Like many Americans, Jan Lastocy was watching the Larry Nassar sentencing hearing this week. She listened to Judge Rosemarie Aquilina. “I was loving even before the closing that she let every survivor who wanted to talk, talk,” Lastocy told me. “I loved that about her.” Then came the moment when Aquilinia said this to the packed courtroom:
It is a sadly predictable facet of American life that whenever a high-profile rape sentence is handed down, the first instinct of many people is not to celebrate the triumph of justice or applaud the courage of survivors. Instead, their response is to express a desire for the perpetrator to be sexually assaulted in prison.
The public thinks criminals deserve the sexual abuse they suffer while incarcerated, and there’s a persistent belief that they do not have rights. Content note: This piece contains detailed descriptions of sexual assault. Rodney Smith said the two men who cornered him on his first day in a Louisiana jail a decade ago were big.
Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., January 5, 2018 — JDI applauds the Department of Justice’s launch of the first-ever database of audit reports that assess U.S. detention facilities’ progress toward ending prisoner rape. Published by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the new website represents a major victory for JDI and fellow advocates, who have long