Patricia Nell Warren's Personal Page  

I believe you will find the  circumstances which led to Patricia sending this email interesting. 

I am a subscriber to the Exodus General Private list which Gene Chase owns.  On December 16, 1997  Gene started a thread on prison rape.  I jumped in by quoting info about prison rape that is in Patricia Nell Warren's article,  Choice and Sexual Orientation: The Sword that Cuts Two Ways.  

This led to a question from another member of the list which I forwarded to Patricia. This is her reply, which I forwarded to the Exodus list. 

Choice in Sexual Orientation: The Sword that Cuts Both Ways (re the APA resolution) 
 
The Holidays: Ceremony for Everyone 
  

The 
Right to be Spiritual 
 
 

"And Liberty for All"  in  the South 
 
 
More editorials from PNW 
 

Wildcat Press Online Order For

Anybody who wants data on prison rape can find Stop Prisoner Rape's site at http://www.igc.apc.org/spr/. They can be in touch with the organization, who will be happy to supply figures, I'm sure. This is not a problem whose existence is arguable, although prison authorities have done their best to cover it up. I grew up in a prison town (Montana state penitentiary, which was one of the worst in the country) so I have sharp feelings about this. The problem probably existed always, but it seems to have spiked from the time when our prisons got hugely overcrowded, and it exists in juvenile detention as well as adult prisons. 

As far as I know, there are no "safe" prisons -- the problem is pretty general, and tends to focus on young prisoners, who are regarded as "new meat." Some prisons are known to be worse (more violent) than others. Openly gay prisoners, crossdressers, etc. are often kept in a special "gay tank" because of the targeted sexual violence directed at them. 

The vast majority of prison rapes are committed by straight men. Sex is as much a power thing as a means of sexual gratification, and the different ethnic groups, especially, are into raping each other to show their power and maintain control. The Aryan Brotherhood love to rape men of color to show their superiority, and on down the line. The film "American Me" endeavoured to portray this problem as part of its story about a Mexican Mafia chief...which was the main reason why the "Eme" got mad at Edward Olmos and took out a contract on him. The "Eme" considered that their manhood had been dissed by the film's open portrayal of prison sexual violence. 

The existence of this problem really ought to make Americans think about what this country does to its men to make them so power-mad, crazy and violent in this way, and why we go on pretending that it doesn't exist. Here is fertile ground for the PK, if only they would get more honest!! Conservatives go on talking about prisons as "country clubs with TV and educational opportunities" and most of them simply refuse to admit what hellholes our prisons really are. I always just about vomit when I see TV evangelists posturing about their wonderful "prison ministries" and never talking openly about the rape problem. 

Prison rape is also a major factor in the spread of AIDS. A straight man who is raped and seroconverts in prison will then leave and take the infection home to his wife, girlfriends, possibly his children, etc. This fact ought to be obvious to anybody who thinks about it. Probably more sex goes on prison than in the gay community, and probably way more HIV is spread in prison than in the gay community. But of course few people want to be honest about this... most want to go on blaming the gay community and barebacking for the rate in HIV infection. Prison authorities are belatedly beginning to try to isolate HIV+s and to test prisoners, but my impression is that the problem is really out of hand. 

The question of mandatory HIV reporting is coming up more and more, and more states are passing laws requiring the health status of citizens to be reported. More states are criminalizing sex by individuals who know they are positive. But what is the moral and legal responsibility of the states and federal government for the huge HIV infection rate going on right in their own penal institutions? Aren't the state and federal government willing accomplices in "attempted murder" for refusing to put a stop to this problem immediately, once and for all??? Indeed, there are already cases heading through the courts, in which men who were raped and infected in prison are demanding accountability from the penal system. These cases haven't gotten much publicity, because the media mostly think it's too nasty to talk about. 

The only solution would be to keep each prisoner in solitary...and this was the original model of the "penitentiary" as developed in Pennsylvia in early days. I guess the founding fathers were smarter than we are...more interested in real rehabilitation, less greedy and determined to simply warehouse large numbers of prisoners as we are doing now. 

I could go on and on...but best that interested people do their own research and talk to SPR. They will find plenty of data if they look. 

Oh...and SPR was one of the plaintiffs in the CDA censorship case, because their site -- with its letters from prisoners talking frankly about the problem -- might have been deemed "indecent" under the law. 

Patricia Nell Warren Wildcat Press