| New Federal Law Has States Trying To Reduce Prison Rape | | | |
| By AIMEE GREEN | |
 Christopher Lauricella says he was horrified when his cellmate groped him. (Photo by Joel Davis) Just a few months into his prison sentence, a 26-year-old burglar from small-town Oregon was lured into a secluded stairway of the Oregon State Penitentiary and raped by another inmate.
But what happened after the attack at the Salem prison stunned officials: The man reported the rape and agreed to testify. Prosecutors think the victim, a first-timer to the Oregon prison system, came forward only because he was naive: He didn't know that inmates who snitch on other inmates risk being savagely beaten or raped again. Across the country, corrections officials are struggling to reverse decades of indifference toward rape behind bars and persuade more victims to report attacks. They are under pressure from a new federal law, the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003, which requires jails and prisons to take steps to reduce sexual assaults or face loss of federal funding starting next year. Each new arrival at the Oregon Department of Corrections is shown a 10-minute video providing tips on how to avoid falling prey and urging inmates to report attacks. Prison officers have been trained to notice signs that an inmate has been attacked. Staff are documenting each reported sexual assault in hopes of preventing future ones. Prison administrators say part of their work is eradicating old attitudes. No one, they say, deserves to be raped. "These are real human beings,'' said Joan Palmateer, of the Oregon Department of Corrections, who cringes at the flippant portrayals of prison rape in popular culture. "It's not something to be joked or sneered at.'' Experts say most victims of inmate-to-inmate sexual attacks are targeted because they're small, young or seen by other inmates as effeminate. Eight of 10 victims are men. | |
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