Click on the picture to learn more about prison rape and how to help stop it.

PRISON RAPE

by Deborah Kendrick

According to empirical studies, the incidence of prison rape is much more prevalent with female prisoners than males.

Females are disproportionately victimized by inmates in state and federal prisons and local jails. Females represent 7% of sentenced prison inmates but accounted for 21% of all victimization in federal and state prisons. Similarly, females account for 13% of inmates in local jails but 32% of all victims” (Bureau of Justice )

KEEP THIS IN MIND: WHILE THESE STATS SAY THAT WOMEN ARE MORE LIKELY TO BE VIOLATED, MALE PRISONERS GROSSLY UNDER-REPORT DUE TO FEELINGS OF SHAME AND FE AR OF RECRIMINATION. PRISON INMATE S THAT “SNITCH” DO SO IN PERIL FOR THE IR LIVES. THIS IS NOT AN EXAGGERATION.

And also keep in mind that most states consider a young person of 17 years old an adult and incarcerate them in adult facilities without any special protection.  As for minors/juveniles – the incidence of prison rape is enormous! “Fight, fuck or pay protection” is the age-old advice given male inmates faced with rape and sexual coercion in U.S. prisons. With a prison and jail population now over 2 million it is conservatively estimated that over 300,000 males are sexually abused each year in U.S. prisons, compared to an estimated 135,000 female sexual assaults occurring annually in t he U.S. (from “Sexual Assault in Prison, the Numbers are Far From Funny” published in Touches to ne Vole IX, No 5, Nov/Dec 1999).

Just Detention International (formerly known as Stop Prisoner Rape, Inc.) estimate that young men are five times more likely to be attacked and that the prison rape victims are ten times more likely to contract a deadly disease. A meta-analysis published in 2004 found a prevalence rate of 1.91% with a 95% confidence interval between 1.37–2.46%. In a survey of 1,788 male inmates in Midwestern U.S. prisons by Prison Journal, about 21% claimed they had been coerced or pressured into sexual activity during their incarceration, and 7% claimed that they had been raped in their current facility.

We’ve all heard variations on the prison rape joke… “Don’t bend over in the shower to get the soap” “Better wear soap on a rope.” And, believe it or not, there actually exists a board game called “Don’t Drop t he Soap “in which players are tasked with fighting their way through a prison. The misconception being that whoever winds up in jail or prison deserves whatever they get, even if that means gang rape resulting in anal lacerations requiring surgery. What a laugh fest this makes, huh? Another ignorant misconception is that only gay or wimpy guys get raped in prison, when in reality, the majority are heterosexual and of average “masculinity”.