Hacker News Reader

Comment by D9u | Hacker News Reader

  The Comal County District Attorney's Office did not intend for Carter to suffer what happened next, 
  Flanary says, but it was reasonably foreseeable: He was sexually assaulted.

The fact that prisoners are commonly subject to sexual assault, and that this consequence is trotted out as an acceptable deterrent to crime, illustrates just how uncivilized the US prison-industrial-complex is in this, the year 2014. Failure to protect vulnerable and, or, weaker inmates from other inmates shows negligence on the part of the government. This is completely unacceptable as it constitutes cruel & unusual punishment, and is yet another blatant disregard for the rights of We the People.

Then there's the fact that the context of the offensive speech was excluded from evidence.

Disgusting!

View on HN

I'm glad to see someone with what I think is the appropriate level of outrage. A lot of these comments seem to equivocate or qualify, but few of them recognize that regardless of whether someone is guilty or not, the sexual assault of a prisoner represents a profound institutional failure in every case.

That we citizens of the US have a tendency to tolerate this all-too-frequent failure is a shame to this entire nation.

Prison in the US isn't about rehabilitation it's about punishment. No one goes to prison thinking they're going to come out as a better person with a new outlook on life. They're going to come out war-torn and barely above functional with little to no prospects.

This is exactly why the stories of people that do come out a better person (got a degree, found religion, etc) make the "news". No body talks much about the other 99% that just come out more pissed at the world than before they went in.

Little to no prospects: right, because punishment doesn't stop when you leave prison. Punishment continues until the day you die: you can't get a good job because virtually no one will hire an ex-con.

And that's not just because employers are bad people - it's the propensity of people to sue and win against the employers if an employee commits a crime. The employer is even further liable if he knew the employee was an ex-con.

And why are we paying tax dollars for this? Especially when some of these prisons are run by for-profit corporations?

If there's a single way to spur the economy it would be to close down many of these prisons, and reprogram the law enforcement goal of populating them.

Because that would hurt the interests of powerful lobbyists, and therefore congressmen and senators.

The government of the US does not even remotely work for her people. They serve themselves.

Where else are profitable prison industries to find workers?

Edit: This is a slightly complex relationship but it holds. Once you start down a path of mass incarceration, there's pressure to find a profitable use for prisoners. Once you have a profit-making use, there's a demand for more prisoners. So while it is chicken and egg, it's pretty clear that the demand is a factor today. It is also worth noting that the the 13th Amendment specifically allows slavery as punishment for a crime.

...and to make things worse, innocent people are often in jail for a considerable amount of time. If you're waiting for trial and can't pay bail...tough luck.

This guy, as far as I can tell, isn't convicted for anything yet. So, according to the law ("innocent until proven guilty") he is innocent. Even if thousands saw him torture a dozen babies, he should get better protection, even if you think prison should solely be for punishment (an idea that, IMO, is both morally wrong and economically stupid)

I keep saying, that if I lived in the US and was picked out for jury-duty I'd have an extremely hard time of voting to convict anyone, even violent criminals, because of the nature of the US prison system.

Even more so because it is unclear whether it actually makes the public any safer, given the extreme re-offending rate.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com