> Look at schools. We live in a school district that’s extremely proactive about addressing bullying. Yet, our friend’s kid recently had water poured over her head on the bus. If you can’t banish physical violence in schools, among normal children, is there any prospect of doing the same in prisons?

Pouring water on someone's head !== rape (obviously).

Saying that we can't do anything about extreme, widespread violence in the prison system because we haven't yet managed to completely eradicate the mildest forms of physical bullying in schools is a ridiculous argument.

If the problem really is the interaction between prisoners, then we should simply stop those specific interactions taking place (or change the circumstances, so that they don't result in violence).

I'd like to live in a society where we prioritise (funding for) that over pranks in schools.