a question about American prisons

The truth is probably a lot worse than you can imagine.

purely in the interests of research.

and to answer another question, I don't think that kind of thing goes in British or Irish prisons to anything like the same extent.

what a ridiculous thing to say. of course they can, but the question is about a violent and extremely damaging act; not some hearts and flowers romance...

i have my doubts

Fellas I've met who've actually gone to prison in the UK say it's a load of bollocks and that the gay prisoners tend to just shag other gay prisoners. Dunno about the states, though. Don't see why it would be so different.

Is it true that they pee in a cup and throw it on you, though?

I'm sure it's not hard to get consensual bumsex in prison.

There was a rather eye-opening letter about prison rape published in the NY Review of Books last year, which also mentions the Stop Prisoner Rape organization:

A Letter on Rape in Prisons

It never occurred to me until now that this was a questionable truth! It's just one of those things that are part of my unquestioned definition of prison: bad tattoos are sometimes given, drugs are available, a toilet is in the cell, you get in for being convicted of crimes, and men rape each other all the time (and if you get convicted for being a chimo it's likely you'll get beat the shit out of or killed).

That means I live in a sad world.

From that NYT thing:

Tom Cahill, a former president of Stop Prisoner Rape, was arrested during the Vietnam War for civil disobedience. An ideologically unsympathetic jailer put him in a cell with known sexual predators, telling them he was a child molester, and that if they "took care of him" they'd get extra rations of jello. For the next twenty-four hours Tom was gang-raped. He has never fully recovered from this.

This is pretty much a summary of what I imagine prison to be like!

(Another thing: the mentally ill aren't even half tended to.)

Honest to god, what creeps me out most is that there's a shortened version of the phrase "child molester." Why in the world would it need to be shortened? Who says it enough to need those two extra syllables back?

There's an anti-meth ad in the St. Louis area (maybe up here too) that has a picture of a prison cell that says "No one thinks they'll spend a romantic evening here. Meth will change that." This is how accepted and HILARIOUS prison rape is in this society.

I have a serious prison phobia, so I get really worked up and angry about shit like this.

Also, on a more general prison-related topic, I have a few teachers/peers working on this project , a project to get a supermax prison shut down. Because, y'know, they're completely barbaric and torturous. If any Illinoisans would like to write a quick email to a congressman or something, much obliged.

Good for you, en. This country's prisons are absolutely barbaric.

That billboard is a good example for non-U.S. residents.

DOJ says the US will scale back and ultimately end use of private prisons:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/08/18/justice-department-says-it-will-end-use-of-private-prisons/?postshare=9221471534255226&tid=ss_tw&utm_term=.6b7083755da6