Gay stories prison

This article was published in collaboration with Vice.

I was walking the prison path on a sunny southern California date in 2006 when a friend I’ll call Michael unified me. He looked like he could barely hold it together. His dim complexion was ashen, and there was dried toothpaste around his mouth. When I asked him how he was doing, it took a full four seconds before he answered.

“I’m going to kill myself,” Michael said.

He said it matter-of-factly, but when I looked at him to watch if he was joking, his shoulders were slumped, his head down, his eyes focused on the track immediately in front of him. I wondered if he had the same feeling I had, that any verbal misstep could end in disaster.

“Come on man,” I responded, with a lightness that I hoped hid the nervousness I felt. “Nothing could be that serious.”

“There’s a guy in my building that won’t leave me alone. He’s pressuring me to hold sex with him.”

This threw me for a loop. I knew just about everybody on the Yard, and I was skeptical of his claim of abuse. I remembered that Michael had a reputation in our circle of friends for existence overly dramatic. Often, he would convey up “problems” that were just shots to get

Former prisoners share their experiences of sex in prison

The Commission on Sex in Prison’s final state, published today (Tuesday 17 March), features accounts from former prisoners speaking for the first age about their experiences of sex behind bars.

Sex in prison: Experiences of former prisoners is the fifth and final briefing folio published by the Commission, which was established by the Howard League for Penal Reform and includes eminent academics, former prison governors and health experts.

Recommendations from the Commission’s two-year inquiry will be presented today (Tuesday 17 March) at a conference in London.

The Commission sought permission to interview current prisoners about their experiences of sex in prison, but this approach was blocked by the Ministry of Justice.

However, Dr Alisa Stevens, Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Southampton, was able to interview 26 former prisoners during the summer of 2014 – 24 men and two women.

Her inform concludes that a national survey of both the serving prison population and former prisoners, fully supported by but independent of the National Offender Management Service (NOMS), is “urgently required” to

The Jailhouse Lover I Never Had

I was a satisfied , out gay man when I came to Minnesota’s Pottawattamie County Jail in January 2015. But I had to quickly cover my sexuality after I arrived.

County jails are complete of anger. I was surrounded by people who were deep in the toxic trauma that brought them there. Guys were coming off street drugs. Many were still shocked from their arrest. Some were still angry with the spouse they were abusing. Many of them were violent. I possess seen more fights in county jails than in all of the eight years I have been in prison.

It took me 50 years to reach out. When I was a child there was no option for existence gay. I didn’t even know a name existed for who I was until I went to high school in the 1970s.

Once I came out, I decided that no matter the consequences, I was going to dwell out and proud. And yet a cloak of shame and guilt returned to me after I arrived in jail. I decided to downplay my sexuality because I did not want to fetch beat up and then tossed into solitary confinement. Whatever pride I had wasn’t worth it.

Then, one afternoon in late spring, a man came to our jail who sparked my interest. He entered our pod with a batc

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I’ve always been queer, but I’ve never been overtly effeminate. Coming from a family of several positive male role models, I never had to conceal who I was, so I never did.

Like everyone, I had heard the stories about men being “turned out” in prison. As I was creature booked into Orleans Parish Prison in November of 2004, I realized I was a target.

During the processing I was placed in a holding cell with nearly fifty other prisoners.

I was terrified going into the cell. So I found a quiet spot on the floor in the corner. I sat with my knees in and my arms folded with my brain down, so I’m not sure how they knew I was gay. Still, a man sat next to me and put his arm around me. I attempted to spring up but another man stood over me and forcefully pushed me back down by my shoulders.

“You ain’t fighting back, is you, sweetness?” he said. I looked at him in horror as tears welled up in my eyes. The man who was standing exposed himself while the other aggressively forced me to give his friend oral sex. Out of horror, I performed oral sex on them both. Even with several people in the cell, no one said or did anything. I don’t know why I expected them to do anything.