Rehabilitation of prisonersbarrier posed by system

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32604, 12 May 1971, Page 5

Rehabilitation of prisoners—barrier posed by system

(By

LINDA CHARLTON

of the New York Times News Service, through N.Z.P.A.)

NEW YORK, May 11. “It’i definitely a homosexual world,” said a man whose years as a prison inmate qualify' him to speak with | authority. He was speaking about correctional institutions in New York state, but it could have been anywhere. Homosexual assault- was among the many miseries prisoners, in several New York City institutions, said made their lives unbearable, when they rebelled last year against the conditions of their confinement. It is a problem that is persisting, according to the chairman of the New York City Board of Correction (Mr William van den Heuvel). He. among others, believes that a "furlough policy," in which prisoners would be allowed weekends at home, would "help in the whole problem of administering prisons;" it would permit the relief of the "sexual tensions of prison life,” and allow a man in prison to retain something of his normal family relationship. in a world to which he must return sooner or later. TWO SOCIETIES Many ex-inmates and criminologists find this indirect effect of the distorted sexuality of prison life even more disturbing than the immediate brutality of rape in 1

shadowed comers on stairways and in shower rooms. Quite simply, the distorted sexuality serves to widen the distance between prison society and the world outside. Some prisoners, particu- | larly those young people who I spend their pre-adolescent and adolescent years in such a society, may have their sexual outlook affected for life. But homosexuality, some believe, is endemic to any prison in which men and women are segregated by sex. The problem is not that of homosexuality for those who chose it; known homosexuals are segregated in all detention centres and prison. It is, rather, the routine of sexual assault; the stronger preying on the weaker. To Mr Gilbert Geis, a criminologist, this is “what makes it (homosexuality) a problem” —that it is one of many factors in the prison environment that makes the environment an infantile one, in which “the individual is deprived of any kind of indication that he is strong, masculine (or feminine), worth while ..." ABILITY TO CHOOSE "Probably the most devasting aspects of the entire correctional system,” he conI tends, is that, again in theory, it tries “to put an individual back into society, where the essence of his success is his ability to make reasonable choices, but his training (in prison) is bereft of the opportunity to make choices.’’

A prison, he says, and the ex-inmates agree, “ought to, I as much as possible, duplicate the real world." Ana in the real world, there is a . range of sexual choice. In prison, however, there , is officially only a denial of sexuality, including in most institutions, regulations ■ against masturbation, which ■Mr Geis sees as typifying “the broader denial of , humanity.” PHILDELPHIAN REPORT A report on sexual assaults in the Philadelphia prison system in 1968, estimated that about 2000 assaults occurred during a two-year period—and that almost every young man of less than husky build was approached sexually within hours of his arrival. From a number of ex-

' prisoners interviewed came a ! variety of stories: mock ' “weddings" between two in- • mates, with a third serving as "parson,” sexual rivalries flaring up murderously. i guards accepting bribes to • ignore secret trysts—sometimes becoming participants themselves. i What is to be done to change the situation? The system of “conjugal visits" —allowing prisoners to spend a few hours alone with their ■ wives—is in force in only one institution in the United States, the Parchman Prison 1 Fann, in Mississippi. And it is a concept that i all the ex-prisoners interi viewed found distasteful. “I think that’s the reverse ■ answer,” said one, "because there you’re dehumanising

the wife along with the husband; or vice versa.” NORWEGIAN SUCCESS They see as more appealing the concept of allowing prisoners week-end passes to visit their wives. This is now being tried experimentally at two institutions in California. According to Mr Geis, the conjugal visit system is “too blatant” for most people to accept. "I think week-end leaves are much more the answer,” he said. “Reports from Norway (where such, a system has been in effect for some time) is that they all come back.

"Still, Norway is not New York city,” he added.