As a young
bisexual inmate weighing just 123 pounds, Kendell Spruce
said he made a perfect target for sexual predators.
Nine months after landing in an Arkansas prison for
violating parole for check forgery, he claimed he had
been raped by 27 fellow prisoners, including a cell mate who
infected him with HIV.
Spruce, now 42, planned to tell his story Friday
to a congressional commission studying prison rape and
sexual abuse. Other witnesses will include juveniles
attacked in adult prisons and transgender men and
women. Arkansas Correction Department spokeswoman Dina Tyler
said Spruce's allegations are untrue.
Tyler said Spruce sued the state prison system
in federal court and lost. She said his allegations
were "proved to be false." "If there was sexual
activity with Kendell Spruce, he either initiated it or was
a willing participant," Tyler said. "These are stories
he made up. He is not telling the truth."
The National Prison Rape Elimination Commission
was created by Congress and given a year to prepare a
report on the problem and propose national standards
governing the prevention, investigation, and punishment of abuse.
The commission's first hearing was held in June
in Washington and offered an overall look at the
problem, according to Judge Reggie Walton, chairman of
the bipartisan nine-member committee. "One of the things
that I have been most shocked by is, we don't know what the
extent of the problem is," he said by phone prior to
Friday's meeting in San Francisco. "I believe in tough
punishment, but I firmly believe when we incarcerate
people we're obligated to make sure they're treated humanely."
The San Francisco hearing will focus on
protecting vulnerable inmates--young people;
gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender inmates; and
the mentally ill. Among those scheduled to speak at the
daylong hearing are Department of Justice officials,
state and local lawmakers, and survivors of abuse.
Spruce, who has suffered from full-blown AIDS
since 2002, was forced to quit working and now lives
in Flint, Mich., to be closer to his family.
"Everybody needs to know what happened to me," he said of
his alleged experiences more than a dozen years ago.
"I don't want it to happen to more people."
One of the biggest hurdles advocates have faced
is public indifference and an unwillingness to take
the problem seriously. "Nobody would tell a joke on
late-night television about a woman getting raped in a
back alley," said Lovisa Stannow, acting executive director
of Stop Prisoner Rape, a nonprofit called upon by the
commission to provide survivor testimony. "Negative
stereotypes about prisoners and this perception that
it's not something that needs to be taken seriously is a
major barrier to ending this kind of violence." (Kim Curtis,
AP)
