In U.S. Prisons, Inmates Sold Into Sex Slavery

[ensho]

http://truthout.org/us-prisons-inmates-sold-sex-slavery/1302066000


In prisons across the country, gangs are selling their fellow inmates into sex trafficking in order to increase their power and profits.

Ex-convict Scott Howard, a survivor of the prison sex trade, described being smuggled from prison to prison over a two-year period. His "owners" -- members of a white supremacist gang -- sold him to a group of Norteño gang members, who forced Howard to prostitute himself in exchange for $7 to $20 per sexual encounter, an abuse that was repeated over the course of many years.

"The situation is an epidemic. Dozens of us were being forced into prostitution, and I can assure you that as I speak there are other (prisoners) who are being forced into prostitution. The last time I was sold (for sex), the 'client' paid with four boxes of cookies. It's horrible what goes on, and in prison no one comes forward to help us!" said Howard, who was released from prison in December 2010, after serving 10 years on fraud charges. He now works as a reformer, seeking solutions that will protect prisoners from sexual abuse.

The sex trade is dominated by national criminal organizations such as the Mexican Mafia, the Sureños and the Norteños, who sell young prisoners for sex in order to finance their activities, according to an annual report issued by the National Center on Gang Intelligence.

-snip-
------------------------------

work slaves and sex slaves

the people that run the prisons should be looked at, deeply.

prisons are big business

now we even have prison Barons

[Turbineguy]

1. And republicans want prison reform?

makes no sense.

[WinkyDink]

9. What "prison reform"? Republicans want PRIVATE , for-PROFIT prisons.

[Turbineguy]

13. Duke Cunningham

has become a prison reform advocate. A few other repubs who have discovered the joys of incarceration also.

[midnight]

17. Exactly...

[onehandle]

2. Prisons are a Republican industry run on the thinnest of shoestrings.

Only commie pinkos care about the welfare of prisoners.

[upi402]

3. truth-out k/r

:patriot:
The forgotten population.
We wrongly assume they are guilty, and forget they are humans that can change, improve, and will often get out and into our neighborhoods.

It's un-American and un-Christian to tattoo a digital scarlet letter on their heads - they can't get jobs, can't rent a house or apartment.

All because 16 Saudis flew planes into buildings. Yet BushCo give the Saudi dictator a hand-holding walk thru the flower garden after that.

[mopinko]

5. goes back a lot further than that.

and someone correct me if i am wrong, but didn't the privatized prison 'craze' coincide with 'just say no'?
the war on drugs is a failure. 40 years with nothing but wreckage to show. time for peace with drugs. but who would stick their neck out for that these days?

[upi402]

7. After the media promoted the Willie Horton attack ads

all politicians checked their spines at the studio entrance and grabbed the hairspray.

[Uncle Joe]

11. By criminalizing the American People, they can be enslaved anew.

That's what is going on with the so called "War on Drugs" and the immoral concept of profiting from imprisoning the American People.

The corporate media is behind much of this with their fear based programming.

We're a nation of approximately 300+ million people and I would wager the murder rate is minuscule as compared to the % of evening network broadcast programming depicting murder.

You simply can't get through a night without seeing dead bodies galore on either CSI, CSI Miami, CSI NY, CSI LA, Law and Order, a new program titled Body of Evidence, The Mentalist, (and I actually like the Mentalist) and countless other police, DA or Coroner programs, cable TV even has one dedicated to a serial killer Dexter.

If anything this continuous barrage of murder programming must be having an effect on the nation, whether it's magnifying fear or violence.

The ironic thing is real bodies from the actions of War or even depicting flag draped coffins are virtually taboo with the corporate media.

I believe this conflicting brain washing dynamic serves to magnify fear and violence in the American People while sanitizing the ultimate very real actions of their war making decisions, basically turning us in to junkyard guard dogs.

[upi402]

14. +1,000 Even Nixon admitted the war on drugs was FAIL

He started to go with treatment centers but changed his mind - for some reason:hurts:

[midnight]

18. War on drugs is really profitable...

[notesdev]

10. It's not even a matter of guilt an innocence

Most of the people we have in prison never should have been charged with any crime in the first place. This is prohibition gone wild.

[Angry Dragon]

4. It will get better once the prisons go private for profit

[callous taoboy]

15. Friend of mine was beaten within an inch of his life at a private prison owned

by the husband of Kay Bailey Hutchison. A gang beat him for asking them to not make so much racket at night. He got busted with three grams of coke.

[seabeyond]

6. more disgusting. too much disgusting.... lordy. nt

[xchrom]

8. another link here:

http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2011/02/scott_howard_prison_gang_smoking_gun.php


Scott Howard: Does "smoking gun" memo prove he was targeted by prison gang?

This week's cover story, "The Devil's Playground," presents Scott Howard's account of enduring rape and extortion by a notorious white supremacist gang in Colorado's prisons -- and then battling the indifference and even alleged cover-ups by the staffers he went to for help.

But can he prove it?

The Colorado Attorney General's Office has emphatically denied concealing evidence that would help substantiate Howard's story. But one document that surfaced after years of litigation has been described by his attorney as a "smoking gun" that shows prison staff knew about the extortion and did nothing.

[msanthrope]

19. Pretty good background story, here--

http://www.westword.com/2011-02-03/news/211-crew-rapes-extorts-scott-howard-colorado-prison/

[bertman]

12. REC. Just one more reason for prison reform.

There are a lot of innocent people in prison and there are a lot of people in there who broke laws that are nothing more than christian morality smokescreens, but there are also a lot of very dangerous and predatory individuals who need to be kept away from the civilian population.

[robinlynne]

16. smuggled from prison to prison?

[white_wolf]

20. Our prison system is terrible.

The fact that when someone goes into prison they either come out worse or are abused by other inmates in such a terrible manner speaks volumes about our society. We need to do something about it, I'm sorry but if someone is sent to prison that should be punishment enough, they shouldn't have to worry about being raped or beaten up or anything like that.

[Taverner]

21. When will this ever be fixed? I worry the answer is 'never'

And as a result, the inmates go in one way, and all come out angry, vengeful and criminals

Don't believe me? Look up Clyde Barrow of 'Bonnie and Clyde' fame

He wasn't a choirboy, but he wasn't really a career criminal when he went into prison

But when he came back, all of his relatives said he really changed

And then he met Bonnie Parker...


ON EDIT: IN fact, many don't know that Bonnie and Clyde had a method to their madness - their goal was to destroy the walls of the prison Clyde was in. Folks close to him said he was obsessed about that.