I had a friend(gang member been to jail before kind of friend) tell me once “Going to jail is like going to Camp Snoopy”. Camp Snoopy being the kid friendly section of Knotts Berry Farm, a local amusement park. His way of saying it’s almost a vacation.
He explained that if he was to go to jail there’d be fellow gang members already there and he’d have friends backing him up from the start. He might even have a family member or two in there as icing on the cake. He said it would be just like hanging around with his buddies out of jail, except for the crowded conditions and lousy food.
One other trick he told me: When he got booked he tried to get a partial erection, just enough to “make it look bigger”. No one wants to look small as they get strip searched in front of the other inmates. Needless to say he stressed that it was important you don’t over do it since you don’t want the other inmates to think you LIKE having the guard insert a probing finger in…well, enough said.
What I notice online and in real life is that only people who have never gone in and who aren’t from that lifestyle(doing stuff that occasionally results in arrest) are afraid of jail or prison. OR people who don’t have the type of connections that would help them inside.
I think that was the point of that guy’s pamphlet, if you think rape is in your future this is what you need to do. I don’t think he was saying you are gonna get raped.
Whatever I’m going to find, you’re just going to go “Uhoh, that’s just an article saying…” or “uh oh, that’s just a paper saying…” so why bother.
Your very limited outlook of “Everywhere must be like here” speaks volumes and I’m not going to bother prove the non-existence of something.
Let me just end by saying that every page on the issue I found in the search where that Economists article showed up was talking about how prison rape was a problem unique to the US, Third World countries and dictatorships (where it was more used as a weapon by the system). The few mentions of Europe were offhanded remarks like “where’s it’s nowhere near as widespread”.
But the fact that a Google Search of the term brings up page after page and organisation after organisations discussing the issue as it relates to American prisons doesn’t prove that it’s not a problem here, but what does?
To me the fact that Human Rights Watch has a lot to say on the issue regarding the US, but nothing about Europe says a lot.
But to you it probably just means that they’re anti-American or that we have the problem but our crappy media and human rights organisations are just to inept to discover it… or something.
But I actually did try searching even though proving the absence of something isn’t easy, and I simply can’t find any comparative statistics. I think it’s because there’s nothing to compare, but you probably think it’s because your system is just so much better at reporting abuse.
Of course the high number of prison rapes in the US is also connected to your sky high incarceration numbers. Another issue where you guys are competing and winning over third world countries and dictatorships. And of course the fact that you chuck non-violent offenders in with the worst of the worst, something that also isn’t an issue here (and no, I’m not going to prove that to you either). The numbers are out there if you care to educate yourself about the system you’re part of.
tl;dr-version:
Whatever. Your prison system is nothing out of the ordinary.
Edit:
Here’s a paper from theBritish journal of criminologycomparing the two countries and talking of “American Exceptionalism” and the extraordinary high number of prison rapes in the US. And Britain doesn’t have the nicest prisons in Europe. Some of the reasons suggested in the paper (which I haven’t fully read yet) is the US being a more violent society and your harsher views on punishment. European prison systems are largely based on the notion of rehabilitating the prisoners, and having them leave prison as broken humans isn’t really an effective way to that goal…
I think it’s more likely that it just doesn’t apply if you’re already a member of a gang with a strong presence there, just like it doesn’t apply if you’re a big muscleman badass who’s going to be doing the raping. But FWIW, the pamphlet does specify that, while a lot of it applies to a wider population, it is primarily targeted at prisoners who are already rape survivors.
Unfortunately, the UK really doesn’t belong in that group. While certainly not as prevalent as in America, there is usually little-to-no investigation of the scores of incidents reported each year. And that’s only the reported ones.
Low-level violence in UK jails IS very prevalent, on the other hand.
I just looked up a bachelor’s thesis on prison culture written by a multiple-year inmate in Sweden, and though there was a section on threats and violence, rape was not mentioned a single time in the entire paper (except when mentioning who’s a low-status prisoner). Of course, it’s an issue that an inmate might not be likely to mention.
Ok…and no exaggeration here, some of the shots Hans posted are nicer than my dorms in college. I mean, sure, there’s the whole incarcerated against your will aspect. But still.
Although, our cafeteria supposedly also served lower grade meat than prisons do.
That big room isn’t a cell but a, like it says, a visiting apartment where a prisoner’s family can stay if they’re visiting someone incarcerated a long way from his home.
Meanwhile, the UK government shuts down facilities like Latchmere House and Brockhill, putting the prisoners there back into the general prisoner population, costing charities tens of millions and halting highly effective rehabilitation schemes, including cutting short courses those prisoners were taking and putting them back into 20-22 hour a day lockups in old, dangerous prisons… because the land those facilities are on can be sold.
(Going direct from a “hard” jail to release is a major cause of re-offending, difficulty adjusting…)
That yard does look a bit dimly-lit and oppressive by the standards of the open yard I’ve always seen American prisons have on TV. Which, of course, is authoritative.
Also, those cell doors are solid? No ventilation through them? That could suck a bit, at least bars let the air through and give you a sense of slightly more open space.
