College student serving weekend in jail for marijuana gets r

[Asheran Mojomaster]

http://www.mpp.org/site/apps/nl/content ... ct=2087257

Unnamed Florida College Student

On June 6, 2003, a 19-year-old Alachua County, Florida, college student was raped by his cellmate as he served the first of four weekend sentences for delivering marijuana, a felony offense. (The student's name has not been released.) He had been placed in a cell with a violent offender who had been in the county jail for 11 months awaiting trial on sexual battery charges.

The two men were sharing a cell because the jail was overcrowded. Typically, inmates are classified according to offense, criminal history, gender, and/or age, among other factors, when assigned to their cells. Because certain offenders need to be isolated for safety reasons, a jail's capacity is in reality much lower than the number of beds it houses.

While the Alachua County jail could theoretically hold 920 inmates, in reality it could only accommodate an average of 782 inmates on any given day because of the need to separate certain offenders. On the day the college student was raped, the jail contained 918 inmates, far exceeding capacity. Such overcrowding had been typical in the jail since 1998.

Though the two men would normally have been separated, they were grouped together because delivering marijuana and sexual battery are both considered felonies. According to Alachua County Sheriff's Sergeant Jim Troiano, "If there was space available, absolutely we would rather keep the weekenders in a pre-designated area. But because we don't have much space available we have to do with circumstances on hand."



So some guy was serving 1 of 4 weekends in jail gets put with a dangerous criminal and raped...guess that will teach him about the dangers of smoking pot!

[Midnyte_Ragebringer]

If he didn't break the law, he wouldn't have been in that position. Blaming anyone else other than himself would defeat the purpose of the punishment.

[Nick]

Nice troll Mid.

[Sueven]

Prison rape is a heinous and tragically minimized human rights violation.

[Midnyte_Ragebringer]

Nice troll Mid.

Not a troll, Nick. That is my true opinion.

[Canelek]

Nice troll Mid.

Not a troll, Nick. That is my true opinion.

While that may be your true opinion, it is a travesty of the criminal system to pair up violent criminals with non-violent criminals. Granted, the whole pot thing is a long-running prohibition, but that is beside the point. Point is, crime is not black and white, once in the judicial system. That is why there are different punishments for said crimes.

Software piracy, pot growing, and heroin abuse, for instance, are not quite in the same league as murder, rape and child molestation. Now, if you can understand why there are different punishments for different crimes, you can (hopefully) understand why a pot dealer or whatever does not "deserve" to be raped by a violent criminal--in jail or not!

[Aabidano]

Nice troll Mid.

Not a troll, Nick. That is my true opinion.

For a comparison, if you got a speeding ticket in a state that required on the spot bond posting or a trip to jail, you didn't have the cash and so went for an overnight\short stay and got boned in the ass, it would serve you right as well?

*Edit - Given the AIDS rate among that segment of our population, what you're saying is essence is that the death penalty is appropriate for pot posession.

I wonder what that county's liability is in this area.

[Dregor Thule]

The system does work, who knew?

[Midnyte_Ragebringer]

No one said getting ass raped was justified, but it happened because he put himself in that position. Their should be no liability.

[Fash]

No one said getting ass raped was justified, but it happened because he put himself in that position. Their should be no liability.

If there is no liability, this will happen again. There should be no rape going on, it is a failure of the facility to monitor and control their inmates and it has to stop.

It didn't happen because he put himself there... Someone else put him there, in a cage, with a sexual deviant.

[Aabidano]

No one said getting ass raped was justified, but it happened because he put himself in that position. Their should be no liability.

So again, if you were to get locked up for a minor offense or even a mistake and get boned in the ass, it's your fault for being there and you'd accept that?

[Midnyte_Ragebringer]

No one said getting ass raped was justified, but it happened because he put himself in that position. Their should be no liability.

So again, if you were to get locked up for a minor offense or even a mistake and get boned in the ass, it's your fault for being there and you'd accept that?

Yes.

I also, agree that they should be monitoring these animals better and they should not be allowed to commit more crimes while in jail. I just don't think because of this pothead it matters anymore than before.

[Bojangels]

Mid, my problem with your opinion is that you seem to view prison rape as part of his punishment. There should be no perp on perp rape going on in prisons. It's not supposed to be a 'nice' place, but it shouldn't be candyland for violent rapists.

I don't have much sympathy for the guy, but corrections officers should have more control over their inmates. Allowing them to break the law while they're in jail undermines the effectiveness of their punishment imo.

[Midnyte_Ragebringer]

Mid, my problem with your opinion is that you seem to view prison rape as part of his punishment. There should be no perp on perp rape going on in prisons. It's not supposed to be a 'nice' place, but it shouldn't be candyland for violent rapists.

I don't have much sympathy for the guy, but corrections officers should have more control over their inmates. Allowing them to break the law while they're in jail undermines the effectiveness of their punishment imo.

Maybe you typed this before reading my above post. I completely agree with what you said. I'm so disgusted with how many freedoms inmates get. I think prison should contain no TV, newspapers, magazines or anything. The only thing that should be allowed in educational material. They should not be allowed to congregate in the yard in groups, etc. I also think cells should be for only one person.

[Wulfran]

No one said getting ass raped was justified, but it happened because he put himself in that position. Their should be no liability.

No there is a liability on the prison staff: their duty is ensure the safety of their inmates as well as to ensure they remain in custody for the duration of their sentences. I`ll agree with you that they shouldn`t be coddled and that prison is about punishment as well as rehabilitation but that doesn`t change the fact that they are owed a basic level of security when we do incarcerate them.