Let’s Not Talk About It
by Joe Dibuduo
He was just a boy, really, only eighteen or so, but he had to appear in adult court because the law said so. He had been found guilty by a jury of his peers, and he stood before the judge waiting to hear if he’d go to prison, or maybe get probation.
“He’s young and made a mistake,” his legal counsel said. “I request the court consider this before sending him to that awful place.”
“But the law says he’s a man and has to pay for breaking the law,” the prosecutor said. He used the internet to defraud, so he must be sent to prison to show we won’t tolerate that behavior, no matter how old or young the perpetrator may be.
"The law requires a prison sentence in this instance," the judge said.
“Your Honor, sending this young boy to prison is worse than sending him to his death.” Legal counsel for the boy said. “No one wants to hear what happens to a meek and quiet boy, who has no violent streak, when he goes to jail, and no one wants to say out loud what’ll happen to this here boy. But I’m going to say it in this here court, so you’ll know what sending him to prison means.
“The first thing I’ll say to any client is, ‘you’re going to be raped if: you are young, are middle-class, and white. If you’re not street smart, and are physically small, you better be tough, because any of these things mentioned are what the wolves, look for when, sniffing out new victims. And can you believe, these predators all consider themselves, men?’"
“That’s all beside the point,” the prosecutor said, “The law is the law and it calls for incarcerating the defendant. There’s nothing written that we should be concerned about what happens to him in prison.”
“I agree,” the judge said, and sentenced the boy to many years.
The judge goes home after sending this boy off to face this fate, and thinks he has done his job, making his society a better place. The prosecutor counts his convictions with glee, not knowing nor caring what happens to those he helped convict. It's just a numbers game, he and the judge agree. Be tough on crime and they'll have a job for a long, long time, longer probably than the boy they just sent to prison will survive.
The young man is loaded into a van with his wrists and hands bound in steel shackles. He’s delivered to his new home, and endures his initial encounter with prison guards, where he’s searched inside and out in plain view of the predators that wait for someone just like him.
It isn’t long before the once innocent young boy is soon called: Queen, bitch, lady, whore, or if he isn't feminine enough, he’ll be called “punk.”
Can it be any worse for a man who believes it's unnatural to act like a woman, to be "turned out" by the tougher inmates? To be raped within days of arriving, and then being called F--K boy," by all the others? If he isn't turned into a queen and remains just a punk, his status is lower than those who molest children for fun. He can even be sold or traded for a pack of cigarettes, or less. Is it any wonder that this boy will be found one morning hanging in his cell, because he could no longer endure?
