Hearing: The Cost of Victimization: Why Our Nation Must Confront Prison Rape - June 14, 2005
Questions and Answers
Personal Accounts from Survivors of Prison Sexual Assaults
- If there was one thing that we can recommend, I would ask what do you think would be the most profound thing that we could recommend that would have an impact on this problem?
- I wanted to ask if you would give us a sense of the extent to which the people who are involved raping you, either inmates or staff, had multiple histories of this sort of common behavior, some of which you have indicated that it was, and also if you could say something about whether staff or inmates who are involved in rape were also involved in violence, staff violence against inmates or inmate on inmate violence that did not include sexual abuse.
- Any recommendations about ways to strengthen their roll or recommendations about how they might be useful because a number of you have talked about sort of that being a place where you felt like you could get some help.
- There needs to be multiple points and multiple ways to report and some of them with the potential to be external.
- Looking at the inmate grievance process is also something that needs to be done
- It would help the commission for you to explain as a prisoner why you would be reluctant to report something and also what the impact is of having a sign up that says, prison rape is serious, report it.
- Mr. DeBlasio, didn't you get sent to higher security because you filed a grievance?
- (Mr. DeBlasio further explained)
- Isn't there even danger beyond the Vice Lords of just other prisoners who because you're reporting an incident, you'll be viewed as a rat?
- Ms. Bruntmyer, I wandered how prison treated you? Were they kind to you or what happened when you talked to the prison about this, about your son?
- (Chairman recap)
How Does Our Nation Confront Prison Rape: The Medical, Emotional and Mental Health Questions
- Are you saying that those reports have no empirical data to support that the rise in HIV/AIDS is a result of sexual assault of inmates?
- What is the role of CDC in terms of doing the education or risk prevention among the prison population and currently the percentage of your budget or efforts that are directed in that way?
- Was there a reason in those five-year demonstrate, to not look at risk or sort of risky sexual behavior in the institutional settings?
- I just want to be clear, though. Those studies did not look at the conduct of participants while incarcerated?
- Is there any research model that could be done to make this assessment?
- Commissioner Fellner's follow up on Dr. Potter's comment on the research.
- In your view as an expert as an independent, saying that CDC has no official position, so speaking as an individual who is an informed expert, what would you say would be a wise course of action if you could recommend it?
- Question for Ms. Turner and Mr. Dumond: I know that both of you have done work with people who are in institutional settings, and I know, Mr. Dumond, you're currently working with the Massachusetts Department of Corrections. There particular elements of a protocol or policy that you think would be helpful in addressing prisoner sexual assault, especially taking into consideration that it's not necessarily immediately reported?
- Question for Dr. Potter: I have a question here where you talk about currently CDC's position is that there should be behavioral work around preventing the risk of HIV and AIDS transmissions in institutional settings. And then you also talked about vaccine preventable types of sexually transmitted disease, and noted, I think that there were two?
- How likely is it that a male victim of prison rape could get treatment in prison? Male victim because that's where you've worked. But the odds are very low, right?
- Questions for Dr. Potter: Are there any plans within CDC to do any such long-term study? What kinds of resources or what kinds of things do you think CDC would need to do or what kinds of resources would it need to have in order to adequately address the issues of prison rape?
- I wanted to explore a little more best practices. It's also evident from the testimony that's been given and that Bob Dumond's research that he's done as well, that there are all too many facilities that don't provide good aftercare, and I don't believe do anything with regard to prevention. But I wondered if you, apart from the fact that this goes to -- which gets high marks for a lot of things, if you could point to either any individual facilities or individual states which seem to have -- either be trying out or institutionalized successful models either for prevention or for treatment. And I would like to focus here on prisoner sexual abuse as opposed to staff sexual abuse if we may.
- Dr. Potter, if you could send to the commission the information that you cited with regard to Hepatitis A and B, the cost of the vaccine, and information that CDC may have on the cost to the community on prison systems who are not treating hepatitis, it would be very grateful.
How Does Our Nation Confront Prison Rape: The Moral and Ethical Questions
- What were the factors that you would say or at least some the factors that contributed to the individual being subjected to sexual assault? (based on Mr. Richards personal experience of being in prison)
- Your testimony talked about sort of the prevalence in rough numbers around male survivors and female survivors in your database. Did you mean to suggest that that was sort of typical of the overall prevalence or just what was in SPR's database? (addressed to Ms. Stemple)
- What you see as solutions for staff sexual abuse, if you see again it's isolation and control. And the other thing is you suggested that the root causes of sexual violence were the predators in prison, if we deal with a smaller number of prisoners that that may dramatically lower the incidents. And I wanted you to explore that a little more. Were the origins of prisoner rape lie more in mismanagement and badly run prisoners than in predators?
- How do we deal with some of these larger questions which in prison management if we're really trying to get at the root causes, how do we avoid that sort of Sessions versus Kennedy debate that you suggested?
- Ms. Stemple's comment comment on issue concerning prison violence and whether rape is really just the same thing?
- Any suggestions as to how the commission can go beyond simply proposing standards, but help motivate leadership as you spoke earlier.
- End of Question and Answer session
