Old Testament Nation

Jai guru deva om

Emphasis is mine.

There are many reasons to be horrified by prison assault — and sexual assault generally — but the degree to which it’s enmeshed in the American consciousness as just part of our system of “justice” is particularly disturbing. While it looks to me like more women than men are sexually assaulted every year, it is clear that entering the prison system greatly increases your chances of being sexually assaulted, regardless of your gender. And however you cut the statistics, it is clear that men in the United States are sexually assaulted in enormous numbers — they’re just men who we don’t care so much about, or who society has decided deserves it.

*

Violence in America – sexual or not – is an expression of our own peculiar pathology. What ever the root cause: Puritan theo-fascist or southern patrician plantation power dynamics, the genocidal  displacement of indigenous populations, the corralling of non-white/non-Anglo-Saxon populations or the metronomic beating of war drums, each is of a piece and speaks to the dark psychology of a nation fading further into the black. Slouching? More like running toward Gomorrah, we may be there already.

One overlap, though, between prison rape of men and non-prison rape of women is the way American society views both as an inevitability. That plays out in different ways, but there’s a sense that incarceration must naturally lead to rape (see, e.g., “don’t drop the soap!” jokes), and that femaleness is inherently sexually tempting and therefore also leads to rape if you’re not vigilant about preventing it (see, e.g., every rape prevention tactic that focuses on what women should or should not do — don’t walk home alone, don’t wear revealing clothing, etc etc). At the same time, inevitability is tempered by the perceived ability to prevent rape if you just do things “right” — don’t commit a crime so that you end up in jail, don’t break any of the Rape Avoidance Rules For Ladies. It’s a convenient way to conceptualize assault — if you just behave yourself, you won’t be a victim. For women, “doing things right” requires constant vigilance, and an understanding of oneself as inherently vulnerable; it keeps us fearful, and it inhibits our freedom of movement. For populations with high incarceration rates, “doing things right” also requires constant vigilance, and an understanding of oneself as perceived as inherently criminal; it keeps entire communities fearful, resentful, and unable to seek the protection of the police; and it inhibits freedom of movement and expression and speech.

* “Is the United States the only country where more men are raped every year than women?”

Death Rattle Sports

Further privatizing our criminal justice system, as we have over the last thirty years, inevitably leads to even higher rates of incarceration and the broadening corruption of local, state, and federal legislatures. For-profit justice mirrors for-profit health care in that the growth and success of each requires malfeasance and infirmity – not rehabilitation.

 Que triste. Que muy triste ... por los niños especialmente.