Gay prison stories
Former prisoners share their experiences of sex in prison
The Commission on Sex in Prison’s final report, published today (Tuesday 17 March), features accounts from former prisoners speaking for the first time about their experiences of sex behind bars.
Sex in prison: Experiences of former prisoners is the fifth and terminal briefing paper published by the Commission, which was established by the Howard League for Penal Reform and includes eminent academics, former prison governors and health experts.
Recommendations from the Commission’s two-year inquiry will be presented today (Tuesday 17 March) at a conference in London.
The Commission sought permission to interview current prisoners about their experiences of sex in prison, but this approach was blocked by the Ministry of Justice.
However, Dr Alisa Stevens, Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Southampton, was competent to interview 26 former prisoners during the summer of 2014 – 24 men and two women.
Her report concludes that a national survey of both the serving prison population and former prisoners, fully supported by but independent of the National Offender Management Service (NOMS), is “urgently required” to
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First, I would like to acknowledge the Review Panel for listening to my story about how I was raped and abused at Orleans Parish Prison (OPP) in New Orleans, Louisiana. I can’t be with you today because I’m an inmate at the Eastern Mississippi Correctional Facility (EMCF) in Meridian, Mississippi. But I’m very joyful that you’re hearing my story anyway.
When I was arrested in 2008 in New Orleans, I was on a 72-hour hand over from the Harrison County Work Center in Mississippi. I was in Brand-new Orleans spending time with my boyfriend. Because I didn’t return to the Work Center within 72-hours, I was considered an escapee and arrested on October 31, 2008. I went to the Core Lock-up at the OPP’s House of Detention. I was thirty years elderly at the time.
In January 2009, I was moved from Central Lock-up to the general population at the OPP’s House of Detention (HOD). Before assigning me to the general population, the facility officials didn’t do a evaluating process. For instance, no one asked me if I was gay. No one asked me if I had ever been sexually assaulted before, either. The fact is that I had been — prior to my incarceration. Because I was terrified for my safety, I told
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I’ve always been gay, but I’ve never been overtly effeminate. Coming from a family of several positive male role models, I never had to hide who I was, so I never did.
Like everyone, I had heard the stories about men being “turned out” in prison. As I was being booked into Orleans Parish Prison in November of 2004, I realized I was a target.
During the processing I was placed in a holding cell with nearly fifty other prisoners.
I was terrified going into the cell. So I found a quiet identify on the floor in the corner. I sat with my knees in and my arms folded with my head down, so I’m not sure how they knew I was gay. Still, a man sat next to me and put his arm around me. I attempted to spring up but another man stood over me and forcefully pushed me back down by my shoulders.
“You ain’t fighting back, is you, sweetness?” he said. I looked at him in horror as tears welled up in my eyes. The man who was standing exposed himself while the other aggressively forced me to give his friend oral sex. Out of fear, I performed oral sex on them both. Even with several people in the cell, no one said or did anything. I don’t know why I expected them to do anything.
I
“You’re looking at between 3 and 5 years.” Those few words changed my life. Forever.
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I had no plan of what to anticipate inside. I had never been inside myself, nobody I knew had been inside. All I knew was from TV (Porridge and the like) and violent US movies. I was terrified. Also, to add to my concerns, I’m gay.
My first not many days inside were actually rather relaxed. After a long legal process, direct from court, I was oddly glad when the cell door closed behind me for the first time and the ordeal was over. For my first few nights I was in a solo cell, I was competent to put the legal turmoil behind me but I didn't know at that stage what the l
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