Introduction
The correction system in America is in many ways, deeply flawed. The ideology of prison is that it is created with the general purpose of making people better, morally and ethically, it was supposed to be the adult version of time out, take away someone’s freedom as a person for a while and hope that the same person would learn a lesson and change for the better. But in real life, people who get arrested for minor or not so major crimes gets locked up with the murderers and rapists. The convicted may not be such a bad person; he or she could have had a bad day and did some thoughtless regrettable things. But no matter who they were before they entered the correction system, they come out a totally different person, and in most …show more content…
Rape in prison is not a secret and sadly is not being addressed as well as it should be. In 2003 US Congress passed the Prison Rape Elimination Act or PREA, which led to the establishment of the National Rape Elimination Commission and the introduction of a zero tolerance policy towards sexual violence in prisons. Before PREA, the head of the American State Correctional Association claimed: “sexual assault in prison is greatly exaggerated.” The zero tolerance policy included having prisoners screened if they were a potential predator or victim, investigations would take place if correctional officers were told about sexual abuse, and whether it be a prisoner or guard committing the act both would be punished effectively. Data from 2013 revealed that 4 per cent of prisoner had experienced sexual victimization and 2 per cent of prisoners had been a victim of a non-consensual sexual act with another prisoner or staff member. However, only New Hampshire and New Jersey compiled with the act …show more content…
An example would be Texas, as Rick Perry, then the governor of Texas, wrote to the Justice Department stating that 40 percent of the correctional officers in male facilities in Texas were women, so that “cross-gender viewing” (like witnessing inmates in the shower, which contravenes the legal guidelines) could not be avoided. Instead of taking according action and try to implement the law, he simply took the easy way out and said it could not be done. His excuse for not taking action was that it would have cost too much money. Texas also has one of the highest rates of prison sexual assault, enforcing this law would have made a huge impact. Since Texas did not decide to comply their penalty was to lose 5 percent of federal funding for state prisons. In the end, only $800,000 was lost compared to the $15.2 million federal grants they were still able to receive while their inmates are still being sexually assaulted. As if that penalty is not weak enough, Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, proposed an amendment stating that the financial penalty for non compliance be removed
The correction system in America is in many ways, deeply flawed. The ideology of prison is that it is created with the general purpose of making people better, morally and ethically, it was supposed to be the adult version of time out, take away someone’s freedom as a person for a while and hope that the same person would learn a lesson and change for the better. But in real life, people who get arrested for minor or not so major crimes gets locked up with the murderers and rapists. The convicted may not be such a bad person; he or she could have had a bad day and did some thoughtless regrettable things. But no matter who they were before they entered the correction system, they come out a totally different person, and in most …show more content…
Rape in prison is not a secret and sadly is not being addressed as well as it should be. In 2003 US Congress passed the Prison Rape Elimination Act or PREA, which led to the establishment of the National Rape Elimination Commission and the introduction of a zero tolerance policy towards sexual violence in prisons. Before PREA, the head of the American State Correctional Association claimed: “sexual assault in prison is greatly exaggerated.” The zero tolerance policy included having prisoners screened if they were a potential predator or victim, investigations would take place if correctional officers were told about sexual abuse, and whether it be a prisoner or guard committing the act both would be punished effectively. Data from 2013 revealed that 4 per cent of prisoner had experienced sexual victimization and 2 per cent of prisoners had been a victim of a non-consensual sexual act with another prisoner or staff member. However, only New Hampshire and New Jersey compiled with the act …show more content…
An example would be Texas, as Rick Perry, then the governor of Texas, wrote to the Justice Department stating that 40 percent of the correctional officers in male facilities in Texas were women, so that “cross-gender viewing” (like witnessing inmates in the shower, which contravenes the legal guidelines) could not be avoided. Instead of taking according action and try to implement the law, he simply took the easy way out and said it could not be done. His excuse for not taking action was that it would have cost too much money. Texas also has one of the highest rates of prison sexual assault, enforcing this law would have made a huge impact. Since Texas did not decide to comply their penalty was to lose 5 percent of federal funding for state prisons. In the end, only $800,000 was lost compared to the $15.2 million federal grants they were still able to receive while their inmates are still being sexually assaulted. As if that penalty is not weak enough, Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, proposed an amendment stating that the financial penalty for non compliance be removed