Can we STOP joking about prison rape?

Among the most disturbing trends in American comedies is not the growing incidence of groin kicks (common in even chidren's movies today). It is the fact that jokes about prison rape are now so common as to be expected in any movie or television show about jails or prisons. Recent studies, however, show sexual abuse in prison is no laughing matter. And even more surprising, a huge number of them are perpetrated not prisoner-on-prisoner, but guard-on-prisoner.

How many people are really victimized every year? Recent BJS studies using a “snapshot” technique have found that, of those incarcerated on the days the surveys were administered, about 90,000 had been abused in the previous year, but as we have argued previously, those numbers were also misleadingly low. Finally, in January, the Justice Department published its first plausible estimates. In 2008, it now says, more than 216,600 people were sexually abused in prisons and jails and, in the case of at least 17,100 of them, in juvenile detention. Overall, that’s almost six hundred people a day—twenty-five an hour.

It is time to stop trivializing this horrible phenomenon, and recognize it as a very, very bad thing. Convicts give up many of their rights when they commit a crime and are convicted. But ensuring basic human rights is something we should always do, because otherwise we are all dehumanized.

On the "redefining rape" story...

Pro-Life and Pro-Choice blogs are going bonkers over claims that Republicans are trying to "redefine rape" in the name of limiting abortion funding. Pro-Choicers are claiming it an attempt to force victims of rape to prolong their suffering. First, the relevant quote.

"This would rule out federal assistance for abortions in many rape cases, including instances of statutory rape, many of which are non-forcible," Nick Baumann of Mother Jones wrote recently.

He continued, "For example: If a 13-year-old girl is impregnated by a 24-year-old adult, she would no longer qualify to have Medicaid pay for an abortion."

If the bill becomes law, parents of minors would also be banned from paying for pregnancy termination for their daughters with tax-exempt health savings accounts. Also, the cost of the private health insurance that covered the treatment would not be able to be deducted as a medical expense for tax purposes.

Second, a few Mod-Blog middle-of-the-road reality checks. Please note, I am ardently Pro-life, but am also a reasonable person.

1. This bill DOES NOT limit the RIGHT of women to get an abortion. It merely limits the ability of these women to have FEDERALLY-FUNDED abortions.

2. These limits would do LITTLE to stop the VAST majority of abortions, at the expense of the MOST controversial kinds of abortion cases. This is like trying to stem the tide of obesity in America by limiting Happy Meals for teenagers.

This bill is clearly overreaching by a newly-elected zealous House. It is time to put this one back on the shelf and examine ways to reduce the really horrible abortions happening out there - those done for no other reason than birth control by mature adults. And to ensure alternatives are easy and cheap to find - especially adoption.