I’ve long argued that rape and sexual abuse in our prisons is the most important issue in American politics (or possibly the second most important, behind eliminating the democratic deficit).
So I should point out that there are a few hours left to submit public comments to the Department of Justice on the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission’s proposed standards to eliminate prison rape. You can go here and click on “submit comment” (or go to regulations.gov and search for “Docket No. OAG-131″). You can also learn more here and here.
I was almost going to write a much longer post about why rape and sexual abuse in American prisons is such an important issue — and so indicative of the barbaric sadism at the center of the American psyche, seeing as how we are the Land of the Incarcerated — but then I realized that would be kind of like writing an essay arguing against Nazi human experimentation. I shouldn’t have to convince anyone that it’s brutal and sickening, because those words have no meaning if they don’t apply to forcing someone to live in an environment where they’re violently raped and sexually humiliated on a regular basis.