Mar 9

Women in this State Don’t Count for Much

I’m trying to write a post for Pith about the Governor’s proposal to close down the female juvenile detention center and throw those girls back in with the boys, into a facility where the sexual abuse of the boys is so rampant that it’s received national attention. I’m trying to write about how, because newspapers in this state won’t call rape rape, I had to write Nate Rau and clarify whether the girls in this story were having sex or being raped, because you can’t trust the newspapers to be square with you.

I, instead, wrote about a proposed law to ban the unregulated sale of breast milk in the state. A problem the sponsor heard about taking place on eBay. A problem which doesn’t actually exist on eBay. But, you know, women are scam artists. We’ll sell dangerous breast milk. We’ll bilk you out of child support. We’ll pass of kids that aren’t yours as yours just to get your money. And women hate babies, so the state has to step in and regulate every area of our existence to make sure we’re not killing them off.

And that post was the pick-me-up from the post about closing New Visions.

People, just read this: “‘In these difficult economic times, DCS, like the rest of state government, must live within its means,’ Johnson said.”

Just let that sink in. “Live within its means” means closing New Visions and putting more kids in a facility we know is overrun with sexual abuse. That’s their great budget idea–give these abusers access to more kids.

What? Because we’re betting that because they’re girls and the abusers have so far been abusing boys that the girls will be fairly safe?

Until we have a handle on what’s going on at Woodland Hills, we should be moving kids out of there, not adding more kids to the mix.

I just honestly don’t even know how to process this.

“State Sen. Douglas Henry said it was premature to discuss keeping the New Visions facility open until it could be learned where the $2.5 million would be cut instead by DCS.”

How is this not the equivalent of selling these girls for $125,000 a piece to child rapists?

And how can there be no discussion about how to save these boys from that?

How can we possibly discuss closing this facility? Some things should just be beyond the pale. There should be no financial straits dire enough that we’re handing children over to rapists.

15 thoughts on “Women in this State Don’t Count for Much”

  1. What? Because we’re betting that because they’re girls and the abusers have so far been abusing boys that the girls will be fairly safe?

    Well that, and also because these same legislators will probably say that the girls should just keep their legs shut.

  3. Makes an interesting contrast with don’t ask, don’t tell policy, when you think about.

  5. What does it matter? I’m not trying to avoid your question. I honestly want to know. What does it matter? The moving of these girls is going to be a done deal long before another governor gets into office.

    If another governor promised to remove these girls would that somehow make things okay? “Oh, well, we’re only putting more kids at the mercy of sexual predators for a year or two, until the budget turns around.”

    That doesn’t cut it.

    Is it just easier to turn the discussion back onto theoretical grounds or back to how my choice for governor sucks or is so great or whatever? Is that the point?

    To have an excuse to turn away?

  6. I also want to say that, bless her heart, Thelma Harper is probably not the person who should be out in front on this. Her hang-up is all about exposing these girls to boys with whom they might have (or want to have) consensual sex.

    And I talked to Nate Rau (as I said), and that seems to be the case about what was going on during the “riot.” Kids who had come to know each other during their time together finally getting an unsupervised chance to let the good times roll.

    There are all kinds of reasons why this is problematic, especially at a state-run facility, but it is not even in the same ballpark, not even in the same game, as the people who control whether you eat using your body for their sexual pleasure.

  9. I was offered $15k for my infant daughter, but that was in 1999. The price has probably gone up by now.

  10. Pingback: Forced Sex Is Rape | Speak to Power

  11. I think the bigger question is why can’t the state run a facility without any type of abuse occuring?

  12. I just can’t seem to convince myself that anybody believes it’s a good solution to take a facility full of boys, a facility with a known sexual assault problem, and put more kids in it. Whether the extra kids are boys or girls, “Hey, there’s a serious problem at this place – let’s make it more crowded,” can’t be anybody’s serious solution, right? Is it remotely possible that this is just a stunt by DCS in response to possible cuts? That they’re saying, “Oh, you want to cut our budget? Okay, then here’s the appalling thing we’re going to do to stay within that new budget. How’dya like us now?”

    I mean, I am not in any way accusing anyone at DCS of pulling such a stunt, or meaning to carry it out if they get cut anyway, but it’s the only thing my brain is finding even remotely sensible.

  13. Maybe the “plan” was to save the boys from being buggered by throwing the predators some girls. Or maybe the DCS assumed no one would notice and that these were throwaway children. Whatever — it’s boggling.

  14. I honestly have no idea. I read in the Tennessean that they’re claiming they have solved the problem by getting a new director and some video cameras. Unless the old director was doing nothing all day but molesting kids…

    I don’t know. It’s like they still don’t get that the problem isn’t somehow the culture at the place; it’s the specific people who are doing these things. A camera isn’t going to solve that, especially once they figure out where all the cameras are.

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