Committing Crime? Expect Prison Rape

Criminal Law students learn about what crime is in various states, provinces and countries, but I don’t know of any school subject that teaches kids about consequences of doing time in prison. Rape is one of them.

Peer pressure leads kids to believe doing crime is cool, showing off ‘the piece’ in their trousers which they eventually use to kill each other or running some errands for unofficial ‘mayors’ of where they live. They’ll go to prison if they are convicted and they will be raped. Prison authorities know that incoming convicts are regarded as ‘fresh meat’ by long serving inmates, but they don’t care. Prison rape is a man treated like a woman. Women do not have any value in most societies, that’s why they are raped. They are just things.

You do crime, you do time, and you will be raped in prison if other men decide to treat you like a ‘woman.’ This fact is not discussed when friends plan crime. I guess it's not because they think they won’t be caught. If that happens, the law of the streets says, don’t ‘snitch’ meaning go to prison alone. Don’t betray your friends. Bernie Mac, the comedian had a joke about that. He jumped up and down and said he will tell on his partners in crime.

There is nothing cool about being raped. Streets might not talk about it, but they know it exists. I’m writing this piece because ex-cons are talking about it on the internet. ‘If you need a ‘piece’ to go somewhere. You have no business going there,’ said one rapper. An online comedian made a joke about being released from prison. There was nobody to take him home, although he didn’t ‘snitch’ on his friends.

The narrative of being cool should be: do crime, do time, get raped like a woman, behind bars. In God of Gamblers, the classic Chinese film from Hong Kong, the two gamblers who cheat like the weather forecast, prepare to sit down for a game. Yun Fat Chow’s character tells his opponent he will make sure he ends up in prison to live like a ‘wife’.

Nonqaba waka Msimang

Executive Blogger