Harm-Reduction In Prison

Administrators are positioned into quite a quandary with the allowance of harm reduction strategies inside correctional facilities. On one hand, the absence of harm reduction strategies may promote violence and further sexual victimization among persons within the walls of these institutions. On the other hand, general society must remember that although these harm reduction strategies have been empirically proven to be effective it would mean that there is an admittance of (prohibited) sexual activities. Coupled with the fact that some persons in general society may find it distasteful that the criminals are engaging in “enjoyable” acts rather than serving their time, with a viewpoint that perhaps criminals have received their just deserts …show more content…
Sex can not only be non-consensual and consensual, but also bartered, primarily for goods and services. Thus, there exists a continuum of sexual interactions within correctional facilities among inmates, staff persons, as well as visitors. Regardless of these findings based on contemporary institutions, there still exists a social-sexual hierarchy considering male inmates are more predatory in nature than female inmates. With the latter group of inmates continuing to cope with their incarceration based on emotional needs, although the initial reasons were purely for sexual gratification purposes. Such recent research can combat the misconception of prison rape based on findings that revealed a majority of sexual interactions in these institutions are consensual rather than coercive, if not evolve from coercive to consensual over the inmates time being incarcerated. In a similar vein, sexual orientation has operated on a continuum in which inmates may identify as heterosexual, but either over the period of their incarceration identify as homosexual or bisexual, and revert back as a heterosexual once released. This type of behavior is most common among male inmates rather than female inmates. Although sexual victimization has occurred in correctional facilities, newfound literature has oriented away from the notion of rampant sexual victimization nor wholly based on deprivation to interactions that may develop to a grander personal sexual