a brief rant

[ratcreature]

This was triggered by the most recent Criminal Minds episode, but I noticed this in all kinds of shows: I find it really disturbing how on tv shows cops use prison rape as expected threat against suspects and criminals, as if it was condoned in the system as punishment following a crime. That is completely messed up and makes me dislike characters intensely, for being barbaric and inhumane rather than concerned about justice.

While it may not be true in practice, in theory prisoners are supposed to be safe from harm while locked up, no matter their crimes or what kind of scum they are, and not subject to random cruelty or punishment meted out by fellow inmates. That kind of thing, i.e. violence happening among inmates is a sign of a system broken and failing the prisoners that are its responsibility, and hero characters are not supposed to be okay with that.

Comments

[jackandahat]

I found your journal on my Network page, but I had to reply because it's something that's been bugging me. I lost a lot of respect for Prentiss there. It's come up before - they've used "You know what happens to guys like you in prison..." to get a child molester to cooperate, but it wasn't as explicit, and it wasn't as gleeful.

I think that was what bothered me - in the past, it's been "Bad stuff will happen, you know what to expect." This was being pleased about it. Now... on the one hand, I tend to think some people deserve whatever's coming to them. On the other hand, it is a sign of the system being broken - and the people who are the system shouldn't be happy about that.

[ratcreature]

Gleeful is a good way to put it. And it bothers me less as well if it is used as interrogation threat. I'm not very fond of it then either, but at least I can assume that it is merely opportunistic, and that the cop doesn't actually condone this state of affairs.

[jackandahat]

It seemed more fact-based when it was done in interrogation - the unsub was already scared of it, Hotch was just saying "You know this will happen - we can prevent it if you work with us." - he was offering an out. Prentiss was saying "This is going to happen and you can't stop it, and I'm glad." Which is totally different, moral wise. (My personal feelings aside, law enforcement people should be better than that, they really should.)

[auburn]

I watched the episode in question last night and I think from the way it was framed to the reactions of the other LEOs and FBI that the Prentiss scene was meant to disturb the viewer. She was freaking them out too. Though no one mentioned it, the case had to stress her considerably: she is worried Hotch won't come back and not as comfortable working with Morgan as boss, she's exhausted - they went from the funeral to the case without rest - and she fit the victim profile: mid-thirties to forties, attractive, well-educated, successful professional, single brunette woman from a high society milieu. She was identifying with the vics like crazy and when they went in that door and found that guy over the latest victim, knife in hand, the anger got the best of her. So she got a vicious satisfaction from taunting him after she put him down, not nice, but she is human and I don't think those words were coming from the FBI agent so much as the woman who imagined being at his (nonexistent) mercy; at least she didn't shoot him and I suspect she was tempted. She's still not (Future Vigilante Serial Killer) Elle Greenway.

I thought Paget Brewster really communicated the intensity and near meltdown very well - the camera guy got her eyes in close up beautifully.

I'm thinking this is the lead in for more back story for Prentiss. It's her turn to get hammered - because everyone in CM gets it sooner or later, even Garcia and she doesn't even work in the field!

[ratcreature]

Yeah, I suspect it will serve as a setup for future Prentiss-whump as well, but this didn't fully reconcile me with this. I think almost any single instance I could cope with on its own, like one time it's to get vital information, the other is some emotional meltdown and so on, it's the ubiquitousness and resulting pattern that ends up disturbing me.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_bettina_/]

I agree, it bothers me too.

[ratcreature]

It's a consolation that at least I'm not alone.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_bettina_/]

On some level I can understand the reaction, but still. I'm just not an eye for an eye kind of person. They should be punished, but not like that.

[ratcreature]

I think part of what bothers me is how often all kinds of tv law enforce types threaten with that and how often it is referred to as if it was just to be expected in prison, so it is made seem as if this was by systematic design rather than a catastrophic breakdown of a prison system. If it was just one law enforcement character in an extreme situation harboring revenge fantasies it would be one thing, but this makes them look as if they collaborate with this state of affairs.

[lazar-grrl.livejournal.com]

Caught in a paradoxical agree/disagree here. I most definitely agree that prisoners should not be subject to rape or beatings while in prison. However...I work with abused women and children. And every time I see one of them sobbing, a very nasty part of my soul wants the people who abused them to have the same hell inflicted on them. I find it difficult to care about their human dignity when they act to take away that dignity from someone else.

It's an intellectual/emotional divide that I think a lot of people (including last night's CM character) have. I don't think that she truly wants him to be brutalized in prison. But I do think she wants him to live in the same fear that he subjected those women to. Not exactly defendable, but very understandable.

[ratcreature]

I can see where it was supposed to be emotional and I could have maybe gone with Prentiss having that immediate reaction after seeing that victim and subduing the guy, but all the others in the room just stood by and let her have his emotional rant at the their prisoner when he was already secure? Why didn't step Morgan in saying that it was enough or something? They all seemed to condone this.

[lazar-grrl.livejournal.com]

Why wouldn't they? Having just pulled a terrified victim out, having just attended the funeral of a woman they all knew, murdered by someone like that? At that point, I think it's understandable. Morgan's been molested, Reid and Prentiss have been held captive and tortured; I think they may all have more sympathy for the victim than the victimizer.