In a powerful post, Ezra Klein recounts some stories of prison rape, and recounts the moral implications of America’s broken prison system:

“These are not atypical tales, click on any of the histories and similar horrors unfold. I understand why this is a politically tough issue: There’s no political upside to helping criminals, and the prison guard’s unions are terrifically powerful on the state level. But politically tough as it may be to address, it’s morally abhorrent to ignore. And we have to remember: Every single time we sentence a suspect to jail time, we are tacitly consenting not merely to his imprisonment, but to his savage sexual assault, with all the physical and psychological damage it will bring.”

In another post he adds this:

“We spend a fair amount of time talking about detainee treatment and Guantanamo. But there is no greater, or more common, human rights abuses in America than those occurring in our overcrowded, constantly expanding, jails. “

It’s a disgrace.