Mass incarceration is a hub for abuse and is a gross violation of human rights.
“I am one of the 216,600 people who are sexually abused each year in prisons, jails, youth facilities, and immigration detention.” — Joe, a former inmate in a California state prison
At my last job, I spent most of my weekly 40 hours reading handwritten letters from men, women, and trans people who had been sexually abused by other inmates or by staff while in jail, prison, or other detention facilities. I read firsthand their accounts of the gang rapes, the humiliation, the grotesque disrespect and horrifyingly violent assaults they suffered. They expressed that nobody believed them, that nobody would believe or sympathize with a felon. I heard the desperation in their words, the pleas for someone — anyone — to care about what was happening to them.
And I do care. I care a lot. Whether these people made a stupid mistake that got them in trouble or had long, complex criminal histories, they did not deserve to be abused. Offering resources to local agencies who could provide counseling and legal advocacy was a tangible way the organization was able to help, but perhaps most powerful was the simple inclusion of the sentence: “I believe you, and I am so sorry that this happened to you.”
What does this have to do with mass incarceration?
It’s easy to think that sexual assault behind bars is a small-scale issue, prevalent only in poorly managed facilities with high-security offenders. It’s also easy not to care; these are society’s worst of the worst, right? Sex offenders, murderers, child molesters… well, yes, it’s true that this population may be targeted for abuse in prison (though that doesn’t make it justifiable), but the majority of targets are first-time, young, nonviolent offenders. LGBT inmates are at heightened risk of being targeted for assault, especially transgender women who are housed in male prisons.
The reality is that abuse in prison is more widespread than you would expect, and it can happen to anyone. 1 in 10 adult prisoners report having been sexually abused while incarcerated. For youth in detention, it is 1 in 8. This does not include unreported assaults — and there are myriad reasons why someone wouldn’t report their abuse.
But prison conditions in general are abhorrent among many facilities, in part due to the overpopulation of our prisons and jails. Overcrowding means that inmates are shoved together in dormitories designed to house half their current capacity, that nonviolent offenders, such as those convicted for drug offenses, may be forced into cells with violent offenders, that staff are vastly outnumbered and therefore not equipped to humanely address the medical or psychological needs of individual inmates — or their allegations of being abused.
Why should you care?
Sexual abuse in prison, and other gross human rights violations that occur in the system, need to be acknowledged and addressed, and that is made more difficult by the overcrowding crisis in our correctional institutions. Most inmates have an eventual parole or release date, which means that they return to the community. If we as a society have abandoned them and terrorized them while they are incarcerated, how can we expect them to return to the community as upstanding citizens?
Whenever possible, incarceration should be rehabilitative, not punitive. Instead of spending outrageous funds to build colossal, stringent institutions, we should allocate those resources to educational and vocational programming for inmates. During my time touring jail facilities in southern California, I found that there were many inmates who took advantage of these (voluntary) programs and really wanted to improve their life skills to prepare for their eventual release. While this won’t be effective for everybody, it would certainly be a vast improvement from the inadequate bus ticket and pocket cash that prisoners take with them when they leave their facility.
Advocating for sentencing change at the judicial level may ease the overpopulation burden as well. Fines, vocational community service, or community confinement (such as house arrest, probation, and other forms of monitored semi-independent living) can be utilized in cases of nonviolent, low-risk, and/or first time offenders. The system is definitely experiencing a kind of overhaul currently, at least in California, but increased awareness of the gross injustices that are a reality for many prisoners can only help the process.
Don’t turn a blind eye to those that have been isolated and forgotten by society. Make a difference for someone who may have nobody else and simply care.
Quote via Just Detention International. For more information about sexual abuse behind bars and how you can help, visit www.justdetention.org
