In U.S. prisons and jails, gay and transgender inmates live in danger. One study shows that more than four in ten of these detainees are sexually assaulted while behind bars, throughout the country. The gravity of the problem prompted SPR to host a Community Dialogue in Los Angeles in November, bringing together more than 40 human rights advocates, rape crisis counselors, gay rights activists, corrections officials, and politicians.

The goals of the Community Dialogue were to jump-start a frank discussion about the plight of gay and transgender prisoners and to rally community support behind a "Call for Change," a set of policy recommendations that, if fully implemented, would significantly decrease the frequency of sexual assault in detention.

"Historically, gay rights groups and rape crisis centers have shied away from the issue of prisoner rape, perhaps feeling that it's marginal," explained Emily Frydrych, SPR's Policy Associate. "I think it became obvious to everyone at the Dialogue that we are looking at a widespread human rights crisis, and that sexual abuse is never marginal."

During her address at the Community Dialogue, CA State Assembly Member Jackie Goldberg concluded that a lack of popular demand for prison reform has kept legislators passive. "People still believe that there are prisoners and then there is everybody else, with no link between them. We need to start educating lawmakers about prisoner rape. Silence is death. We know that in the gay community."

T.J. Parsell, a gay prisoner rape survivor and member of SPR's Board of Directors, offered first-hand testimony at the Community Dialogue, describing how he was gang-raped on his first day in prison. "I was 17 and I weighed only 158 pounds. Afterward, they flipped a coin to decide who would be my man," said Parsell. "I never reported the abuse, because I was afraid. As a prisoner, you know that snitches die."

While prisoner rape remains widespread, some facilities go to great lengths to keep inmates safe. Deputy Sheriffs Randy Bell and Bart Lanni, for example, head a special unit within Men's Central Jail in Los Angeles in which gay and transgender prisoners are protected, and educated.

"Our philosophy is to have people help people," explained Deputy Bell. Since the creation of their program, the recidivism rate among participating in-mates has dropped from a whopping 90 percent in 1998 to 30 percent in 2004. Though the results are striking, prison programs like the one at Men's Central Jail remain rare.

The Community Dialogue ended with a passionate discussion about how community-based advocates could contribute to the fight against prisoner rape. In the coming months, SPR and allied groups will finalize the "Call for Change" document, before presenting it to prisons and jails.

When SPR Board of Advisors member Gabriel London made The Rodney Hulin Story, a documentary highlighting the callousness of Texas prison officials toward rape behind bars, he never imagined that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice would someday ask his permission to incorporate the film in its own staff training.

Rodney Hulin was a 17-year-old prisoner in Texas who committed suicide after corrections staff refused to protect him from repeated sexual assault. In the film, Rodney's mother, Linda Bruntmyer, describes trying to find help for her son: "I called the warden. I asked him what was going on, what was he going to do about it. He told me, and he told Rodney, 'learn to grow up...this happens all the time. It's no big deal.'"

The Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 provides money to states to develop training on sexual violence in prison. As part of that effort, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice is planning to include London's film in its new curriculum. "The Texas request is quite a victory for all of us working to put an end to prisoner rape," said London. "I am especially pleased that the

prison system that originally wouldn't help Rodney has come around and wants to learn from its mistakes and from Rodney's life."

While visiting Los Angeles in November, prisoner rape survivor T.J. Parsell took a courageous step. He re-turned to a detention facility for the first time in two decades. This time he was there as a member of SPR's Board of Directors, examining programs at Men's Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles.

"It was very powerful and a bit shocking to be back inside," said Parsell. "But I can't think of anything more meaningful than trying to make sure that others don't have to endure what I went through." Parsell was gang-raped and sexually abused for several years as a teenager, while serving time in an adult Michigan prison.

More than a year has passed since President Bush signed the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) into law. The passage of this first-ever federal law addressing prisoner rape was an important achievement in the struggle against sexual violence. Yet, even with the PREA in place, the work of organizations like SPR has only just begun.

"The PREA has brought unprecedented attention to prisoner rape," explained Lara Stemple, SPR's Executive Director. "Now we need to ensure that it becomes a potent tool for systemic, long-term reform."

The PREA establishes several mechanisms to combat prisoner rape. A Federal Commission created under the law is responsible for developing standards for preventing sexual violence. A Review Panel will hold hearings with officials from the best and worst performing facilities. The Bureau of Justice Statistics is mandated to conduct research on the issue. Beginning in 2005, selected Departments of Corrections will also receive up to $40 million annually for new programs.

Working with the PREA Com-missioners, corrections officials, and others, SPR has successfully insisted that survivor voices be included in the PREA decision-making pro-cess. "Those who have survived rape in prison have a deep knowledge of prison realities that we on the outside can't afford to ignore," said Stemple.

Stop Prisoner Rape will soon be launching a new three-year initiative called Paths to Recovery, funded by The California Endowment. Paths to Recovery seeks to end the long-standing neglect of the mental health needs of men and women who have survived the trauma of sexual assault behind bars in California.

SPR routinely hears from inmates who have been raped in detention in Califor-nia. Like any rape victims, those who endure this type of violence often suffer serious mental health problems, including depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. The existing responses to their plight, however, are acutely inadequate.

"Many survivors of rape in California prisons have little or no access to quality mental health counseling," explained SPR's Executive Director, Lara Stemple. "Those who do receive counseling sometimes find that their conversations with correctional mental health staff are not confidential, which effectively renders these services unsafe."

Designed as a pilot project, Paths to Recovery will draw upon counseling resources available outside of prison to address the unmet needs of prisoner rape survivors. Working together, SPR staff, state prison officials, and rape crisis counselors will create a unique space within which inmates who have been sexually assaulted can receive confidential, high-quality ser-vices without fear of retaliation or further abuse.

In 2005, SPR will begin addressing the link between prisoner rape and U.S. drug policy, through a new advocacy and media campaign called Stories from Inside. This ground-breaking campaign will be built around the first-hand testimonies of nonviolent drug offenders who have been raped and sexually abused while incarcerated.

More than 80 percent of the increase in the federal prison population from 1985 to 1995 was due to drug convictions. Mandatory minimum sentences have contributed to prison overcrowding, and drug offenders have been the hardest hit. In California, for example, more people are serving life sentences under the "three-strikes" law for drug possession than for second-degree murder, assault with a deadly weapon, and rape combined.

"The link between prisoner rape and the 'war on drugs' is clear," explained Lovisa Stannow, SPR's Deputy Exe-cutive Director. "The rapidly swelling ranks of nonviolent drug offenders in our prisons and jails are among the prime victims of sexual assault."

Stories from Inside will culminate in a nationwide media campaign in the fall of 2005, adding a human face to the problem of prisoner rape.

In October, SPR released No Refuge Here, an eye-opening report that chronicles the stories of men, women, and youth who have been sexually assaulted in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention. On any given day, ICE facilities across the country house an average of 200,000 people, many of whom have not been charged with a crime.

The report presents several case studies, including those of: Christina Madrazo, a Mexican transsexual, who was raped twice by a guard at Krome Detention Center in Florida; Iranian Saeed Kangarlou, who was subjected to unwanted sexual advances while being detained at the El Centro Service Center in California, and; Fauziya Kassindja, a teenager from Togo, who was subjected to a laundry list of sexual and other abuse at the Esmor contract detention facility in New Jersey.

In No Refuge Here, SPR points out that despite numerous reports of sexual abuse in ICE detention, the agency has no substantive sexual violence policies in place and continues to be allowed to operate with very little outside monitoring. Strikingly, immigration officials at Southern California ICE facilities refused to allow SPR access to detainees, frequently referring to post-September 11 security concerns.

No Refuge Here, which includes suggested policy changes, has been disseminated to lawmakers and to the new Federal Commission that is overseeing the implementation of the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003.

>> Click here to read "No Refuge Here: A First Look at Sexual Abuse in Immigration Detention" at www.spr.org