January 28, 2002
From the desk of Jane Galt:JOANNE JACOBS ON prison rape:
JOANNE JACOBS ON prison rape:
Of course, just because we're more democratic doesn't mean U.S. prison conditions -- specifically, the high risk of sexual assault -- are OK. We have a right to lock up criminals, and even to deny them air conditioning, but not to let them torture each other.I was thinking about John Walker Lindh's desire for four wives. The dumb cluck's probably a virgin, I thought, what with all that fanatacism about "purity." And then I thought about his likely fate in prison: He's more likely to be a wife than to have one. This is not poetic justice. It's unjust for Tali-boy and everyone else.
I agree. His crime is unspeakably filthy -- yet he does not deserve to be treated like an animal. To hell with that -- we don't even let our livestock be brutalized the way prisoners brutalize each other. While there is a certain poetic justice to allowing prisoners, who have abandonned the standards of civilized society to violently impose their will on others, to be treated thus themselves, ultimately it is unsatisfying for two reasons. The first is that with the exception of child-rapists, the worst offenders suffer the least -- it is they who torture other prisoners. And the second is that I don't think it does a society any good to treat any of its members as less than human, however egregious the cause. We cannot take responsibility for how they have treated others, but we can take responsibility for how we treat them. Let their accomodations be spartan -- fine. Work their fingers to the bone repaying their debt to society -- more than fine. But afford them the minimum dignity of order and freedom from violence unless that violence comes in direct response to violent actions of their own. Posted by Jane Galt at January 28, 2002 09:18 AM | TrackBack | Technorati inbound links