Press Release
August 15, 2005
Stop Prisoner Rape
On Friday, August 19, 2005, Stop Prisoner Rape (SPR) will highlight the stark realities of sexual violence in detention by bringing five survivors to San Francisco to testify at a public hearing held by the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission. The Commission was established under the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) of 2003, the first-ever federal legislation addressing prisoner rape.
Kendell Spruce was raped by 27 inmates, over a nine-month period, in an Arkansas prison. He contracted HIV as the result of the attacks, and has since developed AIDS. Chance Martin was gang-raped in an Indiana jail at the age of 18, after attending a party where all guests were arrested because one possessed drugs. Hope Hernandez was raped by a corrections official in a Washington D.C. jail shower, while heavily medicated to counteract drug withdrawal symptoms. Cecilia Chung, a transgender woman, was coerced into having sex with another inmate in a California jail, terrified that she would get attacked if she refused. TJ Parsell was gang-raped as a 17-year-old held in an adult prison in Michigan, after being sentenced to four years for robbing a Photomat with a toy gun. After the initial assault, inmates flipped a coin to determine who would “own” him.
What are the odds Doug Ireland and friends will cover this with an iota of the zeal they’re devoting to condemnation of Iran’s criminal justice system?