You've heard the jokes. About Martha Stewart, Michael Jackson and all the other famous people who may be heading to prison. A beefy cellmate will bring them a 'dose of reality'. We know the joke, we're Americans. It's all about prison rape. So why was everyone so shocked that poorly disciplined American soldiers would humiliate prisoners of war? Humiliation is what Americans expect to happen to prisoners, especially sexual humiliation.
Bob Herbert finally breaks the barrier for mentioning the sort of ugliness that goes on in American prisons.
On Oct. 23, 1996, officers from the Tactical Squad of the Georgia Department of Corrections raided the inmates' living quarters at Dooly State Prison, a medium-security facility in Unadilla, Ga. This was part of a series of brutal shakedowns at prisons around the state that were designed to show the prisoners that a new and tougher regime was in charge.What followed, according to the lawsuit, was simply sick. Officers opened cell doors and ordered the inmates, all males, to run outside and strip. With female prison staff members looking on, and at times laughing, several inmates were subjected to extensive and wholly unnecessary body cavity searches. The inmates were ordered to lift their genitals, to squat, to bend over and display themselves, etc
Most African Americans have no use for Minister Louis Farrakhan or his Nation of Islam. There are several reasons for this. However, if you are in prison, membership in the Nation is a man's best defense against rape. That's where many converts come from. Taking some of the traditional conservative roles of male and female roles of Islam as their basis, the NOI is especially adamant and forward thinking in establishing this defense. Outside of the typical denunciations, it would be interesting to see what those deep inside the Nation of Islam's prison programs have been saying about Abu Ghraib.
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