Sex and Masculinity in US Prisons

Huffpost Live: Sex and Masculinity in US Prisons 

A few statistics given during the video:
Allegation of Sexual Victimization in Prisons and Jails
51% involved nonconsensual sexual acts or abusive sexual contacts
49% involved sexual misconduct to sexual harassment by staff directed towards inmates
44% of substantiated inmate-on-inmate sexual victimizations involved physical force or threat of force

This video guides a discussion about sexuality and masculinity in US prisons between authors, correctional officers, and former inmates. Throughout this video the commentators talk about how masculinity is defined versus how it is perceived in prison. In the discussion the commentators discuss how society makes these assumptions that males have to be masculine, and females have to be feminine. There are so much more than what counts as masculinity or what counts as femininity, these are social constructs, and much fluidity surrounds these ideas, and how it is not unusual to have a desire for human connection. The commentators briefly mention that if we hear that women have sex in prison we are not surprised, but when we mention that men have consensual sex in prison it is hard to talk about. They discuss examples of groups men being away for long periods of time and still developing a relationship with another man outside of prison, justifying that this is not prison culture.  For one, they mention that it is illegal to have sex in prison, and they use the terminology "code of silence" to demonstrate how far we are in terms of discussing consensual sex in prison, to a further extent how it is punished. When we hear stories about sex in prison, we automatically critique the situation because of the "normal" conservative view we have about the fantasy relationships we have between a man and a woman. It discussion ends with resting questions about relationships among men in the prison system. What influences society's fear of of rape in prison among men? What makes it hard to think not all sex in prison is rape? Even further, why cannot society imagine sex between two men being consensual in prison?

There is much similarity between this discussion and the Kunzel readings. In her first chapter "An Architecture Adapted to Morals" she discusses prison reform efforts in terms of separating prisoners to an extent to where they never see another human being throughout their sentencing. In the discussion the commentators mention that s human beings we have the desire for human interaction. But the idea of the early nineteenth century prison system believed that prison was a place of self-transformation ideally in solitude. Early prison reformers were hesitant of inmates building any type of connection, because as these 'relationships' form, that affection for ones company generates more crime. As we see in modern day prison systems this is not the case. As inmates are socially interactive, levels of crime within society are independent of allowing the inmates to interact in prison. Instead, inmate interaction increase the blurred lines appear between a prison relationship as one of choice versus it being sexual assault.