Locked up in New England

Violence, rape, characterize life for men in some prisons

Editor's Note: This is the third of a three-part series exploring life in New England prisons.

By Hilary Jean McElroy
Norwich Guidon Staff Writer

When Joseph McGranaghan was a child living in Virginia, he was an athlete, participating in skateboarding, snowboarding and weight lifting. He had many friends, enjoyed partying and occasionally skipped school to go to the beach. After moving to New Hampshire in his senior year, however, everything changed.

Three months prior to his high school graduation, he dropped out of school and got in with the wrong crowd. He started drinking heavily and spiraling into drug use. He lived that way for almost two years, and then his life took a turn for the worse.

After robbing a bank in February of 1998, Joseph was convicted of armed burglary and assault with a deadly weapon. Currently incarcerated in Concord, N.H., and in the middle of a seven-year sentence, prison life has had a positive influence on the once rebellious Joe.

"Since I've been in prison, I've gotten my GED and so far accumulated 24 credits from the New Hampshire Technical College, taking courses on business and computers," said McGranaghan, 22, who added that prison life has been a lot easier than he expected.

"I expected it to be tough," McGranaghan said. "I expected cement walls, bars, barbed wire, mean security guards, gruel for food and disgusting sleeping areas."

But what McGranaghan found was simply a change in environment, not necessarily in lifestyle.

"I have the opportunity to work out every day; I attend classes; I write letters, have visitors and watch TV," he said. "Once you get used to the schedule, it's a piece of cake."

McGranaghan eats three square meals a day, writes to four different pen pals and reads an average of a book a week. He fits the description of a typical college student except that he sleeps in a prison cell with seven other men and can't ever leave the facility.

"I have never felt the need to escape," McGranaghan said. "I do what I'm told, when I'm told, and I don't cause trouble."

Prison life, typically male prison life, isn't usually portrayed this casually in the media, where harassment, rape and abuse are generally woven into drama storylines.

According to the National Bureau of Prison Statistics, reported harassment, rape and abuse has significantly decreased since 1970. But that doesn't mean it's not still prevalent.

"In 1981, a prisoner I knew went up to a 22-year-old man and told him that he wanted to have sex with him. The young convict replied 'no, I don't want any trouble,' and the next day the older inmate walked up and drove a 22-inch ice pick through the young man and raped him as he lay dying," said J.J. Maloney, originally from Columbia, Mo., who has spent the past 28 years living in various state penitentiaries while serving a life sentence for killing his wife and three children.

Rape is stereotypically one of the most common abuses in prisons, in particular male prisons. The word "punk" refers to the male who plays the female role in a homosexual prison relationship.

"While in the Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City, stabbings, killings, robberies and rapes were common," Maloney said. "Dope was easier to get in prison than it was on the streets. There were men in prison who were said to make more money each year from dope and gambling than the warden was paid."

According to Maloney, in a few of the larger prisons he's been incarcerated in, rape is an everyday occurrence.

"I've been hit on a few times, I think, but nothing has ever progressed. I've never been raped, assaulted or harassed by fellow prisoners," McGranaghan said.

It is young prisoners such as McGranaghan, which Maloney say need "to be careful and cautious.

"You never know whom you might have trouble with, especially if you're young and good looking," Maloney said. "You never know for sure what is going to happen from day to day in prison. If you mind your own business you probably will not have any trouble, but there is never any guarantee."

"Rape Trauma Syndrome, or RTS, is a devastating form of post-traumatic stress disorder which had been recognized and described only in the past two decades," said Stephen Donaldson, President of Stop Prisoner Rape, Inc.

According to Donaldson, RTS in some form and degree affects virtually all victims of sexual assault, including ones who avoided a completed rape.

Male and female prisoners experience the same problems, but in addition males must deal with a number of "serious issues specific to their gender, which add greatly to the traumatization," Donaldson said. "Male victims who remain incarcerated, and are thus unable to withdraw from the setting of their victimization, are seriously handicapped in attempting to recover from the trauma."

"Prison rape not only threatens the lives of those who fall prey to their aggressors, but it is potentially devastating to the human spirit," said Dr. Merry Morash, Director of the Michigan State University School of Criminal Justice. "Shame, depression and a shattering loss of self-esteem accompany the perpetual terror the victim thereafter must endure."

Donaldson aggreed. "Those who are exposed to repeated victimization and must even adapt on a daily basis to being a perpetual and continual victim of unwanted sexual penetration, and who must undertake numerous daily compromises in order to avoid the most catastrophic situation, must endure the most extreme form of the syndrome," he said.

Personally never having been raped himself, Maloney has witnessed over two decades of prison rape and the effects it takes on the prisoners.

"I've seen men go from being men to being children after being raped," Maloney said. "It seems to totally change their perspective on life, and they almost appear as different people, people who have been violated and will continue to be violated because nothing can be done about it."

Donaldson said there is the total loss of control over even the insides of one's own body, "resulting in feelings of utter vulnerability and powerlessness. This makes control and power key psychological issues for all rape survivors."

According to Donaldson, there is also the perception that the victim's sexual identity as a male has been compromised or even demolished and reversed.

"The third major injury of prison rape, for heterosexual survivors, is often related to manhood issues, and results from peers who spread the unfounded belief that the victim's sexual orientation is compromised or even transformed by his involuntary experience," Donaldson said.

According to Robert Sheldon, a former rape counselor and current writer for www.stopprisonerrape.org, "rape is a prime example of power dynamics and can be observed by the use of sex and sexual assaults within the prison environment."

"The penis becomes a weapon of control that provides prisoners with a means to assert themselves and show others that they are unassailable," Sheldon said. "This type of assault is the inmate's legitimate way of expressing their manhood and brutal desire for power."

According to Sheldon, they do not see their actions as those of homosexuals because "they are rarely done with the intent of sexual satisfaction" and the rapists "very rarely climax" while performing these acts, because the focus is "simply on who is in charge and who is doing the penetration."

While prison rape will continue to be a problem in some prisons, Maloney has seen a definite improvement in the security of preventing rape.

"I definitely knew of more rapes and sexual harassment when I was in prison in the 1980s, but now there is definitely more security and less instances," Maloney said. "I know it still happens, but it is less of a problem."

McGranaghan said he feels safe in prison. "Rape has not been an issue; of course, I've thought about it, worried about it, but each day that goes by is another safe day for me."

According to Maloney, the more secure the institution, the more homosexuality there will be.

"There are more long-timers, for whom prison is a way of life," Maloney said. "They find their memories fading. After a few years, it's hard to reconstruct the faces of the girls you knew. Eventually new sex images begin to appear, those of the surrogate females that are everywhere in the prison world."

The majority of males who are incarcerated are doing time for violent crimes, including rape, murder, assault and violent burglary.

While there is no exact explanation of criminal behavior, two theories which are currently being explored are psychological and genetic theories.

According to Dr. Michael Clancy, a geneticist and professor at the University of Alaska, many people believe that crime is caused by psychological problems.

"Some studies have showed that the development of the unconscious personality early in childhood influences behavior for the rest of a person's life," Clancy said. "Criminals have weak egos and damaged personalities."

This same study shows that these criminals have an undeveloped or underdeveloped ability to control their behavior.

"Another explanation of criminal behavior is the genetic problem of an extra chromosome on the 23rd pair. This chromosomal defect, also known as the XYY syndrome, occurs in about 1 out of every 1,000 males," Clancy explained.

"XYY males are more likely to be institutionalized in prisons or mental hospitals than are XY males," Clancy said. "Because more XYY males are in prison, that chromosomal defect is said to cause aggression and violence."

Violence can mask an inmate's true self, however. Maloney explained that when "you get to know the men you feared, you find beneath their icy visages warm, lonely, desperate beings who would like to reach out to you but who are afraid to."

With only a few years of prison left, McGranaghan is taking advantage of the education and various life lessons he is gaining. Being in prison certainly hasn't taken away from his social life, either.

"I've got pen pals and online pen pals, so there is communication in the outside world," McGranaghan said. "Hopefully when I'm out of here I may get a chance to catch up with them and finally meet these new friends in person."

Back to Guidon index