It's a pleasure to see the final report of the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission, and to utter a wish that it will not disappear into a vale of forgetfulness. One point that I don't see at first blush (though I have only skimmed it): the insight that prison in too many cases is not just the consequence of inadequate management, but rather the product of wink-and-a-nod collusion between corrupt jailers and the inmates who (inevitably) manage the inside (and anyway, the little buggers--heh!--deserved it, eh?). I don't have any doubt that eliminating prison rape is a damn tough job in what is already a damn tough job. But unless systematic violation is part of our national punishment policy, we owe it to everybody to do something about it.
Footnote: I'm delighted to see Eli Lehrer take this cause to The Corner, but I'd cavil with his afterthought. He says we need to solve the problem "even though most people in prison have done awful things." He's right as far as he goes but it might be worthwhile to reflect that the victims of prison rape are very often not the most awful of the awful. The report itself appears to recognize that among the most vulnerable are kids who have done extremely dumb things but things nothing like the horrors that are visited upon them. And a fair number of our prisoners are the cohort caught up in an insanely over-aggressive drug policy.
No comments:
Post a Comment