Letter to the Editor

I agree that inmates in California's jails and prisons should be treated with more bodily dignity. However, I don't appreciate it when inequities faced by female inmates are emphasized while those faced by male inmates are ignored, as Azedeh Amani did in her op ed, "Protect Prisoners from Sexualized Violence," (Daily Journal, Aug. 18).

For example, Amani says "particularly women" inmates do not receive minimum dignity. But male inmates receive even less dignity than female inmates.

For example, courts have held it violates the constitutional rights of female inmates when male guards conduct random, nonemergency, suspicionless clothed body searches on female inmates. Jordan v. Gardner, 986 F.2d 1521 (1993). But courts hold otherwise for male inmates even when female guards are ridiculing their naked bodies. Somers v. Thurman, 109 F.3d 614 (1997).

In jails and prisons (just like in criminal and family courts), the law treats women much better than men. Penal Code Sections 1174-1174.9 and 3411-3424, for example, creates pediatric services, alternative sentencing and other programs for incarcerated mothers with children under 6 years old, but nothing for incarcerated fathers with children under 6 years old.

There were 84,000 incarcerated fathers and 10,300 incarcerated mothers in California in 2001, with incarcerated men being about as likely as incarcerated women (57 percent versus 64 percent, respectively) to be parents, according to the California Research Bureau. And studies show it is very important to maintain relations between children and their incarcerated parents whether it is the mother or the father.

Shouldn't male inmates receive equal dignity rather than sexist double standards?

Marc E. Angelucci
President, Los Angeles chapter of the National Coalition of Free Men

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