“Enjoy A Foot-Long In Jail.” Those were the words printed on the front page of August 20, 2015 issue of the New York Post. The headline referenced Jared Fogle, the former Subway spokesperson and weight-loss superstar who, on August 19, accepted a deal with federal prosecutors to plead guilty to child pornography charges and crossing state lines to pay for sex with minors.
Barring a rejection from the court, the plea agreement would have Fogle serve between five and 12 and a half years in prison and a minimum of five years on probation, pay $1.4 million in restitution and undergo treatment for sexual disorder. But that’s only the formal punishment. Given Fogle’s celebrity status and the nature of his crimes, Fogle will surely face extrajudicial punishment in prison, which could include rape, torture or murder, hence the headline.
Twitter was quick in its response to the tabloid’s quip, with several users harshly criticizing the headline. Yet despite its reputation for knee-jerk reactions, Twitter got it right this time. These sentiments do not seem to be representative of the larger population, however. Indeed, we argue many not only accept Fogle’s assumed fate, but approve of it. While we agree Fogle is abhorrent and his crimes sickening, so is the rape culture in prisons across the U.S., and we shouldn’t tacitly support it, let alone joke about it.
But this is about much more than the famous Subway Guy. According to a 2001 Human Rights Watch report titled “No Escape: Male Rape in U.S. Prisons,” about 20 percent of incarcerated males are raped during their time in prison. Over half these victims are forced to have anal sex. Government estimates are (predictably) lower, with a 2008 Department of Justice study that surveyed former state prisoners finding that 9.6 percent of inmates had been sexually assaulted during their most recent incarceration. The most recent government study, published from the Department of Justice in 2013, surveyed current inmates and found that 4.0 percent of federal or state prison inmates had been sexually assaulted. But the discrepancies are unimportant–the problem exists, and prison culture subjects inmates to extrajudicial punishment.
The 8th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution explicitly prohibits “cruel and unusual punishments.” We’d be hard-pressed to find someone who would argue that sexual assault does not fall under this banner.
While Obama has started to address this issue in his final two years as President, most recently visiting a federal prison and speaking with inmates on an HBO special titled “Fixing the System,” our government and our society largely ignores conduct in prisons that clearly violates this central tenet of our Bill of Rights. Our justice system has been deliberately crafted to provide a legal infrastructure intended to justly punish convicted offenders of the law. We should punish criminals in accordance with this framework; nothing more, nothing less.
-Terlep is a political science major from Naperville, Illinois; Piggins is an economics major from Saugatuck, Michigan.