Prison break.Thank you for publishing "Danger Behind Bars," an insightful article about LGBTI LGBTI Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender and Intersex people in prison [At Issue, September 30]. The article, however, gave the false impression that all prisoners who are LGBTI can avoid rape and violence through protective custody An arrangement whereby a person is safeguarded by law enforcement authorities in a location other than the person's home because his or her safety is seriously threatened. . Many LGBTI prisoners are not afforded this luxury, so they may be raped or forced into coercive sexual relationships ("protective pairing") in order to survive. We need to recognize that the prison crisis in the United States affects everyone. Our friends and loved ones (especially if they are people of color Noun 1. people of color - a race with skin pigmentation different from the white race (especially Blacks) people of colour, colour, color race - people who are believed to belong to the same genetic stock; "some biologists doubt that there are important or are poor) are being sent to prison, usually for drug and other nonviolent offenses, and are then being brutalized in an environment of total unaccountability. Not surprisingly, really people leaving prison return to society with serious psychological damage and, perhaps, sexually transmitted diseases Sexually transmitted diseases Infections that are acquired and transmitted by sexual contact. Although virtually any infection may be transmitted during intimate contact, the term sexually transmitted disease is restricted to conditions that are largely . We can no longer pretend that what goes on in prison does not concern as. I urge all of us to join human rights groups, such as Stop Prisoner Rape, that are working to help those who are forgotten by society. Jason L. Mallory, Vestal vestal (vĕs`təl), in Roman religion, priestess of Vesta. The vestals were first two, then four, then six in number. While still little girls, they were chosen from prominent Roman families to serve for 30 (originally 5) years, during which , N.Y. |
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