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There is a new Netflix series out called "Orange is the New Black" based on a true life story of a woman who gets sent to prison for being a drug mule for her l

by pmorici 13y ago

There is a new Netflix series out called "Orange is the New Black" based on a true life story of a woman who gets sent to prison for being a drug mule for her lesbian lover and only gets caught many years later when she is leading a normal suburban life. At any rate, one of the plot lines is about a relationship between a prison guard and one of the female inmates. It comes up in the course of events that basically any relations between a guard and a prison inmate are considered rape because you can't consent when you are in prison to someone who has power over you. Sort of how a minor can't consent even when another minor is involved. Apparently it is illegal under any circumstance between a guard and inmate as a matter of law in all 50 states as of 2006. http://www.7dvt.com/2013prison-guards-pregnancy-tests-vermont-law-prohibiting-officer-inmate-sex http://www.7dvt.com/2013prison-guards-pregnancy-tests-vermon...

thaumasiotes 13y ago
To my knowledge, it is generally true that sexual contact between an inmate and a prison guard is legally rape no matter whether consensual or not. This is a kludge in the law; obviously, female guards falling in love with inmates and sleeping with them are not being "raped" in any conventional sense, and neither are the prisoners (who are the notional victims). However... we definitely do want to criminalize that conduct, and should be punishing it much more than we actually do; those guards are not on our side; they are on the criminal's side and routinely compromise the security of the prison. http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/baltimore-jail-case-depicts-a-corrupt-culture-driven-by-drugs-money-and-sex/2013/05/04/d0cde8a6-b33f-11e2-9a98-4be1688d7d84_story.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/baltimore-jail-case-depi...
- scarmig 13y ago
  There's some small bit of gray area here, but I think most of those situations should still qualify as rape. Prison guards have immense power over inmates. Their decisions can give a prisoner a plush gig or a terrible one; can allow for the prisoner to receive medical care or not; can result in a prisoner being punished severely for an infraction or escape with just a slap on the wrist or even nothing at all. The discretion of prison guards can even determine whether a prisoner will have the opportunity to be raped by another prisoner or not, or determine whether the prisoner ends up the sexual property of a nice owner or a brutal one. In those circumstances, it's incredibly problematic to say that the prisoner had free choice in the matter: it's akin to asking a woman to have sex with you and at the same time off-handedly mentioning how unfortunate it'd be if she made you angry. It's a choice without a real choice. The idea that men cannot be raped while being the penetrator is one that has to go.
  - thaumasiotes 13y ago
    Did you read the article I linked? It talks about a prisoner who impregnated four of his guards, who then bragged to each other about having his kids. How one of the guards went to the guy for moral support when she found the prison environment too disturbing to handle. How the prisoners passed around tips on seducing the guards. These were not guards with any power over the inmates.
  - ams6110 13y ago
    Guards don't necessarily have the power you imagine. They are vastly outnumbered by the prisoners for one, and it's not uncommon for a guard to be intimidated into running drugs or other contraband for prison gangs. In many prisons housing violent offenders, its probably more accurate to say that the prisoners and the guards work in a tense sort of truce most of the time.
    - scarmig 13y ago
      Power is situational: in one context someone might have power over the other, while in another a minute later the roles might switch. And yeah, people do form a sort of truce or understanding about how power is to be applied and when. But when it comes down to it, guards have the power to use legitimated state violence on pretty much any offender. Simply because that might be politically costly (with respect to prisoner-guard relations) doesn't change the fact that the power exists and is real.
- hueving 13y ago
  > female guards falling in love with inmates and sleeping with them are not being "raped" in any conventional sense Wrong person being raped. It's always the guard doing the 'raping' because of the power at play. Even if the prisoner consents, it may have been under a lot of pressure to avoid problems with the guard later.
  - thaumasiotes 13y ago
    >> are not being "raped" in any conventional sense, and neither are the prisoners (who are the notional victims) Finish the sentence before commenting on it, maybe?
- JulianMorrison 13y ago
  OK, well, lets twist this around into a form you'll understand. Do you accept that there could be no valid consensual love between master and slave in the deep south in the height of the slave trade? Do you accept that if such a "love" happened, it would be so clearly tainted by unequal power, the fear of reprisals, the hope for respite and status, that it would be a mockery even if both parties honestly felt it? Now ask how it can be different in prison?
  - thaumasiotes 13y ago
    For some reason I can't quite put my finger on, it feels redundant to say this, but... Did you read the article I linked? It talks about a prisoner who impregnated four of his guards, who then bragged to each other about having his kids. How one of the guards went to the guy for moral support when she found the prison environment too disturbing to handle. How the prisoners passed around tips on seducing the guards. These were not guards with any power over the inmates. The power dynamic we're talking about is one where the prisoners hold power over the guards, not the other way around. > Do you accept that there could be no valid consensual love between master and slave in the deep south in the height of the slave trade? Of course not, no more than I accept that there can be no valid consensual love between a rich guy and his poor mistress. Which of the things you mention as making a "mockery" of master-slave relationships doesn't apply?
    - scarmig 13y ago
      There's some huge gap in perspective here, because I find your example an obvious case of rape on the prisoner that doesn't help your case at all.
      - thaumasiotes 13y ago
        Well, I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about, so I'll just list some random quotes from the article. > With the ease of ordering takeout, White used a smuggled cellphone to arrange exchanges between outside drug dealers and corrections officers, who brought the contraband to him to be sold inside the jail at huge markups, the affidavit alleged. Percocet went for $30 a pill; one-gram bags of marijuana sold for $50. The gang’s control was so complete that any non-member who tried to get in on the action had to pay a tax or risk physical harm. > Thirteen of them [the female prison guards] allegedly smuggled cellphones and drugs inside their hair, lunches and underwear for the man they called “Bulldog” or “Tay.” One tattooed his name on her neck, another on her wrist. Four have carried his children. > Documents that investigators recovered from the Black Guerrilla Family detail how its new members are taught to target specific officers. Look for women, they are told, with “low self-esteem, insecurities, and certain physical attributes.” > Jon Galley, a top Maryland corrections official, said he likes to show trainees a copy of a how-to guide, confiscated from an inmate’s cell, that lays out how to win over guards. The two pages of tips include dropping a “kite,” or love note, confessing to the officer that the inmate “felt a connection to her, that she was beautiful.” > officials would “turn a blind eye to contraband smuggling and actively protect White and the [Black Guerilla Family] by warning them of investigations,” according to the affidavit. One such warning allegedly came from Tiffany Linder, who had worked at Wal-Mart and Panera, her uncle said, before she was hired to be a guard three years ago. Investigators say the pregnant guard alerted White in January that cells were going to be searched. > In one taped conversation, White boasted that he made $15,800 that month, less than normal. “This is my jail. You understand that?” he said to a friend. “I’m dead serious. . . . I make every final call in this jail. . . . Everything come to me.” White ("the prisoner") is the victim here?
Shinkei 13y ago
Same with intoxication. Technically speaking, any sex under the influence of alcohol is non-consensual.

by pmorici 13y ago

thaumasiotes 13y ago

To my knowledge, it is generally true that sexual contact between an inmate and a prison guard is legally rape no matter whether consensual or not. This is a kludge in the law; obviously, female guards falling in love with inmates and sleeping with them are not being "raped" in any conventional sense, and neither are the prisoners (who are the notional victims). However... we definitely do want to criminalize that conduct, and should be punishing it much more than we actually do; those guards are not on our side; they are on the criminal's side and routinely compromise the security of the prison. http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/baltimore-jail-case-depicts-a-corrupt-culture-driven-by-drugs-money-and-sex/2013/05/04/d0cde8a6-b33f-11e2-9a98-4be1688d7d84_story.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/baltimore-jail-case-depi...

scarmig 13y ago
There's some small bit of gray area here, but I think most of those situations should still qualify as rape. Prison guards have immense power over inmates. Their decisions can give a prisoner a plush gig or a terrible one; can allow for the prisoner to receive medical care or not; can result in a prisoner being punished severely for an infraction or escape with just a slap on the wrist or even nothing at all. The discretion of prison guards can even determine whether a prisoner will have the opportunity to be raped by another prisoner or not, or determine whether the prisoner ends up the sexual property of a nice owner or a brutal one. In those circumstances, it's incredibly problematic to say that the prisoner had free choice in the matter: it's akin to asking a woman to have sex with you and at the same time off-handedly mentioning how unfortunate it'd be if she made you angry. It's a choice without a real choice. The idea that men cannot be raped while being the penetrator is one that has to go.
- thaumasiotes 13y ago
  Did you read the article I linked? It talks about a prisoner who impregnated four of his guards, who then bragged to each other about having his kids. How one of the guards went to the guy for moral support when she found the prison environment too disturbing to handle. How the prisoners passed around tips on seducing the guards. These were not guards with any power over the inmates.
- ams6110 13y ago
  Guards don't necessarily have the power you imagine. They are vastly outnumbered by the prisoners for one, and it's not uncommon for a guard to be intimidated into running drugs or other contraband for prison gangs. In many prisons housing violent offenders, its probably more accurate to say that the prisoners and the guards work in a tense sort of truce most of the time.
  - scarmig 13y ago
    Power is situational: in one context someone might have power over the other, while in another a minute later the roles might switch. And yeah, people do form a sort of truce or understanding about how power is to be applied and when. But when it comes down to it, guards have the power to use legitimated state violence on pretty much any offender. Simply because that might be politically costly (with respect to prisoner-guard relations) doesn't change the fact that the power exists and is real.
hueving 13y ago
> female guards falling in love with inmates and sleeping with them are not being "raped" in any conventional sense Wrong person being raped. It's always the guard doing the 'raping' because of the power at play. Even if the prisoner consents, it may have been under a lot of pressure to avoid problems with the guard later.
- thaumasiotes 13y ago
  >> are not being "raped" in any conventional sense, and neither are the prisoners (who are the notional victims) Finish the sentence before commenting on it, maybe?
JulianMorrison 13y ago
OK, well, lets twist this around into a form you'll understand. Do you accept that there could be no valid consensual love between master and slave in the deep south in the height of the slave trade? Do you accept that if such a "love" happened, it would be so clearly tainted by unequal power, the fear of reprisals, the hope for respite and status, that it would be a mockery even if both parties honestly felt it? Now ask how it can be different in prison?
- thaumasiotes 13y ago
  For some reason I can't quite put my finger on, it feels redundant to say this, but... Did you read the article I linked? It talks about a prisoner who impregnated four of his guards, who then bragged to each other about having his kids. How one of the guards went to the guy for moral support when she found the prison environment too disturbing to handle. How the prisoners passed around tips on seducing the guards. These were not guards with any power over the inmates. The power dynamic we're talking about is one where the prisoners hold power over the guards, not the other way around. > Do you accept that there could be no valid consensual love between master and slave in the deep south in the height of the slave trade? Of course not, no more than I accept that there can be no valid consensual love between a rich guy and his poor mistress. Which of the things you mention as making a "mockery" of master-slave relationships doesn't apply?
  - scarmig 13y ago
    There's some huge gap in perspective here, because I find your example an obvious case of rape on the prisoner that doesn't help your case at all.
    - thaumasiotes 13y ago
      Well, I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about, so I'll just list some random quotes from the article. > With the ease of ordering takeout, White used a smuggled cellphone to arrange exchanges between outside drug dealers and corrections officers, who brought the contraband to him to be sold inside the jail at huge markups, the affidavit alleged. Percocet went for $30 a pill; one-gram bags of marijuana sold for $50. The gang’s control was so complete that any non-member who tried to get in on the action had to pay a tax or risk physical harm. > Thirteen of them [the female prison guards] allegedly smuggled cellphones and drugs inside their hair, lunches and underwear for the man they called “Bulldog” or “Tay.” One tattooed his name on her neck, another on her wrist. Four have carried his children. > Documents that investigators recovered from the Black Guerrilla Family detail how its new members are taught to target specific officers. Look for women, they are told, with “low self-esteem, insecurities, and certain physical attributes.” > Jon Galley, a top Maryland corrections official, said he likes to show trainees a copy of a how-to guide, confiscated from an inmate’s cell, that lays out how to win over guards. The two pages of tips include dropping a “kite,” or love note, confessing to the officer that the inmate “felt a connection to her, that she was beautiful.” > officials would “turn a blind eye to contraband smuggling and actively protect White and the [Black Guerilla Family] by warning them of investigations,” according to the affidavit. One such warning allegedly came from Tiffany Linder, who had worked at Wal-Mart and Panera, her uncle said, before she was hired to be a guard three years ago. Investigators say the pregnant guard alerted White in January that cells were going to be searched. > In one taped conversation, White boasted that he made $15,800 that month, less than normal. “This is my jail. You understand that?” he said to a friend. “I’m dead serious. . . . I make every final call in this jail. . . . Everything come to me.” White ("the prisoner") is the victim here?

Shinkei 13y ago

Same with intoxication. Technically speaking, any sex under the influence of alcohol is non-consensual.