In an article from the Associated Press released yesterday (June 23, 2009), it points out that prison rapes are far more common and out of control than the average (non-jail visited) person would think.  It is always mocked at in movies and joked about amongst friends, but prison raping is so bad that the government is going to cut back on funding for prisons if they do not find a way to stop or at least curve prison molestation and rapes.

According to The National Prison Rape Elimination Commission who have released reports on a five years study, the have found that more than 60,000 inmates are sexually abused a year with 4.5% stating they had been sexually abused within the last 12 months and even worse, is that these inmates are saying that they are abused more by staff than other inmates.  Staff members are sexually abusing these inmates! 

I know what most of you are thinking – good, they probably deserve to get sexually molested, they probably molested someone else, they are criminals – they do not have rights, who cares about them that is why they are in prison in the first place, etc.  The point I am trying to make though (and I could care less about federal funding to prisons, unless that meant if it was cut, they would let go criminals that really do need to be kept in jail) is that the guards or staff, these government workers are sexually abusing these inmates.  I mean, if you ask me, it is like the Vegas saying, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas”, but for jails, “What happens inside the prison, stays inside the prison.”  BUT, there are times when the line is crossed.  If other inmates want to abuse other inmates, yes, that should be stopped, things should be prevented, they are human beings WITH rights, BUT when it is an authority figure that is sexually abusing these inmates, something is wrong here.

First off, I would not want to be a guard at any prison and I would for sure not want to rape any inmate at a prison, because who knows what kind of STDs that they have, amongst other things.  It could also be a big conspiracy; the inmates could have joined up and said they should all accuse the staff of the prisons of rapes, etc. but I highly doubt that is the case. I have never been to a prison or jail myself, so I do not know, but I am pretty positive here that they have cameras and I would assume everywhere.  Why isn’t the government, who is stating that they will take away this Federal funding if nothing is done, do something about it… watch the videos from the security cameras… I mean, I have no clue what else to do in a situation like this, but this obviously needs to stop happening, someone needs to step in and right now I am looking the government in the eye.