166

His life outside is as sterile in its feminine relatlon-
ship as it was in prison. st

So the ex-con takes the easy way out. He goes to
people who are less fussy about a man’s back-
ground, who look only for sexual possibilities and
physical attractiveness. He joins the homosexual
underground.

The obvious answer to the homosexual problem
in prison is to allow the prisoners visitation rights
by their wives—in private. This is the European and
- South American system, and it seems to work. In
~ America, only one prison offers this privilege.

Prison authorities don’t agree with the thesis, argu-
ing that prisoners are locked up for punishment, not
to enjoy the same privileges they enjoyed on the
outside. Enlightened people, interested in the prison
system claim, that American penal institutions are
stuck with this tradition that incarceration is an
instrument of punishment—not correction.

Until there is some meeting of minds on this prob-
lem, young men serving stretches for the first offense,
will continue to be “punks.’’ As such they’ll continue
to be at the mercy of the perverted sexual advances
of the “wolves.”

Until the tragic day when they, too, become
“wolves.” '