Even before I was a leftist, that kind of "joke" made me deeply uncomfortable. We don't sentence people to being raped, so why would we tacitly allow it to happen?
Now, knowing that over 90% of prosecutions are for nonviolent minor offenses, it makes me even more upset.
No. The common jokes are mostly about prisoners having big TVs in their cell, free food, no rent to pay, basically living the good life as if they were mafia big shots in the GoodFellas. The "don't drop the soap" kind of jokes always stroke me as a USian thing.
It does feel it’s fallen off a bit. And it was I think largely a cultural import from the USA.
I’ve on and off done some work helping prisoners over the years and I can’t remember the last I’ve heard any jokes, but might just be I keep good company.
I don’t think so. Many countries have atrocious prison systems whether they’ve been influenced by imperialism or not. You have countries like south Korea and Japan who are literally occupied by the US but prison rape isn’t exactly a comedic topic. But revenge porn and and CSAM is a’okay
These kind of "jokes" pop up occasionally in Denmark but they are not that common. Prison conditions here are better than in the US and fewer go to prison, leading to less mythology forming around the violence happening there. US prisons are understood by the general public to be much more brutal and this understanding is then used to fuel the favourite European passtime of feeling superior to Burgerland despite being it's vassal.
The thing you hear about prisons all the time is that they are not brutal enough, especially to racialised minorities. Apparently being locked in a room with cable tv "doesn't feel like a punishment" to non-whites.
US prisons are understood by the general public to be much more brutal
I’m always amused whenever I watch a movie or show and it depicts Russian prisons as being gulags deep in the isolated snowy mountains, run by ex-KGB warlord gangsters, and the prison wardens force you to fight other prisoners to the death for punishment.
It may or may not be the truth, but all I know is that I live in the freedom republic of the US and people with a big smile on their face joke about you getting raped in prison, then you turn on the news and see news about mass graves in the most racist states that go uninvestigated, and people get locked up in solitary if the wardens are in a bad mood after feeding you rotten food and raping you if you’re a woman.