Rape in Prison

Dostoyevski said “The degree of civilization in a sociey can be judged by entering its prisons”.

In a couple of more months we will enter the year 2000. Everyone is expecting or hoping for some kind of change in universal awareness. What I hope to change is society’s ignorance concering rape inside of prisons.

This type of rape is largely unknown or overlooked by thr general public. Most government, state and prison officials that are in authority to do something about it either approach it with a lack of emotional responce, or ignore it in hopes that it will go away, therefore leaving the problem unsolved. It then continues and increases and becomes more (rigid.) (entrenched?)

The exact number of rapes in the prison system is unknown due to most not being reported because of great fear of retaliation. The number is believed to be very high.

Rapes are done by other prisoners as well as the guards hired to watch over the prisoners. It is accomplished by use of physical force, verbal threats or promises of rewards. Threats and rewards that would br viewed as petty or taken for granted (not taken seriously?) by those in the free world.

Prisoners have been arrested, tried, convicted and sentenced for a crime that was committed, then sent to prison as punishment. Not sent to prison to become another victim in the world. Even though some people may think that the prisoner deserves whar s/he gets. As Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”.

A group of French women made a statement against rape at the International Tribunal on Crimes Against Women in 1976, “Legally, rape is recognized as a crime with physical aspects only; namely the penetration of the vagina by the penis against the will of the victim. In effect, however, the real crime is the annihilation