[BRIEF NOTE] Prison Rape in the World
Nov. 7th, 2005 01:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldKeith Johnson, a gay former inmate who recently lost his lawsuit that accused the Texas prison system of ignoring his pleas to be protected from prison rape, has escaped rather than be sent back to the institution where he was attacked as guards stood by and did nothing.
Stop Prisoner Rape, the American organization with the longest history of opposing the unofficial policies of correctional facilities in tolerating the sexual abuse of both men and women, notes correctly that this dehumanization of prisoners will produce nothing good. Quite apart from the consequences for the inmates' physical health, being victims of repeated sexual assaults is going to do nothing to enable them to rejoin society. But then, as we've seen on popular cop shows like Law and Order and even The Commish, we as the upstanding non-imprisoned are apparently willing to tolerate the abuse of those people we consider to be undeserving outsiders. Yes, even in Canada, and to Canadians.
This Saturday, I read a review of the autobiographical book by William Sampson, a former British/Canadian dual citizen, about his brutal imprisonment by Saudi authorities for two years on utterly false charges that he was a bomber, was himself raped as part of his torture. This will be condemned, and rightly so. I fear that for many people, they won't be condemning the sexual abuse itself but rather the fact that it was done to an upstanding citizen of Britain (a former citizen of Canada; he renounced his citizenship owing to our embassy's nonaction) by a corrupt foreign government. They had no right to do that to him.
Stop Prisoner Rape, the American organization with the longest history of opposing the unofficial policies of correctional facilities in tolerating the sexual abuse of both men and women, notes correctly that this dehumanization of prisoners will produce nothing good. Quite apart from the consequences for the inmates' physical health, being victims of repeated sexual assaults is going to do nothing to enable them to rejoin society. But then, as we've seen on popular cop shows like Law and Order and even The Commish, we as the upstanding non-imprisoned are apparently willing to tolerate the abuse of those people we consider to be undeserving outsiders. Yes, even in Canada, and to Canadians.
This Saturday, I read a review of the autobiographical book by William Sampson, a former British/Canadian dual citizen, about his brutal imprisonment by Saudi authorities for two years on utterly false charges that he was a bomber, was himself raped as part of his torture. This will be condemned, and rightly so. I fear that for many people, they won't be condemning the sexual abuse itself but rather the fact that it was done to an upstanding citizen of Britain (a former citizen of Canada; he renounced his citizenship owing to our embassy's nonaction) by a corrupt foreign government. They had no right to do that to him.
