 |
Complicit in Gang Rape Slavery? |
|
Compiled by GayToday
Washington, D.C.--In a case that highlights prison systems' failure to protect
vulnerable prisoners -- and the role that compound race, sexual orientation
and gender bias plays in who gets protected -- the American Civil Liberties
Union today filed a lawsuit against Texas prison officials who permitted a
gay African-American man to be repeatedly raped and sold as a sexual slave
for $5.
In a legal complaint that reads like a nightmare scenario from the graphic HBO prison drama Oz, the ACLU detailed the story of 33-year-old Navy veteran Roderick Johnson of Marshall, Texas, who for the last 18 months has been bought and sold by gangs, raped, abused, and degraded nearly every day. "Prison officials knew that gangs made Roderick Johnson their sex slave and did nothing to help him," said Margaret Winter, Associate Director of the ACLU's National Prison Project. "Our lawsuit shows that Texas prison officials think black men can't be victims and believe gay men always want sex -- so they threw our client to the wolves." According to the ACLU complaint, Johnson appeared before the prison's all-white classification committee seven separate times asking to be placed in safe keeping from predatory prisoners. Instead of protecting Johnson, the ACLU complaint charges, the committee members taunted him and called him a "dirty tramp," and one said, "There's no reason why Black punks can't fight if they don't want to fuck." Another committee member dismissed Johnson's pleas and said, "I personally believe you like dick," the ACLU charges. Closing a meeting after the committee decided to transfer Johnson to the most dangerous and gang-infested unit in the prison, one member said, "Ms. Pretty is going to a good place now," the complaint says. Gangs and other prisoners often prey upon prisoners who are gay, as well as those who are young, small, mentally or physically disabled, first-time offenders, shy, perceived as weak, or possessing feminine characteristics, Winter said. In Texas and elsewhere, individuals identified with one or more of these vulnerable characteristics typically qualify for a prison classification known as "safe keeping" or "protective custody." Johnson, who is serving time for bouncing a $300 check while on parole for a non-violent crime, informed the prison's staff of his sexual orientation during the intake process. But after leaving the intake unit he was placed in general population. The result, according to the ACLU complaint, was devastating. The complaint describes how gang members negotiated fees of $5 to $10 for sex with Johnson. "He was told that if he refused, he would be beaten and killed. As a sexual slave, he was repeatedly penetrated anally and forced to perform oral sex at the command of gang members," the complaint said. "I know most people don't care what happens to prisoners, but no matter what Roderick has done he doesn't deserve the abuse he has received," said Johnson's cousin Sharon Bailey, whose calls to prison officials were ignored. "The entire family is horrified and devastated by what's happening to Roderick. We are afraid we will never see him alive again. We have faith that God will protect him, but the prison must also be held responsible for ignoring our pleas for help. Today we are praying for Roderick -- and fighting for him." Texas was identified as the worst state in the nation for prison rape in Human Rights Watch's 2001 book-length report, No Escape: Male Rape in U.S. Prisons. Independent observers, including a federal judge, have said that some prisoners in Texas are vulnerable and need protection -- which they are not getting. "Evidence has shown that, in fact, prison officials deliberately resist providing reasonable safety to inmates. The result is that individual prisoners who seek protection from their attackers are either not believed, disregarded, or told that there is a lack of evidence to support action by the prison system," wrote U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice, in a class-action case about Texas prison conditions that has spanned 30 years. He also said evidence "revealed a prison underworld in which rapes, beatings, and servitude are the currency of power." In that same case, Allen Breed, an expert with more than 50 years of experience with prisons, said under oath that he had "never before experienced the general disinterest, indifference and absence of responsibility for the homosexual victim, the individual who 'refuses to ride,' the immature kid who is frightened to death and the small, defenseless effeminate-appearing inmate as exists in many of the Texas prisons." Statement of Sharon Bailey April 18, 2002
I decided someone needed to do something. I called the prison to find out what was going on. Staff at the prison said they would check into Roderick's complaints and then give me a call back. They never did. I called the prison again. They said Roderick's complaints didn't warrant an investigation but they would move him to another prison wing. He wasn't safe there either. Other family members and I continued to write and call on Roderick's behalf, but nothing ever changed. He wrote us letters week after week. I thought the abuse Roderick was suffering daily couldn't get any worse, but it did. He has been raped daily; he has been traded to and from gangs; he has been bought and sold over and over again. Prison officials have let this happen -- they've laughed at him and mocked him and ignored our desperate pleas for help. I know most people don't care what happens to prisoners. I care what happens to my cousin. Anyone with a son or a sister or a nephew would feel the same. The entire family is horrified and devastated by what's happening to Roderick. We are afraid we will never see him alive again. We have faith that God will protect him, but the prison must also be held responsible for putting him through this. Today we are praying for him -- and fighting for him. |
