When I edit a news story for inclusion in one of my news columns, the first thing I do it to decide which tag it belongs in, then check to see whether there’s an earlier item it follows from (either directly, as a development of an earlier story, or indirectly, by bearing a resemblance to an earlier one). But every so often a tag becomes too “busy” for me to easily use it in this way; if I have to go through a dozen pages of tagged items before I even reach the beginning of the year, it eats up too much time and may even make it more difficult to find appropriate items (because skimming dozens of similar articles quickly becomes mentally fatiguing). That’s why I break up such cluttered tags every once in a while so as to make it easier to categorize them in the future. The “Torture Chamber” tag reached that point sometime last year;
I already have two tags devoted to the ongoing human rights debacle which is the US prison & jail system (the other being “The Punitive Mindset“), but I think it’s time for a third. In the future, items about prison rape will appear in this tag; they were previously linked in several long chains, culminating most recently with Torture Chamber (#1302), (#1301), and (#1299), but there are also quite a few similar items which simply appear in the main “Torture Chamber” tag. I’ll start the new tag with three items, the first a typical collection of euphemisms from Colorado:
…Jason Hillyer…pleaded guilty to [lesser charges after orally raping a woman confined to a cage by the State]…he…[will be] required to register as a sex offender…Hillyer [committed the rape] in May 2021…[but his victim was afraid to report him before] June 29, 2021…Hillyer [tried to escape surveillance cameras by raping] the victim…in…the bathroom…
The other is from a major hotbed of prison rape, California:
An Orange County…deputy has been charged [with misdemeanors] after…sexually assaulting two [women locked in cages]…he w[as posted to supposedly guard]…Arcadio Rodriguez [moles]ted them on multiple occasions dating back to May 2022 by [groping] them…and [forc]ing them [to watch] videos of himself [masturbating]…
As so often happens, Rodriguez’ picture is being suppressed by “authorities” so he can continue to predate on unsuspecting women. If that surprises you, you may not have realized how endemic rape by screws and other staff is to prisons:
The state of New Mexico spent at least $860,000 last year to settle…[cases in which screws] rape[d or]…sexual abuse[d]…women…[condemned to its] prisons. The settlements resolved…seven [cas]es…each [filed by a woman who had been raped by prison staff in the name of “]correction[“]…In addition to the cost of the settlements, New Mexico spent about $2.5 million in recent years defending itself against [suits alleging systemic liability for] the [rape]s…[due] to…a culture in New Mexico prisons that expose[s] women to…sexual abuse…“They have focused their efforts, including remarkably high expenditures on legal fees, on hiding such abuse from the public rather than on investigating and eradicating it,” [said Elizabeth Harrison, an attorney for some of the victims]…
Leave a Reply