rape in prisons shouldn't happen, rape outside of prisons shouldn't happen, etc. i'm not opposed to anyone championing this as their cause, i just think things like there are other things to talk about reforming first (i.e. mandatory minimum sentencing for non-violent criminals)
― bell labs (bell_labs), Wednesday, 14 February 2007 17:31 (seventeen years ago) link
Back to runningthe world:
ALSO, forget about the "problem" of gays inthe military. THE MILITARY SHOULD BE ALL DRAG QUEENS.I also have a really great idea about power plants that would be run by stationary-bicycles, pedaled by addicts. To get a dose of their drug/drink of choice, they need only pedal. They would live there. It would be a comfy place. THERE!!!! TERRIBLE PROBLEM OF ADDICTION SOLVEDALSO TERRIBLE PROBLEM OF FOREIGN OIL, NUKE PLANTS, ETC ETC.
This is how I pass my insomniac hours.
― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Wednesday, 14 February 2007 17:33 (seventeen years ago) link
― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Wednesday, 14 February 2007 17:34 (seventeen years ago) link
I don't think it has to be an either/or situation. Those things all go together.
― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Wednesday, 14 February 2007 17:47 (seventeen years ago) link
ILE can still sometimes surprise you.
― It's Teatime in Buttercup Land (Maaarghk C), Wednesday, 14 February 2007 18:08 (seventeen years ago) link
OTM.
And weird. I've been saying this - in more-or-less exactly those words - for years. The whole problem with cops & copping is that the attraction-points for the job (unquestioned authority, ability to cause fear in others, gun carrying, supertuff macho/hetero image, permission to use threats & even violence) pretty much guarantee that most people who will want the job shouldn't be allowed anywhere near it.
But as true as that might seem, it's too simplistic. Law enforment officers sometimes need to to communicate threat (a willingness to do real harm) in order to overcome the belligerence of others without actually resorting to violence. And unfortunately, the best way to communicate threat is to be legitimately threatening - i.e., cops have to mean it when they get tough. Therefore, there's a legitimate need for a "thuggish" tendency in certain police officers. Catch-22.
How do you balance the need for genuinely threatening cops (as a violence deterrent) with the simple fact that most genuinely threatening people can't be trusted to montitor and control their own behavior?
― as in 'powdered feet' (pye poudre), Wednesday, 14 February 2007 18:41 (seventeen years ago) link
That doesn't even begin to speak to the mentally unwell or mentally incompetent. Yes, having a system of asylums tended toward the "One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest" complex, but many people who would have been there are now either medicated, in jail, or on the street. If you don't have money or the right background, one of the latter two. Finding someone mentally incompetent is seen as letting them off easy, which is ridiculous since being sent to a mental health facility tends on average to result in longer stays than most jail sentences, and it's a form of rehabilitation.
So encapsulating it with "prison rape is bad, huh" and drawing attention by highlighting the anal rape accounts diverts from the real issue -- prisons aren't making anything better, they're just getting more full and destroying lives. Sometimes through inmate-on-inmate violence, sometimes just because it's the wrong place to send people.
― mh (mike h.), Wednesday, 14 February 2007 19:01 (seventeen years ago) link
― the kwisatz bacharach (sanskrit), Wednesday, 14 February 2007 19:58 (seventeen years ago) link
― iiiijjjj (iiiijjjj), Wednesday, 14 February 2007 21:30 (seventeen years ago) link
― iiiijjjj (iiiijjjj), Wednesday, 14 February 2007 21:31 (seventeen years ago) link
― the kwisatz bacharach (sanskrit), Wednesday, 14 February 2007 21:32 (seventeen years ago) link
― iiiijjjj (iiiijjjj), Wednesday, 14 February 2007 21:36 (seventeen years ago) link
― the kwisatz bacharach (sanskrit), Wednesday, 14 February 2007 21:43 (seventeen years ago) link
― dan selzer (dan selzer), Wednesday, 14 February 2007 21:48 (seventeen years ago) link
― iiiijjjj (iiiijjjj), Wednesday, 14 February 2007 21:52 (seventeen years ago) link
― Mr. Que (Party with me Punker), Wednesday, 14 February 2007 21:54 (seventeen years ago) link
― dan selzer (dan selzer), Wednesday, 14 February 2007 21:57 (seventeen years ago) link
― iiiijjjj (iiiijjjj), Wednesday, 14 February 2007 22:01 (seventeen years ago) link
― Dethrone the dictaphone, hit it in it's funny bone (kenan), Wednesday, 14 February 2007 22:04 (seventeen years ago) link
― PPlains (PPlains), Wednesday, 14 February 2007 22:08 (seventeen years ago) link
― iiiijjjj (iiiijjjj), Wednesday, 14 February 2007 22:08 (seventeen years ago) link
― Laurel (Laurel), Wednesday, 14 February 2007 22:09 (seventeen years ago) link
― Dethrone the dictaphone, hit it in it's funny bone (kenan), Wednesday, 14 February 2007 22:10 (seventeen years ago) link
― amon (amon), Wednesday, 14 February 2007 22:13 (seventeen years ago) link
(I thieved from you ;___;)
― PPlains (PPlains), Wednesday, 14 February 2007 22:18 (seventeen years ago) link
― iiiijjjj (iiiijjjj), Wednesday, 14 February 2007 22:19 (seventeen years ago) link
― coz larry (bundgee), Wednesday, 14 February 2007 22:26 (seventeen years ago) link
― jw (ex machina), Wednesday, 14 February 2007 22:29 (seventeen years ago) link
― PPlains (PPlains), Wednesday, 14 February 2007 22:40 (seventeen years ago) link
― amon (amon), Wednesday, 14 February 2007 22:56 (seventeen years ago) link
― jw (ex machina), Wednesday, 14 February 2007 22:57 (seventeen years ago) link
― Eric H. (Eric H.), Thursday, 15 February 2007 01:49 (seventeen years ago) link
-- bell labs (lindsay...), February 14th, 2007. (bell_labs)
maybe you and i are talking about different things, but the supreme court just recently deemed unconstitutional the mandatory sentencing guidelines. it happened about 6 months before my date. had it not, i was pretty much surely destined for prison. i don't want to make this thread about me, but damn, that fact still astounds me.
― hm (modestmickey), Thursday, 15 February 2007 03:56 (seventeen years ago) link
― a bulldog fed a cookie shaped like a kitten (austin), Thursday, 15 February 2007 04:20 (seventeen years ago) link
a proposed bill in washington state to basically test for HIV in prisons.
here's some wa state conservative blog that is outraged by these "felon friendly" bills by democrats:http://soundpolitics.com/archives/007997.html
― hm (modestmickey), Thursday, 15 February 2007 04:32 (seventeen years ago) link
― hm (modestmickey), Thursday, 15 February 2007 04:34 (seventeen years ago) link
November 14, 2006 TuesdayFourth Edition
SECTION: ROP ZONE; News; Pg. A1
LENGTH: 1390 words
HEADLINE: Rare criminal trial focuses attention on "huge problem" of prison rape
BYLINE: Jennifer Sullivan, Seattle Times staff reporter
BODY:
Tremayne Francis is a cellmate's worst nightmare.
Convicted in 1998 of raping two young men while working as a martial-arts instructor in Pierce County, Francis was sent to prison for nine years. But even behind the razor wire, Francis used extortion and violence to force fellow inmates to have sex with him and raped two men new to prison, according to prison records.
When confronted by prison staff, Francis, 34, claimed he had a multiple-personality disorder and denied the rapes, claiming the sex was consensual, records show. Though found guilty of both rapes in prison hearings, the worst punishment he endured was solitary confinement and victim-awareness classes each time ending up back in the general prison population.
But Francis is facing a criminal trial this week in Snohomish County Superior Court for the 2005 rape of an inmate at the Monroe Correctional Complex, the first such prosecution since the state enacted a new federal policy aimed at reducing prison rape. Because of how unusual it is for prison rapes to become the focus of a criminal prosecution, the case has drawn the attention of the state Department of Corrections, as well as prosecutors and inmate-rights groups nationwide.
"We've never had a prisoner-on-prisoner sexual assault prosecuted in this county before. It just doesn't happen very often," said Matt Baldock, the Snohomish County deputy prosecutor who will try Francis. "I have not heard from anybody who has prosecuted a case like this before."
Baldock says he faces an uphill battle in trying to win a conviction against Francis. He's certain many jurors seated before him this week will wonder why they should even care what happens to prison inmates.
― hm (modestmickey), Thursday, 15 February 2007 05:09 (seventeen years ago) link
― and what (ooo), Thursday, 15 February 2007 05:19 (seventeen years ago) link
― coz larry (bundgee), Thursday, 15 February 2007 06:16 (seventeen years ago) link