Prison

There are almost 2 million prisoners in the United States today. Most of the prison population is filled with Black and Hispanic males.The American prison population exceeds every other country in the world today as the most prisoners. The United States spent more than $44 billion in tax dollars to pay for correctional facilities. The billing of money spent on prisoners has multiplied by 3 since the year 1987, which was $11 billion. Vermont, Connecticut, Delaware, Michigan, and Oregon spend more money to corrections than they do to higher education. These statistics, which were contained in a new report from the Pew Center on the States, point to a terrible waste of money and lives. They underscore the urgent challenge facing the federal government and cash-strapped states to reduce their overreliance on incarceration without sacrificing public safety. Some believe that we, as America, can reduce crime by telling the difference between dangerous repeat offenders, and those who need close community supervision. Low risk offenders shouldn’t be in and out of prison, due to the fact that a lot of our tax money is wasted on prisoners. It only makes America use money on useless purposes.

In 2007, there were more than 7.3 million people on probation, in jail/prison, or on parole at the year’s end. That’s 3.2% of all U.S adult residents or 1 in every 31 adults. Local jails held 780,581 people awaiting trial or awaiting sentencing during the end of 2007 alone. The growth rate of incarceration is growing at a slower rate than it was in the 1980’s through the 1990’s. Jail is not a place that anyone would want to go. Americans spend more tax money on inmates than we do on higher education, and that’s saying a lot. Something needs to be done about this.

Statistics show that 22% of American prisoners have been raped while incarcerated. People believe that the main reason this occurs is because of racial differences, age, size, and payback. Someone could possibly be forced into a relationship with another inmate simply because they owe a debt. That debt is usually paid off by sexual services. Many inmates are raped just because the rapist may be a racist and wants to attack the other race victim, often called “interracial rape”. Many young people are victims of rape. The average age of victims ranges from 18 to 34 years of age. This normally occurs because rapists view younger people differently from older inmates. Size plays a big part in this scenario as well. Usually the rapist is bigger than the victim. The rapist wants to establish power and dominance over their victim(s). Nevertheless, the statistics show that more than 1,000,000 male inmates were raped in prison since 1980.

Some rapes are proven to be consensual. People agree on these terms due to a debt or for personal protection from multiple rapists. The rapist is usually considered straight (heterosexual, a man, etc.), while the victim is called many terms (woman, punk, bitch, etc.). Sex in prison is a major problem in America today. Prisoners are 10 times more likely to catch a deadly disease due to rape (HIV, AIDs, Hepatitis, Tuberculosis, etc.).

Majority of rape victims in prison are white. Studies show that 59% of rape victims in prison are white. Prison rape leads to racial tension and increase in crime rate. It also depends on what type of environment you come from. If you’re a muscular white male, come from a lower class with gang affiliation, you are less likely to be raped. If you are a middle class white male, small in size, and young, your chances of being rape are extremely high.

In 2003, Congress passed the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003, Public Law 108-79, now codified 45 U.S.C. 15601 to 15609. 2,100,146 people were incarcerated in the United States during the year 2001, according to Congress findings. Additional Congress findings include: (information from Wikipedia.com)

• · Insufficient research has been conducted and insufficient data reported on the extent of prison rape. Experts have estimated that the percentage of rape has increased by 9% since 2003 (which was 13%). The prison rape percentage has risen to 22%. Many inmates have suffered repeated assaults. Congress believes that approximately 200,000 prisoners have been or will be victims of a sexual assault.
• · Inmates with some sort of mental illness are most likely to be raped. American jails hold more mentally ill individuals than all of the nation’s psychiatric hospitals combined. As many as 16% of inmates in State prisons and jails, and 7% of federal inmates, suffer from mental illness.
• · Young first-time offenders are at increased risk of sexual victimization. Juveniles are 5 times more likely to be raped in adult rather than juvenile facilities. It often happens within the first 48 hours of incarceration
• · Most prison staff isn’t trained to prevent, report, or treat sexually assaulted inmates.
• · Prison rape most likely doesn’t get reported. Some inmates receive no treatment at all after being penetrated (physical or psychological).
• · HIV and AIDS are major problems in the American prison systems. It’s probably the biggest issue ever to hit the American correctional facilities. In the year 2000, 25,088 inmates in Federal and State prisons contracted the HIV/AIDS virus. 6 percent of deaths in U.S prisons in the year 2000 were due to HIV/AIDS.
• · Victims of prison rape are more likely to be dangerous to the public, because they are more likely to be traumatized by prison rape leading to violent outbursts to those around them. They are more likely to commit crimes after they are released.
• · Victims of prison rape suffer severe physical and psychological effects that cause them to have troubles in the community and maintaining stable employment upon their release from prison. They are most likely to become homeless and/or need government assistance.
• · Some victims are repeatedly assaulted on a day to day basis, and there is no form of protection or justice at all.

The hardcore facts about prison rape speak for itself. There have been more men raped in prison than every reported rape of a female on the outside. That's saying a lot. The chances of a man getting raped in prison are three times more likely to happen then a woman getting raped on the outside.

There haven't been many public stories of someone's terrifying story. The following information comes from a boy that was raped in prison repeatedly for over a year.

(www.Vachss.com)

1.      13 year old Tavares was raped repeatedly for more than a year. He never emotionally recovered from that abuse. Instead of recovering, he began to lash out. He stole a bike, and took his parents car for a joyride. The police tried to stop the young teen, but he fled from them. He was eventually caught, and officials took him from his home in February and placed him in a Brevard County youth detention center. That Thursday, state officials acknowledged an emergency hearing that the teen had been raped twice at the center in the middle of April. His parents hired a lawyer to get him away from the other teen that raped him, after officials left him living with one of his attackers. The attacker continued to taunt him and make threats to Tavares weeks afterward. Tavares claimed that his 62 year old neighbor showed him pornography and molested him. The old man was never charged for those crimes, even with the added testomonies of the other kids in the neighborhood.

2.      A 20 year old man who admitted to raping his cellmate 7 years ago in a juvenile facility is charged with raping his cellmate in the Jefferson County Jail and had an investigation back in 2002. This man was charged with 23 counts of sexual assault and one count of extortion for raping his 19 year old cellmate at the Jefferson County Jail. The assaults allegedly happened Jan. 3 evening to the morning of Jan. 4. The rape was said to have happened again hours before another inmate told deputies that Westbrook tried to rape him when they were cellmates. The victim was arrested for a probation violation in a drunken driving case, and put in a cell with the rapist Westbrook. The victim claims that Westbrook threatened his life and anally penetrated him several times that night.Westbrook was returned to Denver County Jail, and then moved to the Denver Regional Diagnostic Center, the first step for inmates headed to prison. There, on April 3^rd, Westbrook’s cellmate said Westbrook threatened and raped him. State Department of Corrections spokeswoman Alison Morgan said the center was told little of Westbrook’s history.

The only sure way to prevent being a male rape victim while incarcerated is to not be arrested. While that may sound easy, being arrested is hard to avoid for some people. It seems as if there is always some pathetic attempt to throw someone in jail. But no matter, keep doing well and try to stay out of trouble.