Prison Rape Trial May Lead to Reform
Posted on: Sunday, 16 October 2005, 15:00 CDT
A federal jury is expected to decide this week whether prison officials violated an inmate's rights by failing to protect him from prison rape.
Roderick Keith Johnson's lawyers say the alleged attacks in a Texas state prison constitute cruel and unusual punishment, a violation of his Eighth Amendment rights, the Houston Chronicle reported.
Civil rights activists and criminal justice professors say the trial's outcome could be the starting point for reform.
We hope to show these defendants and men and women who work in Texas prisons that they will be held accountable, said Kara Gotsch, spokeswoman for the American Civil Liberties Union's Prison Project.
Guards and prison officials say they did not violate Johnson's civil rights because he provided no proof that he had been raped.
The ACLU and the California-based group Stop Prison Rape say the Texas prison system has improved in recent years, but they still receive more rape complaints from Texas inmates than from any other state.
Source: United Press International
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