This is a great point by Rob:
It suggests to me that the public at large has simply concluded that a) rape is an integral part of prison life, such that a five year prison sentence automatically includes five years of rape, and b) that anyone who goes to prison is irredeemably besmirched, and thus deserving of constant rape.
To take this a bit farther, it's interesting to compare modern conceptions of prison (sadly or no, I've never seen Prison Break) with the work of Johnny Cash or Merle Haggard. For Haggard or Cash, that a poor white family would have to deal with the prison system in some fashion was simply a fact of life, even if Cash himself only spent one night behind bars. Moreover, neither Cash nor Haggard dodged the question of guilt; even if the protagonists of their songs weren't going away for life, they were usually guilty of something. At some point (probably as the War on Drugs saw a steady increase in the incarceration percentages of young black men) the idea that white people would have to deal with prison became alien. Is there music or other art today that deals with the possibility that guilty white folks might spend time in prison, and thus that prison should be made at least survivable?
According to the Justice Department, "[in] 2005 there were 3,145 black male sentenced prison inmates per 100,000 black males in the United States, compared to 1,244 Hispanic male inmates per 100,000 Hispanic males and 471 white male inmates per 100,000 white males." This is important. The relative infrequency with which white Americans enter prison, particularly for extended periods of time, surely effects the political urgency of prison reform. Indeed, it's likely the reason overall legislation pushes in the other direction -- towards overcrowding and longer sentences and less rehabilitation. The whole conversation reminds me of Stoller's important post on the political conversation within the African-American community, back when I was more of an activist, I did some work with ethnic activism groups, and prison reform, sentencing guidelines, the drug war, and general criminal justice issues were a huge focus in that community. It strikes me now how rarely such issues are mentioned in Washington.
