Pubdate: Thu, 31 Aug 2000
Source: Point Reyes Light (CA)
Copyright: 2000 Tomales Bay Publishing Company/Point Reyes Light
Contact:  http://www.ptreyeslight.com/
Author: David V. Mitchell
Note: Relevancy is pulled in during the last two paragraphs.

THE RAPE OF A FEMALE GUARD

On Monday I received a press release from the California Correctional Peace 
Officers Association, which reported that "a female correctional peace 
officer was raped and beaten by an inmate Saturday at the California 
Correctional Institution in Tehachapi [Kern County]."

Apparently the beating, which bloodied the guard's face, and the rape 
itself occurred in a staff bathroom. The correctional officers association 
added that the rapist was still in the bathroom with the woman when another 
guard found them.

This press release from the prison guards' union also reported that "on 
average, nine officers a day are assaulted in California prisons." I assume 
most of the other assaults are not sexual. In fact, last week's column 
noted that "gassing," throwing feces in a guard's face, is a "prevalent" 
form of assault in prisons these days.

One would have to be a sociopath not to sympathize with the victim of 
Saturday's rape, for no doubt she suffered pain, embarrassment, and the 
fright that comes from losing mastery over one's own body. Assuming the 
guards' union was accurately informed, the violence done to her was 
horrific and worthy of a news release.

Which again makes me wonder why there is virtually no press coverage of the 
rapes of hundreds of thousands of mostly heterosexual men in US prisons 
each year. (Prisons typically use "protective custody" to keep predators 
away from obviously gay inmates. Gay men, in fact, are actually more 
vulnerable in local jails, which sometimes don't segregate them.)

One "very conservative estimate" is that 65,000 inmates are raped per day 
in prisons. In jails, the average is 7,150 per day. Yet in my 30 years of 
reporting, I have never received one press release about any of these rapes.

The same studies estimate that among incarcerated boys, who are typically 
14 and 15, an average of 11,000 are raped daily. Many of these youngsters 
"are, in fact, raped more than once a day until released," reports a study 
called Rape of Incarcerated Americans: A Preliminary Statistical Look. It's 
at (http://www.spr.org/docs/stats.html) on the web.

Most of us are naturally upset by the rape of even one female guard, so how 
can judges, correctional officers, legislators, and the public remain so 
unconcerned about the current 5,000 rapes per day of female inmates, 11,000 
rapes per day of children, and 62,500 rapes per day of men?

Have politicians, judges, police, and correctional officers campaigned so 
long for law and order that people have forgotten about the cruelty they're 
endorsing? If this many rapes of an entrapped population were happening in 
another country, it would be considered a crime against humanity.

When Serbs carried out mass rapes of women in Bosnia and Kosovo, the United 
States twice sent troops. When a female guard in California and 78,500 
inmates across the United States were raped last Saturday, the federal 
government didn't notice.

Most inmates will eventually complete their sentences and be released. Some 
of them will come out even more anti-social than when they went in. But 
then again, how concerned about the well being of other people should one 
expect a sexually abused ex-inmate to be? After all, he can't help but 
realize that the public has knowingly let him be raped over and over again 
for years.

Because so many people have been convicted in the failed War on Drugs, 
California's prisons are bulging. The crowding, in turn, is causing inmate 
violence to escalate. Although the vice president of the San Quentin 
chapter of the California Correctional Peace Officers Association was 
arrested last weekend on charges of selling narcotics to inmates, the 
association still wants to continue the War on Drugs and build more 
prisons. West Marin's assemblywoman, Kerry Mazzoni, this week proposed that 
state government spend $900,000 to hire more guards.

A more sensible alternative is Proposition 36 on the Nov. 7 ballot. If it 
passes - and right now it's ahead in the polls by 28 percent - people 
arrested on drug charges that don't involve sales, production, or violence 
would have the option of treatment instead of punishment. Those who 
successfully completed a treatment program would have their records 
expunged. A vote for Proposition 36 would at least be a start at reducing 
the cruelty of California's prisons.
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D