When I was around 12 years old my friend’s dad took us to watch this movie called, American Me. The storyline was centered around Latino gangs and prison life. The scenes of stabbings in prison were horrifying but the worst were the rape scenes. I had no idea that sort of thing went on.
After researching the topic on the internet a couple days ago I’m even more horrified by the written accounts of American prisoners. I was going to paste an excerpt just now but decided against it. The stories include the worst that humanity has to offer, possibly even worse than any third world country has to offer.
Aside from the heinous sexual acts that occur, maybe the worst part is that the victims have no way out. Telling the teacher on your perpetrators is ineffective at best and likely disastrous. The guards are in on it and are often the sexual abusers themselves. Damage control can be the only recourse. One can commit to be another man’s “wife” to prevent victimization from multiple men or decide to commit suicide. This could be your life every day for many years. The closer you are to being young, white, small and feminine the more likely you are to be a victim.
I suspect that some or many prison rapists were closeted homosexuals or bisexuals. I’m not totally buying the whole domination theory as the pure motive since they would still need to get sexually aroused. Perhaps if some guys don’t get sex from a woman for a very long time they go crazy.
If I had to guess why prison rape is not as prevalent in Canadian prisons, one reason would be the length of sentences. You almost have to be a convicted serial killer to spend the rest of your life behind bars here. People get convicted for murder in Canada and can be out in less than 10 years. When you’re spending the rest of your life in prison you have nothing to lose. If you have enough of these guys in one place then you’re going to have a hell circus. There’s also the issue of gangs and racism in America that seems to be unparalleled to any other developed country. The powers that be allow this rape victimization to continue because they’ve decided it’s the best/easiest way to manage this prison society.
As I lay in my Euro top bed in the free world I’m thankful that my hairless chest on my small framed body is situated above the 49th parallel.