Ilya Somin, a libertarian, and Mark Kleiman, a Democrat, have been debating prison rape.
Ilya argues that it's not politically plausible for the government to help prisoners. "Government is responsive to those who have political power, and prisoners are the classic example of a group that has almost no power, and is generally unpopular with those who do. ... This is an extreme case of an important broader lesson about the nature of government: it usually can't be relied on to protect the political powerless or even the relatively weak."
Instead, Ilya suggests two (as he emphasizes) "libertarian" measures to reduce prison rape. First, end the drug war. No more drug war means fewer people in prison, means less prison rape. Ilya's second suggestion is to privatize prisons. Privatized prisons means less guard unions; less guard unions might mean less lobbying for pro-imprisonment legislation; which means fewer prisoners; which means less prison rape.
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