Graham ([info]tao_) wrote,
@ 2007-04-02 10:02:00
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Prison--not as 'rapey' as we have been led to believe.
"The only time I saw inmates acting like animals… with "acting" being the operative word…was every week on Thursday morning when some local probation officer would parade a cluster of teenagers on some diversionary "Scared Straight" program past our cell bars while muttering the same tired speech about how, c’mon kids, ya don’t want to end up like these guys. That’s when we’d put on a show, a tongue-in-cheek "Welcome to the Jungle" guerrilla theater (sic)performance fulla hootin’ and hollerin’ and rattlin’ cell bars. I’d flash the kids my best "hundred-yard stare" and Clockwork Orange grin. And none of them would ever look me in the eye. "

Link

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[info]jermynsavile
2007-04-02 10:33 am UTC (link)
"Because, despite whatever they’ve done in the past, they’ve learned one ethical lesson that no District Attorney or scared mindless taxpayer ever learned—it’s immoral to lock people up."

Looking forward to rapists not acting 'rapey' once we've followed his advice and let them all back on the streets then. Would like to believe it, as I'm hardly a 'hang 'em & flog 'em' type, but it does raise the question of how they can all be so bloody nice to each other 'inside' but such bastards to the rest of us 'outside.' Not entirely sure his judgement is something I'd trust!

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[info]mokinbot
2007-04-02 06:07 pm UTC (link)
There's a book called Newjack by Ted Conover that I recommend. It's about this reporter who tried to do an report on Sing Sing prison and was completely shut out by officials, so he decided to get a job as a prison guard for a year. He went through the training academy and everything.

Anyway, in that book he pretty much backs up what that article says about rape. Conover that most sex inside prison was consensual. I wasn't sure if I could trust his opinion since he was a new guard, thus maybe not privy to everything that goes on. It's nice to see a second source that says the same thing.

Still, all prisons are different, and rape may be more common in some places. If it is largely a myth, it's not one that people are clamoring to disprove, especially cops and other officials.

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[info]tao_
2007-04-02 06:15 pm UTC (link)
I just thought it was an interesting piece! Don't fixate on the rapey headline!

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