Jails, prisons still trying to meet federal anti-rape rules
HOUSTON — Miguel Moll knew the risk of rape when he was thrown into a Texas jail in 1989 after joyriding in a stolen car.
Then 17, he was placed in a holding pen in Houston, and an older inmate said of the teenager, “I got this one.” The comment sparked the first of many fights Moll had while behind bars.
“The mentality you have to develop very quickly is either that of a wolf or that of a lamb,” he recalled.
A generation later, the federal government has adopted guidelines intended to prevent prison rape in part by separating young offenders from adult inmates. But four years after the rules were supposed to take effect, they are proving difficult to adopt in the nation’s crowded jails and penitentiaries.