Retired-6
03-20-2003, 11:25 PM
It has been long standing that the Eighth Amendment provides offenders with certain constitutional rights. Along with the right to receive proper medical care and be free of excessive force. Offenders also have the right to be secure in their physical safety... Though the Courts have not always agreed upon what constitutes a DOC's responsibility to secure the physicial safety of offenders.
In the late 90's I was informed that the MoDOC was going to institute a "safe sex" course for offenders and along with this, pass out condoms. This information was given to me by an employee of mine who was and remains to be a caseworker in the St. Joesph, Missouri Dianostic Center. When I thought about it, it was not easy to take a stand on only one side. For while we must certainly be mindful that sex does exist inside prisons and the likelihood that STD's will rise. We must also remember that with the utilization of condoms, critical evidence [DNA] can be suddenly eliminated. Now, I do not know if the course finely came to bear, or if it was scrubbed. What I do know however is that every offender, regardless of their age, gender, sexuality or status has the inherent, sole and exclusive right to be free of not only being rapped, but also in living in fear of being raped.
With the Prison Rape Reduction Act of 2003, a new door is being opened. A door that not only takes a first-ever Federal stand on prison rapes on a national level, but also in forcing responsibility upon the DOC's to take a strong and visible stand on protecting offenders and having to report incidences of rape to the Federal Government for tracking purposes. That can assist the U.S.DOJ in taking appropriate actions against a DOC that fails to properly protect offenders by instituting proper and certainly necessiary safeguards and tracking systems. Moreover, with this act, a new door is also opened that will afford offenders the opportunity to petition the Courts and hold indifferent penal staff lawfully accountable for the rapes they choose to knowingly ignore, by virtue of the Eighth Amendment and Title 42 U.S.C., Section 1983. It is a milestone in Constitutional rights of offenders, yet, one long since forgotten.
There are lifelong emotional traumas that can exist for a person who has been rapped and fears that can become burried deep inside. For offenders it is certainly no less the same; perhaps even more so in respect to their having to live with their rappist(s) day after day after day for years on end. Transfers are not always possible; and many penal staff simply do not care to-wit: leaves the offender open to the probability of being rapped repeatedly. In the end, transcending the physicial rape unto itself and prescribing to intense psychologial torture as well. And though not widely spoken about in our society, male rapes, even those outside of prison exist and carry with it grave psychological traums that can sometimes, if not many times, lead a man down the suicide path. Because they absorb the incorrect belief that they are suddenly no longer a "man". And offenders are certainly not immune to these psychologial traums or their lifelong harmful effects.
Chris
In the late 90's I was informed that the MoDOC was going to institute a "safe sex" course for offenders and along with this, pass out condoms. This information was given to me by an employee of mine who was and remains to be a caseworker in the St. Joesph, Missouri Dianostic Center. When I thought about it, it was not easy to take a stand on only one side. For while we must certainly be mindful that sex does exist inside prisons and the likelihood that STD's will rise. We must also remember that with the utilization of condoms, critical evidence [DNA] can be suddenly eliminated. Now, I do not know if the course finely came to bear, or if it was scrubbed. What I do know however is that every offender, regardless of their age, gender, sexuality or status has the inherent, sole and exclusive right to be free of not only being rapped, but also in living in fear of being raped.
With the Prison Rape Reduction Act of 2003, a new door is being opened. A door that not only takes a first-ever Federal stand on prison rapes on a national level, but also in forcing responsibility upon the DOC's to take a strong and visible stand on protecting offenders and having to report incidences of rape to the Federal Government for tracking purposes. That can assist the U.S.DOJ in taking appropriate actions against a DOC that fails to properly protect offenders by instituting proper and certainly necessiary safeguards and tracking systems. Moreover, with this act, a new door is also opened that will afford offenders the opportunity to petition the Courts and hold indifferent penal staff lawfully accountable for the rapes they choose to knowingly ignore, by virtue of the Eighth Amendment and Title 42 U.S.C., Section 1983. It is a milestone in Constitutional rights of offenders, yet, one long since forgotten.
There are lifelong emotional traumas that can exist for a person who has been rapped and fears that can become burried deep inside. For offenders it is certainly no less the same; perhaps even more so in respect to their having to live with their rappist(s) day after day after day for years on end. Transfers are not always possible; and many penal staff simply do not care to-wit: leaves the offender open to the probability of being rapped repeatedly. In the end, transcending the physicial rape unto itself and prescribing to intense psychologial torture as well. And though not widely spoken about in our society, male rapes, even those outside of prison exist and carry with it grave psychological traums that can sometimes, if not many times, lead a man down the suicide path. Because they absorb the incorrect belief that they are suddenly no longer a "man". And offenders are certainly not immune to these psychologial traums or their lifelong harmful effects.
Chris