AP wrote a story about the Obama Administration's Title IX campus rape regulations Sunday.
Eric Holder begins his introductory remarks to U.S. Justice Department web site readers with this statement:
“The primary mission of the United States Department of Justice is to do justice.
“Our only responsibility it to do the right thing.”
If Holder really believes that why has he not met the statutory deadline for issuing rape in prison regulations.
The deadline was June 23, 2010.
It’s almost two years later.
In June of 2009, proposed regulations were made public.
There was a comment period.
It’s long over.
The Washington City Newspaper had an article covering a Jue 23, 2010 press conference by Lovisa Stannow, Just Detention International (previously called Stop Prison Rape) Executive Director.
Naturally, she decried that day’s missed deadline.
It’s now almost two years later.
A former white collar criminal from a Colorado prison also spoke.
Let me show you the part about him:
“Scott Howard-Smith, a survivor of sexual abuse while incarcerated on theft and tax code violation charges, also shared his story on the call.
“‘The attacks that I suffered were devastating,’ said Howard-Smith, who detailed how a white supremacist gang in his Colorado prison ‘raped, assaulted, and extorted’ him in an attempt to convince him to commit fraud on their behalf.
“The abuse didn’t stop with fellow inmates.
“‘My efforts to report were often fruitless,’ Howard-Smith says.
“Corrections officers refused to help him unless he identified all of his assailants by name and detailed their illegal activities, a move Howard-Smith thought would have put him at greater risk in the facility.
“Other officials informed Howard-Smith that ‘as a homosexual I should expect to be targeted by one gang or another,’ while refusing to offer him added protections.”
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder
(Virginia U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf seems to be the main pushing Holder. He and other need to push more.)
Another part of President Barack Obama’s administration, the U.S. Department of Education, did manage to promulgate regulations against sexual assault on college and university campus.
An Associated Press article on Sunday, May 22, 2012, reported on that. (Can’t find the Sun-Times link, but here’s the one to the USA Today story.)
That version reports,
“…as Title IX is now interpreted…colleges must respond if a sexual assault is reported, even if prosecutors refuse to get involved.
“Moreover, they face often precise instructions from the government for conducting their investigations and proceedings, and even the standard of proof to use.”
Now, why would the Obama folks go after rape in college, but not in prison?
Could it be because college coeds can vote and most prisoners can’t?