[Trigger warning for sexual violence.]
"Prison rape doesn't happen in a vacuum, but it's not inevitable, either. It's just another accepted reality in a system that dehumanizes people by design."—Michelle Chen at Colorlines, in a highly recommended article about prison rape. Earlier this week, "a coalition of civil liberties groups called on the Justice Department to finally enact structural reforms to hold attackers, and the institutions that create an abusive environment, accountable," as prison rape long ago reached epidemic proportions: "About one in every 20 people in prison were sexually assaulted last year, according to federal statistics. For juvenile inmates, the annual rate is about one in eight. The threat of sexual violence and coercion stems from both fellow inmates as well as staff, and women and girls especially are at risk of being exploited by the officers controlling their facilities."
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