Comment on FR Doc # 2011-01905

I'll keep this brief since I'm sure you have a great deal of comments to review. 1. The prevalence and brutality of prison rape in the US is an international disgrace that sickens me. We MUST take serious action to address this problem. 2. Since people of color, folks with mental health problems and the poor are disproportionately represented in our prison system, failing to address prison rape is in itself an act of discrimination and bias. So it makes a loathsome situation that much worse. 3. As we've seen from the Stanford Prison experiment, the power dynamics of prison situations predispose ordinarily good people in positions of power (guards) to be more likely to abuse and coerce people in their care, or to be negligent or cavalier about the value of prisoners (which could allow them to more easily overlook prisoner to prisoner sexual assaults). This isn't a bunch of bleeding heart nonsense. This is well documented. We need to be serious about doing whatever we can to make the prison environment less susceptible to these toxic power imbalances. 4. The war on drugs and political climate of mandated sentencing has filled our prisons with non-violent offenders. A huge proportion of our population (compared with all other nations) is in jail. So this problem stands to affect a very high proportion of Americans. Please take this issue seriously. The trauma of sexual abuse is so, so profound. We need the vigilance and swift action of YOU to make a difference. Thank you.