A cheerful post

[sabotabby]

Yesterday, zingerella drew my attention to the story of Carol Ikkusek, a Labrador woman who was held naked in a cell for two days. zingerella was, understandably, quite horrified. Unfortunately, the only thing that surprised me about the story was that the RCMP later apologized.

There are many reasons why I'm not shocked by these stories. The most obvious is that the woman in question is, judging by her name, indigenous, and First Nations people have long known that they can't take for granted the sorts of rights, privileges, and protection that settlers enjoy. But beyond that, abuse of people within the criminal justice system is inevitable. We, after all, belong to a culture that by and large considers cutting off a thief's hand to be barbaric but is quite at ease with rape as a punishment for, say, non-violent drug offenses.

(Pause. What did she just say?)

There would, understandably, be some outcry if a judge handed down a sentence of "six months in prison, plus sodomy" in for a drug trafficking offense. But we know that prison rape is widespread. (And if we don't know that, we have pop culture to remind us.) So, just as the Canadian government is responsible for torturing suspects whom it deports to Syria, the criminal justice system is responsible for the rape that is pretty much inevitable in prison. In the business world, they call it outsourcing.

So we know that most people in jail aren't there for violent crimes* and we think that approximately one in five male prisoners is the victim of some form of sexual assault. (The frequency for women is difficult to pin down, and seems to be more common at the hands of guards than at the hands of other inmates.) We're okay with this, by and large, because we know at some level that prisons have to be utterly horrific places (i.e., worse than homeless shelters, sleeping under bridges, and working dangerous, low-paying jobs) in order to perform their social function, and because we're conditioned to think of all criminals as violent. And also, I suppose, because most of us don't think of prisons very much.

Something to keep in mind when we claim that our country is better than other countries because it acknowledges human rights and doesn't torture people. Not that many people make that claim anymore.

* American stats. If anyone can dig up Canadian stats, I'd be interested.

P.S. I need my paid account back so that I can use an Oz icon for this post. Oy. You guys, that wasn't a hint! But all three of you—you know who you are, and I at least know who two of your are—rock my world.

Comments

[goodlookinout.livejournal.com]

As always, excellent post.

If you didnt see THIS POST I made a couple weeks back, I HIGHLY (times a million) recomment the book Global Lockdown: Race, Gender in the Prison-Industrial Complex. It was incredible. Also, I believe the stats you're looking for are in their too (I just cant remember where/what they are exactly, and I've lent the book to a friend!)

[sabotabby]

I do need to read that. I bet it's at the Women's Bookstore. I also need to read more Foucault.

[goodlookinout.livejournal.com]

Yup, got it there. If you cant find it downstairs, it will be upstairs with course books under the course code "WGS375" :)

[dobrovolets.livejournal.com]

Not that many people make that claim anymore.

Surprising numbers still do, which is what prompted the portion of a recent post where I went on about "Thank goodness for the left, and thank the left for goodness." Some pig-headed little cretin with whom I went to college, who is well traveled in Latin America, kept insisting that the U.S. is comparatively wonderful because police brutality is rare, we don't disappear people and there is no torture. No amount of counter-examples--the Sean Bell case, or Guantánamo for fuck's sake--would shake her stubborn faith that "our country just isn't like that".

[sabotabby]

The thing is, "torture is bad" shouldn't be an exclusively left-wing value. Except that it seems to be now.

[caprinus.livejournal.com]

Oh hay, my so-white-she-got-sunburn-from-the-TV upper-middle-class partner from California was held naked in solitary for a day or two too! Of course, her status was offset by the fact she was mentally ill. (Solitary is a cure for bipolar people). The cops insist that people who are provided with privacy and decency will inevitably tear their clothing into strips, twist strips into rope, and then hang themselves. And as we all know, suicide is TERRORISM!

[sabotabby]

Damn, now I can't find the (Islamofascistemo) article about inmates in Guantánamo killing themselves to stick it to the U.S.

[terry-terrible.livejournal.com]

Ruining the fun of sadistic guards through killing yourself? That's worse than 9/11, clearly Osama ordered it directly through the numerous sleeper cells in the U.S. that Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly have mountains of evidence on.

[lopukhov.livejournal.com]

Here you go. It's in the middle, after the bold heading 'Would simply rather die', before the hyperlink.

[cerulean-knight.livejournal.com]

A few months ago at my job I was sent to film a quarterly staff meeting for the planning department; one of those jobs I am only “lucky” enough to get because I am still the lowest man on the totem (and I was the last one to say not-it).

Just before I slipped into an irreversible coma, they happened to mention something that caught my attention. “From the 1920s to the 1970s, about 110 people per 100000 were imprisoned. That rate is now 6 times higher.” There was an accompanying power point graph showing the precipitous climb; unfortunately I wasn’t able to write down where they got their information. Since you were just looking into information like this, did you run across this statistic, or could you point somewhere to look?

It was just revealed that the U.S. has the most people behind bars anywhere in the world, with something like a quarter of the world’s incarcerated population. I understood before seeing that chart that the “war on drugs” was a major cause of that, but seeing it put like that just really gave it perspective.

[sabotabby]

Hey, something had to replace workhouses, poorhouses, and debtor's prisons as the gun to the collective head of the lower classes.

I remember seeing something on the history of prisons some time ago and reading something like that statistic. This is what I get for not bookmarking.

[threepunchstuff.livejournal.com]

In Los Angeles County, you have to be gay to escape male prison rape. The ACLU won gay inmates the right to protective custody and a separate jail wing. Still working on protective custody for...everyone else.

[sabotabby]

I think kiddie rapists might escape the same fate, but I'm not sure.

[retinal-strain.livejournal.com]

Exactly, getting put in PC automatically marks you as a "goof" and a target for the worst violence by other prisoners (who dispise child rapists). It's also usually 23hr lockdowns every day. It's no solution to prison rape.

[gabski.livejournal.com]

oh my god! kareem said!!! seriously though, he totally annoyed me about 95% of the time. ugh. nation of islam... so bad. at least it was pre-9/11. i remember walking around manhattan when i was younger and seeing all those dudes preaching on the corner. it was pretty weird.

[sabotabby]

Aww, he was my favourite character. I could never figure out if he was supposed to be NOI or not, given that I don't think the writers knew. Did you see the season 1 finale? He has some of the most radical lines on TV ever.

[gabski.livejournal.com]

haha... i saw it but i cant remember what he said. i always liked adabisi and ryan. ryan was hot! supposedly he lives right where i work and my coworker skates with his brother (his real brither is cyril).

[lopukhov.livejournal.com]

NOIs? ON TV???! What show is this?

[sabotabby]

Oz.

[gabski.livejournal.com]

you should TOTALLY rent it!!! i was addicted... so sad that i finished all 6 seasons. it's a show about prison and they have a group of muslims headed by this dude, Kareem Said (the guy in the icon)... the whole show is awesome.

[lopukhov.livejournal.com]

All criminals are violent! Prisons are like heavenly mansions for those leeches from society! Thank God they're building more!

[sabotabby]

Some of them even get a free education! With your money! That you earned!

[morgoid.livejournal.com]

OMG! I have made that EXACT same observation about how rape would be considered "cruel and unusual punishment", yet it's exactly what we're sentencing criminals to (or at least the DISTINCT possibility of it anyway).

[sabotabby]

It seems obvious, but no one—or hardly anyone—ever says it.

[esizzle.livejournal.com]

I take it you have a paid account with livejournal for the next three years? I wonder if someone else will buy you a paid account, just as a way to keep you blogging forever! muahaha!

[sabotabby]

Something like that. Not that I would, um, discourage someone from paying me to blog forever.

At Folsom Prison

[rohmie.livejournal.com]

But all three of you—you know who you are, and I at least know who two of your are—rock my world.

I cannot tell a lie: It wasn't me - I'm too poor to afford one myself.

Speaking of prisons, albeit tangentially, here's something to cheer you up.

Re: At Folsom Prison

[sabotabby]

Well, I was waiting for a Paypal transfer, which I now don't need. Do you want a paid account?

Also, shooting a man in Reno because they cancelled Firefly is hee!

Re: At Folsom Prison

[rohmie.livejournal.com]

Do you want a paid account?

Not really. I spend way too much time on LJ as is.

Besides, what would I do with it, besides having more icons?

... Which, come to think of it, would mean more work for you ;)

[blckmssn.livejournal.com]

You should read Newjack: Guarding Sing-Sing by Ted Conover. It's a fully comprehensive look at prisons from a guard's pov.