Lifting the curtain of silence: survivors speak about rape behind bars

In the struggle to end sexual violence behind bars, personal stories of abuse serve as an important advocacy tool for organizations such as Stop Prisoner Rape (SPR). The first-person accounts of men and women who have endured this abuse help to personalize, and thereby, humanize the issue. Statistics about the frequency of prisoner rape are powerful, but they can also be numbing, conveying the sense that nothing can be done to stop the problem. Personal accounts in contrast, have an emotional impact that encourages action. Speaking out about abuse also helps survivors, freeing them from a sense of shame, guilt, and humiliation and providing an avenue of political engagement that can be tremendously empowering. This article presents the first-persona accounts of four individuals whose lives were powerfully affected by rape behind bars.