How to End Prison Rape: Fire All the Guards, and Their Bosses, and Their Lawyers

Also, you shouldn't get arrested for burglarizing someone's house if that person is really really rich and flaunting their expensive belongings and therefore asking for it.

Aviva Shen at Think Progress:

A Louisiana parish is trying to get out of paying a 14-year-old who was repeatedly raped by her prison guard, with lawyers arguing last week that the girl wanted the sex.

The guard, Angelo Vickers, is serving a 7-year sentence after pleading guilty to molestation of a juvenile. The woman, known anonymously as Mary Doe, is now an emotionally traumatized 20-year-old. Mary Doe sued the Terrebonne Parish Consolidated Government as well as her attacker, alleging the parish officials should have protected her from Vickers.

Rather than assume liability or try to shift the scrutiny solely on the guard, the parish’s defense strategy is simply to blame the victim. Court papers claim, “Vickers could not have engaged in sexual relations within the walls of the detention center with [the victim] without cooperation from her. Vickers did not use force, violence or intimidation when engaging in sexual relations.”

“These girls in the detention center are not Little Miss Muffin,” one official told the Tri-Parish Times.

Of course, the defense is flagrantly at odds with Louisiana law, which states no one under 17 years old can consent to sex. Moreover, the obvious power a guard wields over a prisoner makes any sexual relationship suspect, even without proof of physical force or overt threats.

The Terrebonne juvenile prison was exposed by a Department of Justice investigation in 2010 for arbitrarily putting children in isolation cells and leaving guards unsupervised. Several staffers were fired and even indicted for exchanging candy, fruit, time on the telephone, and other favors in return for sex with the underage inmates.

Still, prison employees all over the country often get away with rape, and few actually serve time. One Department of Justice study found that only 56 percent of staffers who were clearly caught sexually abusing inmates were referred for prosecution, while many are released on low bonds or given negligible sentences on the grounds that their victims were in prison.

More than 1,700 boys and girls reported being sexually assaulted, but the number is likely much higher given inmates’ reluctance to report rape. Prison guards usually begin their abuse by sharing personal stories and giving young inmates gifts to create a semblance of intimacy, according to another DOJ survey.

Wonkette offers assistance:

Since it’s just so hard to know when you’re not supposed to rape a child (wink wink) and when you’re not supposed to rape a child but no seriously, DON’T DO THAT, here is a handy little guide to help those men who are so easily confused. Sure, it’s a little complex to comprehend at first, but if you commit it to memory — or hey, tattoo it on your dick if you’re not that good with memorization — you should be able to navigate these oh-so-muddy waters. And, bonus, it doesn’t apply just to fucking kids. It’s a universal catch-all rule that applies to sex with anyone.

So here it is: When can you have nonconsensual sex with someone? NEVER. Not even if she’s really hot or mature for her age. Not even if she’s wearing make-up. Not even if she has older friends. Not even if she’s “egging” you on. Not even if she’s drunk. Not even if she’s a total slutbag who has had sex with, like, a million other dudes so one more shouldn’t make a difference. Not even if you’re really horny. Not even if she only says no twice. Not even if it’s a day that ends in “y” or pigs flew by your window or you watched some porno where the chick said no but seemed to like it or your mother didn’t love you or some Republican said there are varying degrees of rape and some of it isn’t really rape or you think you can get away with it and no one will ever know.

Because if you do sex to someone who does not give you her permission to do sex to her — or cannot give you her permission because of how she is a child — you are a rapist and a bad person and if there is in fact a hell, you will burn in it. Even if a judge takes sympathy on you and the legal system lets you off the hook with a warning (or, in Yale’s case, a written reprimand). It is wrong and bad, and you are wrong and bad, and seriously, it should not be that difficult to understand that you should only fuck grown adult women (or men, whatever floats your boat, we don’t judge — UNLESS YOU’RE RAPING SOMEONE) who can and do give their consent for you to fuck them.

There. Hope that clears things up. You’re welcome.