Hey, Feminists, Here's The Real "Rape Culture"
Guilty people are sentenced to prison -- not to years of horrible sexual abuse -- but that's what happens to many in prison, and it's terribly wrong.

Congress, in 2003, passed the Prison Rape Elimination Act. As Chandra Bozelko writes in The New York Times:

The way to eliminate sexual assault, lawmakers determined, was to make Department of Justice funding for correctional facilities conditional on states' adoption of zero-tolerance policies toward sexual abuse of inmates.

Inmates would be screened to identify possible predators and victims. Prison procedures would ensure investigation of complaints by outside law enforcement. Correctional officers would be instructed about behavior that constitutes sexual abuse. And abusers, whether inmates or guards, would be punished effectively.

But only two states -- New Hampshire and New Jersey -- have fully complied with the act. Forty-seven states and territories have promised that they will do so. Using Justice Department data, the American Civil Liberties Union estimated that from 2003 to 2012, when the law's standards were finalized, nearly two million inmates were sexually assaulted.

Bozelko goes on to explain:

Ultimately, prisons protect rape culture to protect themselves. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, about half of prison sexual assault complaints in 2011 were filed against staff. (These reports weren't all claims of forcible rape; it is considered statutory sexual assault for a guard to have sexual contact with an inmate.)

I was an inmate for six years in Connecticut after being convicted of identity fraud, among other charges. From what I saw, the same small group of guards preyed on inmates again and again, yet never faced discipline. They were protected by prison guard unions, one of the strongest forces in American labor.

Sexualized violence is often used as a tool to subdue inmates whom guards see as upstarts. In May 2008, while in a restricted housing unit, or "the SHU" as it is commonly known, I was sexually assaulted by a guard. The first person I reported the incident to, another guard, ignored it. I finally reached a nurse who reported it to a senior officer.

When the state police arrived, I decided not to talk to them because the harassment I'd received in the intervening hours made me fearful. For the same reason, I refused medical treatment when I was taken to a local emergency room.

Subsequent interviews with officials at the prison amounted to hazing and harassment. They accused me of having been a drug user, which was untrue, and of lying about going to college, though it was true I had. The "investigation," which I found more traumatic than the assault, dragged on for more than two months until they determined that my allegation couldn't be substantiated. The law's guidelines were followed, but in letter not in spirit.

And although the author of this piece is a woman, it's mainly men who are the victims of prison rape.