Rape victims need support

Rape is a horrific crime, and its effects are devastating whether it is committed at home, in the community, or in prison.

Many rape survivors – including those assaulted in detention – often suffer shame, anxiety and depression. They are also prone to contracting sexually transmitted infections such as HIV.

One of the most difficult aspects of life in prison is not having any control over one’s environment. Prisoner rape survivors are regularly forced to see, or even share a cell with their perpetrators — reinforcing their trauma.

Upon release, survivors often fail to access the support they need and deserve, as rape crisis services are often not designed to serve men or former prisoners.

The devastation of sexual abuse behind bars extends far beyond the survivors themselves, but also to their loved ones and their communities.

In a given year, roughly 360 000 people are released from South African prisons. Many of them carry untreated trauma from their prison experiences, which make it especially difficult to reintegrate and live healthy, productive lives.

Prisoner rape also carries a steep cost to taxpayers — the national government pays millions of rands in compensation to the few survivors who dare take legal action.

While anyone can be raped in prison, some people are targeted more than others.  Inmates who are young, poor, small in stature, disabled, non-violent or in prison for the first time, are highly vulnerable.

Prisons are hyper masculine environments, where homophobic and transphobic views prevail and anyone seen as not sufficiently ‘manly’ — because they are gay or transgender, or are perceived to be — are routinely targeted.

Once a prisoner has been raped, he is considered to have lost his ‘manhood’, while the perpetrator is viewed as retaining his masculinity.

Hundreds of thousands of inmates who are released back into our communities every year — be they rape victims, perpetrators, or those who have witnessed this violence — have been schooled in the notion that sexual violence is a hallmark of manhood. This warped perception adds fuel to the raging crisis of gender-based violence that harms women and girls.

The good news is that sexual abuse in detention is preventable.

Prisons that have strong, committed leaders can uphold their duty to protect the safety and dignity of people in their care.

Thanks to years of advocacy by JDI-SA and its allies, in 2013 the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) formally adopted The Policy to Address the Sexual Abuse of Inmates in DCS Facilities.

The policy is rooted in human rights principles and spells out concrete steps to detect and respond to sexual violence.

On Mandela Day in 2017, JDI-SA partnered with DCS to start training officials as a first crucial step to roll out the policy across the country.

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