil's advocates")to present as physical or forensic proof. They were going to use the lying"victim's" testimony as evidence. I have little idea of what the laws really are here as it seems the police themselves can create a law and charge someone with it. The DA got what they wanted , a coviction( a misdemeanor conviction but a convition none the less). I never got true justice. I am the real victim for life. That is how the law operates here. You will stay in jail until you either cop a plea or you are found guilty of something. The state recieves $100.00 per inmate per day. What do you think the chances of them finding you innocent are when you can sue them for half of what they've recieved? incarcerating people has become a very lucritive operation for the state. Especially when you consider there are thousands of people who are incarcerated here. The law does not care if you are innocent,they only care about the money and public defenders( aka public pretenders) recieve $700.00-$800.00 if they can get you to cop a plea. Otherwise they will put a weak fight for you and allow the DA( their puppetmaster),to railroad you in the court room and you will serve time regardless of your guilt or innocence. As far as gangs here, we have plenty including ms13. I was in a "pod" with 46 other inmates over half of them were violent gang members. The sheriff's department here turns there eyes away when the gang members are plotting an attack. One of the sheriff's deputies is involved in protecting/ assisting these gang members( the G's) by keeping the other deputies away from the cell untill the gang has finished it's business. I have witnessed many brutal attacks and out of fear of being placed in a "holding cell" with them, I never said anything to the other deputies. When I told my public pretender that I was in a cell with mostly gang members, she said " uh hello, you're in jail. There is no true justice here unless you are rich enough to afford a good attorney.
Prison rape...
I'm glad to see this as a headline article. I've been fortunate to not have experienced rape during my adventures in the lock-box, but it sure as hell pisses me off whenever I hear someone, usually a young jockish white guy, making "don't drop the soap" jokes when discussing jail or someone they know getting locked up. Like it's a joke, or worse even, an accepted component of the prescribed punishment.
The acceptability and success of snitching, and to some degree, the plea bargin can be wholly attributed to prison rape. Young, mostly white, men are terrified of being raped by "big black guys", as shown in that stupid movie "Half Baked" a few years ago. There's a soap dropping scene when the guy is in the shower with some... big black guys, and then he becomes Tommy Chong's "bitch" for protection from the black guys, and the guys selling pot agree to snitch out the "bad" drug dealer rather than...whatever; it was just a dumb movie, but the messages were all there. Laughing at rape and sexual servitude, and that ratting is OK.
The first time I got popped, the cops tried to give me money and send me back out to buy dope that same night. They knew I was on smack and was going to be sick by the morning, and kept telling me that I could be high instead if I just cooperated. The old empathetic cop/evil cop routine. Evil cop kept threatening me with how severe my sentence was going to be, and kept saying "a young, fair haired guy like you...do you know what they're going to do to you in there? Why don't you help youself out here. All you need to do is give us seven busts THAT RESULT IN CONVICTIONS."
I just laughed and shook my head. Yes, I knew what would most likely happen to me, but no, I wasn't going to become an unpaid narc and spend the rest of my life hiding from people I once liked. I told him that I still had values, meaning I believed that "You play, you pay". No one else was responsible for my actions and I wasn't about to ruin someone else's life just so I could live in the snitch ward. And believe me, any cop other than a Fed offering you "protection" is full of it. There isn't a city, county or state agency with the resources to protect anybody from anything.
Few un-hardened criminals understand how difficult obtaining those convictions can ultimately be, especially if the cops are sloppy and don't bother with the details...and why should they? They have even less respect for you once you agree to snitch, and they just want more people caught up in their BS anyway. Free drugs.
Actually, it was obvious to me that the guy that all but gift wrapped me for the cops was trying to work off one of these deals. His reward? The priviledge of selling drugs to high school kids at the mall. I had given him some of the speed I got busted with, so I ratted on him. Boy, did that ever piss the cops off.
as earlier post said, this is a human rights problem
Prison authorities who don't properly act to prevent rape are the scum of the earth. And a general public that condones it isn't much better. There's something sick about America: it's been given so much, and acts so mean.
In reply to as earlier post said, this is a human rights problem by Anonymous (not verified)
as earlier post said,this is a human rights problem
True, people here are mean. It's a shame we live in a country that condemns other countries ,such as china, for violating/ignoring human rights yet, our authorities openly violate the human rights of citizens here. Do we pay their salaries to be treated this way? I don't pay them to abuse people or violate any of the citizen's rights. The authorities here NEED a wake up call before they remove all of our rights, leaving those of us in the Military something that benefits our citizens to uphold and defend.We have got to do something before it's too late.
In reply to as earlier post said, this is a human rights problem by Anonymous (not verified)
prison rape in texas by male guards.
THERE HAVE BEEN A HANDFUL OF STORNG CASES THAT SHED A REAL LIGHT ON HOW GUARDS ARE LITERALLY RAPING PRISONERS AS IF IT IS OK. AND WHAT DOES TEXAS DO WITH THESE SEX OFFENDER GUARDS? TEXAS PROTECTS THE GUARDS AS IF SAYING IT IS OK TO RAPE ANOTHER INDIVIDUAL. IT IS A CRIME NO MATTER WHAT COLOR OF A UNIFORM YOU ARE WEARING. IF A GUARD IS SICK ENOUGH TO RAPE MEN AND WOMEN IN PRISON DO WE NOT THINK THAT THEY WILL EVENTUALLY RAPE SOMEONE OUT HERE?
We have to change the minds of men
As long as men think that rape is okay -- as long as they are on top, of course -- we're going to have rape and plenty of it. Rape doesn't only produce victims, it has lots and lots of perpetrators.
Rape is not so much sex as it is dominance and humiliation behavior. Victims do not secretly enjoy it.
Somehow, we've got to produce men with more empathy: What if you weren't on top next time?
Rape is not a manly or an admirable act. It's a cowardly, animal, atavistic and shameful thing. No civilized society can tolerate it. Let's get civilized, folks.
MEN have to oppose rape. Please, give it up for the sake of your own families. Discuss, prosecute, enforce.
Stop laughing, it isn't funny. Comedians will say anything to get the audience to laugh with squeamishness and discomfort. Newsflash: that's not comedy, it's a tired old whoopee cushion. We need to treat rape jokes like we treat racist and sexist jokes, with frowns and boos.
In reply to We have to change the minds of men by Anonymous (not verified)
We have to change the minds of men
We NEED to change the minds of all people ,not just men. Rape is a crime that anyone can become a victim of. I am a male and I was raped as a child . Those who raped me got away with it I still bear the scars.
The first man, Chance
The first man, Chance Martin, claims to have been ganged raped while in a COUNTY lockup while awaiting trial. He claims he was put into a cell holding 40 other men, and that this cell was not supervised. While I can believe there were times every cell was not under the supervision of a guard, I find it this story not believable. A county jail has many small cells, and these people would have been seperated into smaller cells, not left in in one big area unsupervised.
**This article is asking me to believe that within 24 hours without freedom in a COUNTY lockup, the majority of men will turn into raping animals. Are men really like this? If so, they all need to be locked up anyway, just to keep them away from everybody else.
Is it possible there is a motive for this claim other than the stated one? Perhaps to decriminalize drugs? While I have no doubt that rape in PRISON happens, a county lockup defies belief.
In reply to The first man, Chance by Anonymous (not verified)
Maricopa County Jail is where I was assaulted
Michael Piper here - My experience was in a county jail - and I have been in county lockups where there were more than 40 in a barracks style cell.
While I am very much an advocate for the end to prohibition, to imply that some one gave false testimony such as this is, for that goal, is cynical beyond my comprehension.
As stated in the article and the report, the current system is really as poorly managed (in some places), to the point where your disbelief is excusable, as I assume you have been spared the experience. The inmate that assaulted me in the county day room (8-10 other inmates) had been in state prison for 2 years and was in county to testify for the state. I was placed in the same cell, 19 years old, after being arrested (not found guilty)for a very small amount of cannabis. Long haired and a "hippie," this was my first experience with "hardened" criminals.
it's true
They really will throw you in unsupervised rooms. I've been through the system myself in Ohio. They'll dump you and 20-40 other cellmates in "bull pens" and just leave you there. If you can't get along with them, you're going to be in shit.
In reply to it's true by Anonymous (not verified)
BULL PENS IN TEXAS-BUT PRISON GUARDS ARE THE BULLS AND WARDENS A
WE HAVE A VERY CORRUPT SYSTEM OF WHICH TOTALLY CONTRADICTS THE MEANING OF JUSTICE FOR CRIMES AGAINST ANOTHER HUMAN BEING. PRISON GUARDS ARE RAPING UNDER THE "COLOR OF LAW' AND SAYING IT IS OK...WE ARE PRISON GUARDS WHO CAN DO ANYTHING TO THESE HUMAN BEINGS AND GET AWAY WITH IT. WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE???
I AM MINA AND I AM DEDICATED TO THIS CAUSE TO STOP PRISON RAPE WHERE IT RUNS ALONG THE CORE OF WHAT WE CALL OUR CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM'S
MISSION STATEMENT OF PROTECTING OUR SOCIETY FROM THE SCUM OF THE EARTH. MINA
Good for O.J.
If only everybody could follow his example and throw hundreds of thousands of dollars at the courts; nobody would ever be in prison to get raped.
We live in a culture where
We live in a culture where practically every female rape claim is scrutinized, debated, and ultimately disbelieved by a significant percentage of society. *IF* most women are guilty of lying about rape as some would suggest, then convicted criminals wanting early parole are even more likely to lie and therefore we can safely ignore this "epidemic" as just another manipulation tactic.
Either very few PEOPLE lie about rape, or everybody does. Why does a convicted man get automatic belief, but a woman gets automatic "maybe she made the whole thing up"?
Maybe the convict just wants to get the guard in trouble? Maybe the researcher just wants another book deal? One of the research papers (Hensley, Koscheski, Tewksbury Journal Interpersonal Violence Vol. 20 No. 6, June 2005) even admitted that the prison rape statistics were imaginary.
But for the real victims, what can be done? Even 23/7 lockdown results in extreme psychological problems. Chemical castration? More expensive electronic surveiliance? More expensive staff? This site is obviously biased in favor of legalizing drugs, but that has not shown to work in Norway and Sweden. They are now realizing that legal drug usage creates even more addicts who refuse treatment and commit violent crime in order to support their habit..
In reply to We live in a culture where by Anonymous (not verified)
uh, excuse me...
"This site is obviously biased in favor of legalizing drugs, but that has not shown to work in Norway and Sweden."
?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
Drugs are not legalized in Norway or Sweden, not now nor anytime in roughly the last century.
Not anywhere, actually (and unfortunately). But certainly not in Norway or Sweden, the latter of which at least has some of the strictest drug laws in Europe.
Just a much-needed reality check...
David Borden, Executive Director
StoptheDrugWar.org: the Drug Reform Coordination Network
Washington, DC
http://stopthedrugwar.org
"Rape is not so much sex as
"Rape is not so much sex as it is dominance and humiliation behavior."
If that's so, why does it occur with so much greater frequency in prisons? Is it possible that the commonest cause of rape in prison differs from its commonest cause outside of prison?
Culture of Torture
We have as a Nation become all that we claim to Abhor. When the common interogation practices of the "Good Cop" are "I want to help you out good looking young kid like you those perverts and hardened criminals will have you for lunch" ETC. Anything obtained after that is Coerced Testimony. It doesn't matter to them if you are Innocent They Just want to up thier Stats and Earn that Gold Badge.
They turn Teenagers into Snitches And Ruin Thier Lives While the Police know from Thier own Blue Code that the Price Is Death.
Even if you take the Plea and Get Lucky you become A Slave to the System, Probation and Parole Are No more Better than Indentured Servitude Where They Can Reup your Contract with the Slightest Excuse.
The Gaurds are Not Oblivious They are Corrupt, Lazy, Evil, and Subcontract Thier Worst Crimes to the Gangs They are in bed with. Abu Graib Is small time compared to what goes on in our Prison System Every Day.
awaiting trial or something
i got cought with percs(oxycodone) in school, i am 13 and on april 11 am going to some form of court hearing/trial and i am nervous as hell. 5 counts of aggravated trafficing one of wich was not even true. the school claims that it was oxycottin and that i am pretty much responsable for any drug problem in the school whatsoever. although i have been arressted before (at least questioned?...no idea cops were very unclear, i had to sign a statement and stuff, no carges were pressed) this would be my first offence so i doubt that i will get time in JDC or another related facillity i am just very uncomfortable about the whole mess and i was wondering if anyone has had any experiance in shit like this. i have heard some bad shit happens in JDC, rape, assult, just in general a badd as fuck invironment. all 5 people cought with possession blamed me and i didn't even give stuff to the chick who got me the last charge. thanks.
sorry for the crappy spelling...
for the comment above sorry for the bad spelling... up late... just not paying attention to it.
this anonymous guy...
You may rely on the fact that no-one wishes I was never raped more than me.
One feature I've found shared among every correctional facility administrator, corrections officer, and prison staff person I've met with about this issue is absolute, impenetrable DENIAL that sexual assaults ever occur in their institutions. They share this trait with the perpetrators themselves. It appears that they can't really admit that it goes on at all without also owning the fact that they are complicit.
To our 13 year old poster: you are going to be targeted and scrutinized every time drug hysteria raises its ugly head in your school or neighborhood. I'd strongly recommend two things:
The first is that you might think long and hard before you use any drugs or bring them to school. There's also lots safer drugs to use than percs. Don't become a casualty.
Second, I don't care how much you trust your parents, or how much they love you. I don't care if they aren't even mad that you got popped with the pills. GET A LAWYER. Your parents aren't going to be as astute or skilled at protecting your rights (and yes, 13 year olds DO have rights) as an attorney. Good luck.
Last observation I have is that I'm glad the ability to post anonymously is there for folks like our teen-aged friend, but boy does it ever burn me up when delusional solipsists like a couple of the posters above hide behind it.
To them: I don't have any secrets. Why do you?
primum non nocere
chance
norway2
I forgot to mention, the last 5 years, Illegal import of medications through snailmail has increased with 100-150% and still increasing, annually due to the extreme hassle of getting proper meds here.
If you need anything that could be potentially be abused- you are in their eyes sure to end up in the gutter with a needle in your arm, dying slowly from AIDS while raping grandmothers and killing people with axe in your psychotic outbreaks caused by hashish injections.
I hope this gives you an impression of what the situation really is here.....
prison rape and war on drugs
I was in jail and being white 125lbs and not into aggro I had to ride but was OK with it. Only two times was I was raped by guys on drugs and it was not good. So keep druggies by themselves
joanetta tv
AMERICAN INJUSTICE SYSTEM
IT IS BARBARIC HOW AMERICAN JAIL AND PRISON INMATES ARE TREATED. GUARDS DRINK AND PLAY GAMES WITH INMATES AND PIT THEM AGAINST EACH OTHER. PRISON SHOULD BE COMPLETE REHABILITATION AND PRODUCTIVITY NO MATTER IF INMATES ARE THERE FOR A COUPLE OF YEARS OR FOR LIFE. RAPES ARE RAMPID. THERE SHOULD BE SEGREGATION BETWEEN TRULY VIOLENT INMATES AND NON VIOLENT INMATES. ALL AMERICAN PRISONS PRODUCE NOW ARE OFTEN POTENTIALLY DECENT PEOPLE WHO COME OUT BETTER CRIMINIALS OR WORSE YET, DESTROYED HUMAN BEINGS. AMERICA SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF IT'SELF AND WE HAVE A COUNTRY THAT IS SUPPOSED TO BE FREE AND HAVE HUMAN RIGHTS YET THESE INMATES ARE TREATED WORSE THAN TORTURED ANIMALS. WE ARE SICK OF IT. IT SHOULD BE EXPOSED ON EVERY LEVEL I DON'T CARE WHAT THE PRISONERS ARE THERE FOR, AS THEY ARE HUMAN AND CAN BE PRODUCTIVE WHETHER THEY ARE SEPARATED FROM OTHER INMATES OR NOT. AMERICA SPEAK UP. SEPARATE FROM THIS, THE DRUG WAR LOST. SO FIND ANOTHER WAY. FREE REHABS SHOULD BE ESTABLISHED AND WHEN DRUG ABUSERS HIT ROCK BOTTOM, THEY WILL BE ABLE TO HAVE FREE REHABS TO GO TO. REHABS HAVE BECOME BIG BUSINESS RULLED BY IDIOTS. WE NEED WELL ESTABLISHED, TRULY KNOWLEDGEABLE REHABS WHERE THOSE WHO WANT HELP CAN GO. DRUGS SHOULD BE DECRIMINIALIZED. THE DRUG WAR LOST A LONG TIME AGO. TRY SOMETHING THAT WORKS. AS FAR AS POT, IT'S SAFER BY FAR THAN ALCOHOL. LEGALIZE CANNABUS ACROSS THE BOARD.
WHENEVER SOMETHING CONTINUES SUCH AS PRISON OVERLOAD AND BUILDING NEW PRISONS, THE REASON IS USUALLY THAT IT BENEFITS THE VERY WEALTHY.
PROTECT OUR HUMAN RIGHTS BY IMMEDIATELY LETTING OUT NON VIOLENT OFFENDERS AND UTILIZING ALTERNATIVE SENTENCING. THE MENTALLY ILL IN JAILS AND PRISONS SHOULD BE CARED FOR AND GIVE THEIR PROPER MEDICATIONS. AMERICA HAS A VERY BAD PROBLEM AS THE PRISON SYSTEM IS ILL EQUIPED TO HANDLE THE MENTALLY ILL. THE MENTALLY ILL DO NOT BELONG IN PRISON. THEY BELONG IN CLEAN, WELL ORGANIZED AND WELL RUN HOSPITALS. SHAME ON AMERICA FOR THEIR HORRIFYING TORTURE OF HUMAN BEINGS, HIRING TWISTED GUARDS AND ALLOWING THE TORTURE OF INMATES. DON'T LOOK THE OTHER WAY. IF YOU DON'T KNOW ABOUT THE THINGS THAT HAPPEN IN JAILS AND PRISONS THAN FIND OUT AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. PEOPLE HELP ANIMALS, WELL, START HELPING HUMANS.
WHO PAYS FOR INMATES? MIDDLE AMERICA. WE ARE SICK OF HAVING OUR AMERICANS TORTURED SECRETLY IN JAILS AND PRISONS. THINGS GO ON THAT YOU COULD NOT FATHOM IN YOUR WORSE NIGHTMARES. AND IT CAN HAPPEN TO YOU OR SOMEONE YOU LOVE. FIGHT IT! FIGHT IT! FIGHT IT! NOW!
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