The Hill News

Attorney General Eric Holder proposes to seriously weaken standards intended to hold prison officials accountable for eliminating rape in their prisons. 

It isn’t often that we hear much about prison rape - except in jokes on late night TV. However, it is not a laughing matter. It is the horrid reality faced by hundreds of prisoners each day in American jails and prisons. That’s right â€" hundreds of victims every day of the year. The Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that in a year’s time there were 216,000 sexual assaults on inmates. 

This high incidence of rape in our prisons is a blot on the character of the nation. Yet, for years many prison officials have scoffed at the notion that rapes were taking place in our prisons. Others shrugged it off as an expected part of prison life. When asked about prison rape, one spokesperson for the Massachusetts Department of Correction said, "Well, that's prison...I don't know what to tell you." In that offh! and remark, he was expressing what many feel in their hearts but are loath to admit: "They deserve it."

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