Important information on Stop Prisoner Rape, Inc.

This email was sent to: posripbyrusselldsmith@yahoo.com To: notpartofthepenalty@topica.com
From: "ACLU NPP, HRW, and SPR"
Subject: Lovisa Stannow and Kathy Hall-Martinez Appointed Co-Executive Directors
Date: Wed, 14 Dec 2005 19:59:43 +0000

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December 14, 2005

LOS ANGELES – Stop Prisoner Rape (SPR), a national human rights organization dedicated to ending sexual violence behind bars, has appointed two veteran human rights professionals to serve as Co-Executive Director.

“The appointment of Lovisa Stannow and Kathy Hall-Martinez will add even greater momentum to SPR’s uniquely important work,” said T.J. Parsell, President Elect of SPR’s Board of Directors. “We’re extremely pleased to have both Kathy and Lovisa on board. Their experience and vision will allow SPR to make unprecedented advances in the fight to protect prisoners from sexual violence.”

SPR is the only organization in the country that focuses its work exclusively on the problem of prisoner rape. SPR was instrumental in the passage of the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) of 2003, the first-ever federal legislation to address sexual abuse in detention. A key aspect of SPR’s work is to monitor the implementation of PREA to ensure that prisons and jails enforce a “zero-tolerance” policy toward prisoner rape.

Ms. Stannow is a journalist who has worked in international human rights and communications for the past two decades, frequently based in war zones and areas of humanitarian disaster. Prior to joining SPR, she served as the Executive Director of the Pacific Institute for Women’s Health and as the West Coast Director of Doctors Without Borders/ Médecins Sans Frontières. Ms. Stannow joined SPR’s Board of Directors in 2002 and has served as the organization’s Acting/Deputy Executive Director since 2004.

Ms. Hall-Martinez is an international human rights attorney. Before coming to SPR, she was the Director of the International Legal Program at the Center for Reproductive Rights in New York. In that capacity, she worked with women’s rights advocates worldwide to improve national legislation and to ensure proper implementation of international human rights instruments. Ms. Hall-Martinez currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) and previously was a lawyer in private practice and a law clerk for a federal district court judge in New York.

Contact:

Andrea Cavanaugh Kern

(213) 384-1400, ext. 106

acavanaugh@spr.org

www.spr.org

Sex Trafficking

Standing Against Global Exploitation (SAGE) is a San Francisco based organization that provides information about and resources for victims of trafficking, sexual exploitation and violence, and individuals involved in the sex trade and those thinking of or having left prostitution.

The Protection Project was created by Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) to establish an international framework for the elimination of trafficking in persons, especially women and children. The web site contains information about trafficking throughout the world, featuring country reports with statistics and maps of trafficking routes, as well as profiles of survivors. There is also a referral system that includes listings of trained service providers and resources for helping U.S. victims of trafficking.

The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women is a non-governmental organization that promotes women's human rights. It works internationally to combat sexual exploitation in all its forms. Their website offers research and documentation of international sexual exploitation as well as links to international and national organizations offering support to trafficked women.

Captive Daughters is an organization based in California that is dedicated to brining national and international attention to the wide spread problem of sex trafficking of children.

Polaris Project is a Washington, DC based non-Profit organization that is focused on combating trafficking through local, national and international grassroots efforts.

The U.S. Department of Justice Trafficking Hotline
1-888-428-7581

Donna Hughes, chair of the women's studies program at the University of Rhode Island,has written a number of papers dealing with issues of trafficking. They are available for download from her website: http://www.uri.edu/artsci/wms/hughes/pubvio.htm

Vital Voices is an international organization dedicated to helping women participate in the process of building democracy and preventing sex trafficking and other human rights violations all over the world.

Articles and Reports

The US Department of State's "Tafficking in Persons Report, June 2005"

"A New Commodity in Kosovo" - new finding in report by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reveal sex trafficking in Kosovo.

"Boys Will Be Boys" - International peaceworkers create demand for prostitution in war torn countries (from the BBC).

I wrote an opinion on another blog here, that one dated 10/1/05. I am reproducing it here for your perusal.

Post a Comment On: Natalee Holloway

"The National Enquirer Article"

20 Comments -

Sex Politics said...

All of these opinions are valid, but only if they are legal. My personal opinion is that all sexual predators should be released into the care of their victims and/or the guardians thereof to do with as they see fit. Unfortunately, it is not legal. Also, the US Supreme Court in its great wisdom (read that as irony) has decided that we cannot use capital punishment on the animals. Therefore we cannot demand the use of it on them in another country. Still, while I am radically opposed to law enforcement officials (since more of them are BTK killers than anyone likes to admit), I also recognize that law and order--if properly appplied--is a necessary protection. But I digress ...

Natalee Holloway is no longer in Aruba and has not been since the day she disappeared. After van der Smut and the Kalico idiots had their way with her, they turned her over to their employer and got paid for her. That employer whisked her away to Ecuador, where she was sold to the highest bidder and then delivered to Saudi Arabia or Brunei or any number of other countries where slavery and bordellos are legal.

As I pointed out on my blog at www.sexpolitics.blogspot.com (or simply "Sex Politics"), this has been the major industry in all the Caribbean islands alongside drug trafficking. Tourism is not the main industry for these islands. Tourism is only a means to an end, that of ensnaring a few unwary boys and young women for the white slave and enforced sex trade.

Natalee Holloway and Treatment of Women in Aruba

The first day that the Natalee Holloway story hit the airwaves, I told my wife that no one would ever be brought to account for the disappearance. There are several reasons for this. The first one is that all of those small islands quietly look away while the sex slave trade flourishes. It is a major industry in the Caribbean and Atlantic islands that supports the small governments there alongside the drug warehousing trade. Contrary to popular belief, tourism is not the main industry for those islands; slavery for sexual purposes and drug transit are together the main sources of revenue for those islands.

People--and that is for the most part young women and teenagers--go to these islands in order to party. The tourist places cater to that with a healthy provision of drugs that are illicit in the U.S. and are only nominally so there. In turn, the young women and boys parade around the beaches soaking up the sun and frolicking in the waves unknowlingly watched by those predators whose jobs are to whisk away one or two here and there for use in porno movies and books and websites, and later even sold to wealthy slaveowners in Saudi Arabia and Brunei and similar places. That's where Natalee is now, alive but not well. And the Aruban investigators know it. Those are not stupid people down there on the tiny island.

Joran van der Sloot and the Kalpoe brothers are mere peons in the sex slave industry. The so-called Honorable Judge van der Sloot, the boy's father, is probably higher up in the island's industry, perhaps even a manager over the goings-on there. We will never really know, because the Aruban government is not going to expose a lucrative business like that. Small island-nations like that require revenue in order to function. And, after all, Natalee is an American and not an Aruban, and thus not someone they would particularly care about.

Finally, it has been predicted by some commentators that Americans will stop going to Aruba. I ould encourage such a boycott not only against Aruba but all of those islands out there for the simple reason that it is safer for Americans within the borders of the United States. However, it is doubtful that the young women and boys will stop going to those islands. Look at Jamaica, a larger island where Americans and Europeans go missing so regularly that it is not even a news item; young women and boys flock there still and yet by the thousands.

Rape and Murder in New Orleans

A lot of people have suffered and died in New Orleans recently, most not deserving any of it. A lot of good people were preyed upon by sickos who thought it was fun to take advantage of the lack of law and order.

While much of what I have to say is radically anti-authoritarian, it should be noted that I am also radically pro law and order. 40% of the New Orleans Police Department showed up for work through it all because they cared about the people they serve. The 60% who abandoned the job did not care about those people and obviously never really did. The bad cops who rape and murder innocent people were among the 60%, and people who have to come into contact with that police department are better off without them. I would venture that such bad cops probably number at about 60% in every city. (The ratio is more like 95% in the prisons and jails.)

So here we have a good point of note coming out of that traumatizing situation along the Gulf Coast. But that is not the greater news that I want to share today. The greater good news is that somebody died while awaiting assistance in New Orleans--and he deserved it!

Yes, that is exactly what I said. As I was sitting in front of my TV watching the newspeople recount the horrors, my ears perked up on this one. In the convention center in downtown New Orleans, where thousands were gathered because they had been told to go there only to find that there was no help forthcoming, a man whisked a 13-year-old girl away off into a corner room to rape her. Hearing her screams, strangers came to her aid and pulled the would-be rapist into the main auditorium. There they administered justice in the most positive way and beat the rapist to death.

My question is this: How many other cases of vigilante justice have occurred there that we will never know about? Indeed, should this not be a cause to rally around? I think so. We should not fear these sickos so much as we should be determined to rid our society of them, particularly since the government is not going to do so. Or maybe they will if we lobby for the civil commitment of these slimes in Federal institutions, and not just after they have been convicted.

This Blog and Its Purpose

To:	posrip@yahoogroups.com
From:	"Russell D. Smith" Yahoo! DomainKeys has confirmed that this message was sent by yahoogroups.com.
Date:	Wed, 31 Aug 2005 16:28:54 -0000
Subject:	[posrip] My New Blog

I have begun to change my focus. In 1980 I started People Organized to Stop Rape of Imprisoned Persons (POSRIP) because prison rape was a taboo subject. Nobody believed it existed, and nobody wanted to talk about it. Now, POSRIP has become Stop Prisoner Rape, Inc. (SPR), with its own website and a general attitude that I'm a dinosaur that needs to be suppressed and kept out of the loop. Oh, well, what good could I do for the victims anyway? I mean, SPR is chairing committees in Washington and collecting bundles of money to be divided between their uppercrust "activists" while the right-wing sings its praises.

Anyhow, I am more concerned about the political ramifications of sexual predators. By that I mean that cops walk into the home of Jon-Benet Ramsay (Remember her?) and destroy the evidence while laying blame on the parents, and nobody has the guts to say a cop or high-level politician killed her. A cop admits to numerous child rapes and gets probation. The Federal government says all we have to do is put tracking devices on them, and none other than Martha Stewart says that she was able to remove her tracking device while she was on probation. Etc., etc., etc. . . .

These things trouble me. I want to do something about it. So I have started a blog. It is at www.sexpolitics.blogspot.com Feel free to check it out.

How To Stop Sexual Predators

In the state of Washington there is little problem with sexual predators. The reason? Because that state has the most comprehensive program for working with that problem, the most beneficial to be found anywhere. The state takes a dual approach to the issue.

First, just like everywhere else, Washington recognizes rape and molestation in all their forms as a criminal act. There is a penalty to be paid, whether imprisonment or whatever. In my humble opinion, I believe that these crimes should be capital offenses, but the U.S. Supreme Court in its great wisdom has disallowed killing the perverts.

Secondly, Washington State recognizes that pervertism is an illness. Convicted rapists and molesters who are deemed to be dangerous predators, once released from prison, are transferred to the sexual predator treatment facility on McNeil Island in the Puget Sound (not to be confused with the prison on the same island). For those convicted offenders who may or may not become predatory, there are several halfway house-type facilities scattered around the state.

Washington State does more than any other jurisdiction, and for that they are to be applauded. It is a step in the right direction. In my opinion, however, Washington does not go far enough to protect innocent children and women--and even men--from rape and molestation. Not only that but one thing that that animal Duncan proved when he took little Shasta Groene and massacred her family was that one state's efforts to do anything is about sexual pervertism is like trying to stop Niagara Falls with one's hands. The state only skims the surface.

In recent months, the Federal government has made some laws requiring tracking devices for sexual predators. Does anybody seriously believe this will help anything? None other than Martha Stewart--that Madam of the Do-It-Yourselfers--stated on national television that she was able to remove her tracking device during her probation at will and that same was a simple thing to do. I predict that another animal like Duncan is going to prove that whole concept to be the fallacious indiocy that it is. Why does it take a disaster to make people want to do the right thing?

My suggestion, then, is simply this: The Federal government should be put in charge of the housing and confinement of all sexual predators. The government should not by any means keep these persons under the control of the Federal Bureau of Prisons but instead, like the State of Washington, should provide a separate agency for this purpose. The model could be patterned after that in Washington. But what about persons who are known to be sexual predators and cannot be caught or who can afford highly paid attorneys to get them out of the charges? I would venture that these make up the largest number of predators. Well, a disease is a disease. If a person is known to be schizophrenic, do the government or the states wait for that person to run afoul of the law before administering treatment? Of course not. Why should sexually predatory pervertism have to await conviction for crime? This is another reason why we need these facilities.

One last point: There are those who will point out quite correctly that there is no treatment for sexual deviatism. If there is something that can be done, it is doubtful that the current method of using prison officials to study the syndrome is going to find it. Who studies mental illnesses? Prisons or hospitals? Prisoners who are mentally ill are made to languish in a system that does not understand them and is not equipped to work with them. Those mental patients who are able to function on the outside are only able to do so because hospitals studied ways to make that option available to them. (Yes, even that system is imperfect, but I am walking proof that someone somewhere came up with a treatment for that bi-polar individual that does not necessitate continued confinement.) So the use of Federally-controlled confinement and treatment facilities for sexual offenders, whether convicted or not, is the only means by which a treatment could be found.

As a final note, I had planned to write this last Friday. As it happened, on Thursday I was attacked by a pit bull dog. That dog would probably have done more serious injury to me but for the fact that I am a bi-polar crazy with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) to boot. It went for my left knee but my left hand knocked it away. So, of course, it latched onto my left index finger. I would have lost that finger if I hadn't acted. (I have had some training in violence just by the fact of my life.) I could not get my hand out of the dog's mouth, so I pushed it farther in, removing the bite from my finger. Then I picked up the dog and through it onto the ground and fell on top of it. Because the dog would not let me off it without trying to bite me again, I put my hands around its throat to strangle it, but its owner came to its rescue. It took five stitches in my finger, but then due to infection, I had to be admitted to the hospital until yesterday. So anyway, I am back on track now. Sorry you folks had to wait on this installement.