163

Far from being an isolated instance of what takes
place behind prison walls, the preceding can be mul-
- tiplied by 1,000 and the reader will have a fairly
accurate idea of the extent to which perverted rape
takes place every year in the nation’s penal
institutions.

Although homosexuality is the greatest problem in
penal admmlstratlon authorities are powerless to
stop it.

This is not so much because they approve of
homosexuality but rather because they have found
that the greater the official opposition to it the more
of it that actually goes on. The explanation of this
paradox is a psychological one.

In a prison where a great fuss is made about
homosexuality, and where persons caught in the act
are severely punished, invariably a good many
prisoners begin practicing the act because it satisfies
their desires to rebel.

Consequently, while virtually all administrators or
prisons take the official position that homosexuality
is forbidden, most of them turn their heads the other
way when it happens.

What happens to a good- lookmg young man like
Mario who has been sent to prison?

Being young he is automatically labeled a“punk.”