THE RAPE OF A FEMALE GUARD

On Monday I received a press release from the California Correctional Peace
Officers Association, which reported that "a female correctional peace
officer was raped and beaten by an inmate Saturday at the California
Correctional Institution in Tehachapi [Kern County]."

Apparently the beating, which bloodied the guard's face, and the rape
itself occurred in a staff bathroom. The correctional officers association
added that the rapist was still in the bathroom with the woman when another
guard found them.

This press release from the prison guards' union also reported that "on
average, nine officers a day are assaulted in California prisons." I assume
most of the other assaults are not sexual. In fact, last week's column
noted that "gassing," throwing feces in a guard's face, is a "prevalent"
form of assault in prisons these days.

One would have to be a sociopath not to sympathize with the victim of
Saturday's rape, for no doubt she suffered pain, embarrassment, and the
fright that comes from losing mastery over one's own body. Assuming the
guards' union was accurately informed, the violence done to her was
horrific and worthy of a news release.

Which again makes me wonder why there is virtually no press coverage of the
rapes of hundreds of thousands of mostly heterosexual men in US prisons
each year. (Prisons typically use "protective custody" to keep predators
away from obviously gay inmates. Gay men, in fact, are actually more
vulnerable in local jails, which sometimes don't segregate them.)

One "very conservative estimate" is that 65,000 inmates are raped per day
in prisons. In jails, the average is 7,150 per day. Yet in my 30 years of
reporting, I have never received one press release about any of these rapes.

The same studies estimate that among incarcerated boys, who are typically
14 and 15, an average of 11,000 are raped daily. Many of these youngsters
"are, in fact, raped more than once a day until released," reports a study
called Rape of Incarcerated Americans: A Preliminary Statistical Look. It's
at (http://www.spr.org/docs/stats.html) on the web.

Most of us are naturally upset by the rape of even one female guard, so how
can judges, correctional officers, legislators, and the public remain so
unconcerned about the current 5,000 rapes per day of female inmates, 11,000
rapes per day of children, and 62,500 rapes per day of men?

Have politicians, judges, police, and correctional officers campaigned so
long for law and order that people have forgotten about the cruelty they're
endorsing? If this many rapes of an entrapped population were happening in
another country, it would be considered a crime against humanity.

When Serbs carried out mass rapes of women in Bosnia and Kosovo, the United
States twice sent troops. When a female guard in California and 78,500
inmates across the United States were raped last Saturday, the federal
government didn't notice.

Most inmates will eventually complete their sentences and be released. Some
of them will come out even more anti-social than when they went in. But
then again, how concerned about the well being of other people should one
expect a sexually abused ex-inmate to be? After all, he can't help but
realize that the public has knowingly let him be raped over and over again
for years.

Because so many people have been convicted in the failed War on Drugs,
California's prisons are bulging. The crowding, in turn, is causing inmate
violence to escalate. Although the vice president of the San Quentin
chapter of the California Correctional Peace Officers Association was
arrested last weekend on charges of selling narcotics to inmates, the
association still wants to continue the War on Drugs and build more
prisons. West Marin's assemblywoman, Kerry Mazzoni, this week proposed that
state government spend $900,000 to hire more guards.

A more sensible alternative is Proposition 36 on the Nov. 7 ballot. If it
passes - and right now it's ahead in the polls by 28 percent - people
arrested on drug charges that don't involve sales, production, or violence
would have the option of treatment instead of punishment. Those who
successfully completed a treatment program would have their records
expunged. A vote for Proposition 36 would at least be a start at reducing
the cruelty of California's prisons.