Via Instapundit and Talk Left, an article by Rich Lowry on a bill designed to curb prison rape:
An often-cited estimate is that 22 percent to 25 percent of prisoners a year experience sexual pressuring, attempted sexual assault or completed rapes, while one in 10 of the nation’s 2 million prisoners suffer a completed rape. Given the gaps in reporting, most experts consider these numbers conservative.
How could anybody oppose this bill? Ask the California prison guards’ union why they’ve opposed similar measures at the state level and you’ll find that the guards use rape as a tool to intimidate prisoners (half of whom are in the Big House for drug violations, incidentally):
Invesitigating the “booty bandit” of Corcoran State Prison in which five guards are currently under indictment for setting up rapes of prisoners, two Los Angeles Times reporters uncovered the reason the state has not only ignored but covered-up many charges of brutality committed or condoned by guards in a number of California prisons including Frontera and Pelican Bay especially over the past decade.
Since 1989, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association — perhaps the most powerful union in the state — contributed nearly $1 million to the campaigns for office of Gov. Pete Wilson and Attorney Gen. Dan Lungren. Because of this exposure only months ago, Lungren began aggressively prosecuting the Corcoran guards and in response, the C.C.P.O.A. switched their endorsement to Gray Davis for governor. And . . . about this time, the San Francisco Examiner charged Lungren with being soft on white collar crime.
Does it make sense now?
Thanks for pointing this out. It’s nice to see people across the political spectrum demanding our prisons to be run in an aboveboard manner.