It's so easy to joke about prison rape. It's so easy to say "HIV infection? Well, that's what you get for... kiting that third check?" It's so easy to imagine that (thanks to Rule #1 and the dominant women as the no-sex class paradigm, when "safely" imprisoned with other women and with predominantly female prison staff that rape is the last thing women prisoners need worry about.
Through their Send a Holiday Message to an Incarcerated Survivor of Prison Rape campaign you can send a 250 character message to a survivor through Just Detention International. You won't know them, and they won't know you, but writing the note, knowing it's for a real human being who's survived sexual assault in prison makes the issue vivid, direct, and real in a way that just thinking about it, or even donating, doesn't. Think about it.
I've just found your blog
Submitted by Dame (not verified) on Mon, 2011-12-19 22:25.I've just found your blog through people copying your post here onto Tumblr, and I must say I love it. I'm avidly interested in sexology - and of course the Big Three fields it sticks its fingers in (Biology, Psychology, and Sociology) - and I am also avidly interested in gender and gender politics. I've read through many of your posts and everything you say mirrors what I think as well, and you also bring up points I didn't think of, know of, or couldn't articulate for myself. In conclusion, your blog is amazing, I'll try my best to keep coming back.
I give literally no fucks for
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 2011-12-20 15:12.I give literally no fucks for what happens to people in prison. You are in prison. It’s supposed to be a hell-hole. Do I feel that non-violent offenders should get the sentences that they do and be put with violent offenders? No I don’t. Do I give a fuck if you murder/rape/hurt someone then have to take it up the ass by a big burly man for the rest of your life? No. No I do fucking not.
Is it supposed to be a
Submitted by Tom (not verified) on Tue, 2011-12-20 16:19.Is it supposed to be a hell-hole? Look at the origin of the word "penitentiary." Look at the history of imprisonment. Confinement wasn't always meant to be a punishment in its own right, at least not the way it is now. Why should confinement itself, and the limitations on other freedoms, erase a human's right to protection from rape, abuse, or murder? If prison rape is fine, then why not all forms of vigilante justice?
The fact that the threat of rape is such an integral part of our criminal justice system that it's commonly acknowledged and even joked about is an indication of a diseased society. Rape is wrong when it happens outside a prison, but right when it happens inside one? Murder is acceptable under certain conditions? If you allow yourself to believe those things, the moral difference between you and the people committing the crimes shrinks to a line so thin that it can be stepped over at whim.
Riiiight. Because anybody
Submitted by figleaf on Wed, 2011-12-21 00:05.Riiiight. Because anybody who does 16 months for real-estate fraud jail time for practicing taxidermy without a license(!!!) deserves a nice, violently-contracted case of HIV. Good call staying anonymous. Also? If you're so fucking "tough on crime" then why condone, let alone reward, the "big burly man" who goes around *putting* it "up the ass" of your fantasy evildoers? I mean, seriously, prison rape isn't a perpetrator-less crime, right? So if you were really blood and guts you'd *oppose* prison rape. Just sayin', A. --fl
They are still human
Submitted by Harriet (not verified) on Wed, 2011-12-21 01:14.They are still human beings. Wishing bad things upon other human beings is never justified, no matter what they have done.
A system that works on reforming criminals is always going to lead to a better society than one that punishes and demonises them:
Once you realise that the system isn't there to protect *you*, you have a lot less to lose by sticking to the system's laws.
Um... you do realize this
Submitted by Anonymous2 (not verified) on Wed, 2011-12-21 11:14.Um... you do realize this REWARDS a lot of actual rapists, right? go to prison and you get to rape other prisoners with impunity? Not to mention that lots of prison rape cases involve juvenile victims, or women being raped by their guards.
I'm sorry but how ignorant.
Submitted by Shayna Rain (not verified) on Thu, 2011-12-22 11:30.I'm sorry but how ignorant. How ignorant to think that everyone in jail deserves to be in there for as long as they are, and say you don't feel they should get the sentences that they have recieved for their non violent crimes? Over 80% of people in prison are in for non violent crimes. And if you are the type of person who is for "an eye for an eye" the only people in your eyes who should be getting raped are the ones who did it to others, and majority of those people who are being raped in prison have not done it, and don't deserve it. You don't know their story, you don't know if they are completely innocent and in prison. It's so ignorant to judge someone because they are in jail. Research a bit before you start embarrassing yourself over the internet. Just some future advice.
I think it's vile that people
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 2011-12-29 14:43.I think it's vile that people think rape is acceptable because it happens in a certain place. I was raped, and even so I wouldn't condone the same thing happening to my rapist. He ruined my life and I genuinely believe that he is about as "bad" as a human being can possibly be. But the point is that we are all human beings, and as such we should have basic human rights. The breach of these human rights id a trajedy no matter what the situation.
Hi Figleaf! I don't know if
Submitted by Miriam Mogilevsky (not verified) on Tue, 2012-01-03 13:19.Hi Figleaf!
I don't know if I'm the only person who posted this to Tumblr straight off your blog, but my post literally got thousands of likes/reblogs, so that probably helped drive a lot of the traffic. :)
-Miriam
Ah-ha! So you're the one!
Submitted by figleaf on Tue, 2012-01-03 17:15.Ah-ha! So you're the one! :-) Actually it looks like your post has ~9,000 notes so yeah, you had an impact! Thanks, Miriam! --fl