Hell Behind Bars

PRISON rape may be America’s most ignored crime problem. Since the mid 1970s, male-on-male rape has become more common than male-on- female rape, and a key reason for this is that the prison population has quadrupled. Prison rape tortures inmates, spreads AIDS, and increases the power of racist gangs—but almost nobody wants to talk about it.

Academic research suggests that the problem is widespread. University of Nebraska professor Cindy Stuckman- Johnson reported in The Journal of Sex Research that 22 percent of male inmates in Nebraska prisons experienced unwanted sexual contact. Extrapolating from her Nebraska findings and earlier studies in New York, California, and Pennsylvania, Stephen Donaldson, the late president of the activist group Stop Prisoner Rape, estimated that over 240,000 men get raped in prison each year. By contrast, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, in 1999 men raped 141,000 women.

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Eli Lehrer

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PRISON rape may be America’s most ignored crime problem. Since the mid 1970s, male-on-male rape has become more common than male-on- female rape, and a key reason for this is that the prison population has quadrupled. Prison rape tortures inmates, spreads AIDS, and increases the power of racist gangs—but almost nobody wants to talk about it.

Academic research suggests that the problem is widespread. University of Nebraska professor Cindy Stuckman- Johnson reported in The Journal of Sex Research that 22 percent of male inmates in Nebraska prisons experienced unwanted sexual contact. Extrapolating from her Nebraska findings and earlier studies in New York, California, and Pennsylvania, Stephen Donaldson, the late president of the activist group Stop Prisoner Rape, estimated that over 240,000 men get raped in prison each year. By contrast, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, in 1999 men raped 141,000 women.