Issues in Criminal Justice (JF)
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Prison Rape is No Laughing Matter |
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 Pat Nolan's brow furrows in agitated disbelief when he remembers one corrections official's reaction to prison rape. "What can I say?" the man asked with a dismissive shrug. "It's prison."
More than 60,000 inmates are raped each year, some by prison guards and others by fellow inmates. All too often, people respond to these devastating crimes with only a shrug, a smirk, or even a joke.
Today, however, such nonchalance among corrections staff or those in the public at large is more likely to generate a moral outrage among many American citizens-thanks to the persevering work of a broad-based coalition determined to make the government and public care.
Nearly a decade ago Michael Horowitz, from the Hudson Institute, rallied conservative and religious groups to add their weight to the arguments that liberal leaders had already been making. The group's message was clear: We must eliminate rape from all of America's prisons and jails.
Prison Fellowship joined the campaign in August 2000 to convince Congress to confront prison rape head-on. "It was our role to try to bring more conservative political and religious people aboard," recollects Pat Nolan, vice-president of Justice Fellowship, the arm of Prison Fellowship dedicated to criminal justice reform.
Pat's zeal sparked a firestorm.
Prison Fellowship provided political and strategic counsel to the coalition, which drafted a bill that addressed prison rape. When it needed a co-sponsor in the Senate, Pat recommended Sen. Jeff Sessions, former U.S. attorney and former Attorney General for Alabama. Soon, Sen. Sessions joined the bill's sponsor, Sen. Ted Kennedy, to introduce it to Congress.
Sen. Session's eloquence, Pat believes, captured the essence of the argument against prison rape. "I've sent thousands of people to prison for horrible things," Sessions declared as he stood behind the microphones of a press conference. "Yet not one of their sentences included being raped."
Justice and human dignity demand that we stop prison rape.
The Power of Grassroots Support
Pat admits he wasn't sure at first how Prison Fellowship's donors and volunteers would respond to the uncomfortable, graphic subject of prison rape. But as Prison Fellowship began sending letters to educate them, Pat was thrilled by their enthusiasm. "They were shocked this was going on and very supportive of Prison Fellowship's efforts," he says.
That support translated into concrete action. Prison Fellowship sent four different letters asking constituents to express their support, Pat remembers. The letters included a card that they could return to be delivered to their members in Congress, urging them to pass the bill to eliminate prison rape. "The last [letter] got a 44-percent response," he exclaims. "Now, that's unheard of!"
Prison Fellowship's constituents did more than mail support cards, however. Many also shared their own stories-heart-wrenching stories of being raped in prison or trying to comfort rape victims whose minds and hearts still writhed in agony.
Stories such as these were a crucial part of the campaign in Congress. The coalition set up hearings for witnesses to put a face on the awful crime. "Our purpose was to have the legislators have to look in the eyes of people who had been raped and to hear their stories," Pat explains. "A lot of people try to deal with issues like this clinically and detached, and we felt the opposite...This is a very personal thing, and it's an issue of morality-not legality."
Face-to-Face with the Devastation of Rape
One of the faces of prison rape belongs to Marilyn Shirley. Pat's voice grows husky and his eyes dim as he pictures this sweet mother and grandmother who was imprisoned for a minor drug offense.
In the middle of the night, she was called down to the prison guard's station, where one of the officers pushed her into a closet and raped her. Marilyn says she can still remember the smell of this man who leered at her, leaned forward, and growled in her ear, "And don't bother to tell anyone about this because who are they going to believe-a druggie like you or a fine, upstanding officer of the law like me?"
It's not just prison officers who commit these crimes. Russell Dan Smith, the founder of Stop Prison Rape (now Just Detention International), was raped by other inmates while he was behind bars. An Air Force veteran, Russell was at a peace demonstration when he was arrested and then thrown into jail. "To teach him a lesson, they put him in with gangsters," Pat recounts Russell's testimony. "And they laughed as he was raped all night long." That trauma damaged every part of Russell's life. After his release from jail, he couldn't keep a job, lost his marriage, and still has terrible nightmares.
The power of stories such as this, the pressure of outraged citizens across the country, and the tireless work of the coalition led to an eventual overwhelming victory in Congress. In 2003 both the House and the Senate passed the coalition's bill unanimously. On September 4 of that same year, leaders of the coalition, including Pat Nolan, gathered around President Bush's desk and watched him sign the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) into law.
"Originally the bill was [named] the Prison Rape Reduction Act," Pat remembers. Though the coalition had talked about using the word "elimination," they didn't have the gumption to go that far. However, Congress itself said, "Why on earth are we talking about reducing it? We want to change it to elimination," Pat clarifies. "That was a terrific moment!"
The moment the bill passed, Pat experienced a flood of joy. His years of struggle had finally borne fruit. "It truly was a God thing," he says humbly. "We did what He asked us to, but it was totally in His hands." All he could say was, "Thank You, Lord. You're gracious."
"Thank you" is also the phrase Pat shares with each Prison Fellowship donor and volunteer who gave time and energy to be involved in the campaign to eliminate rape in our prisons. "They made a difference...There are tens of thousands of victims of rape inside prison whom they encouraged by moving Congress to pass this legislation. And there are tens of thousands more that won't ever be raped because they supported it."
Standards that Insist on Change
 The Prison Rape Elimination Act's chief tenets require annual studies of the prevalence of prison rape, create a Review Panel to hold prisons accountable for reducing these crimes, and require the National Institute of Corrections to train prison officials about prison rape. They also establish federal grants to reward state and local prison systems that prevent and punish prison rape.
The pinnacle of the Act, however, is its creation of the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission, of which Pat Nolan is a member. For the past six years, the Commission has studied prison rape, holding public hearings and private meetings to find out what is working and where the criminal justice system is falling short. As a result, the Commission drafted standards for prisons to regulate how to deal with prison rape. And on June 23, 2009, the Commission will release these standards to the public.
The release of the standards is only the beginning of another long process, Pat knows. Once they are released, the U.S. Attorney General will have a year to modify or adopt them. Then each state will have to decide whether it will adopt the standards as well.
Pat believes Prison Fellowship donors and volunteers can play a critical role during the months ahead. If states "refuse to adopt the standards, they'll lose a certain percentage of federal funding. But I also think they'll have to answer to the court of public opinion...And that's the role the Church can play as these standards are issued ...The Church can help hold these state officials' feet to the fire."
Even though the verdict is still out on acceptance of the Commission's standards, Pat has already seen changes since Prison Fellowship joined the campaign against prison rape. There's no longer discussion about whether prison rape is a problem. "It's accepted as a problem," he insists. "And it's accepted as a responsibility of corrections officials to deal with it." Some states have already even created and adopted their own prison standards to prevent and punish rape. Pat also thinks that the passage of PREA served to breathe hope to corrections officials "that they can help transform inmates' lives and thereby help make safer communities."
Nevertheless, there are indications that public opinion still needs to change. "There are still late night jokes about rape," Pat points out. "I think there are fewer of them, but I still hear them now and then, and we need to get to the point where they just don't dare do that. It's just not a laughing matter."
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