Okay, I talked to two ex-cons at sports facility (field where you can play soccar, football, etc.)Both of them served I little over 3 years in the Federal Pen recently.
They said it is horrible in prison. Basically, if you do one little thing wrong, you get beat down/ raped, or tortured. They said that the child molesters have it worst. They always get gang beaten at least once...if they are lucky. One of the dudes said he celled next to a young man who was horribly molested for many years as a child. A new guy came in one day and roomed with that young man. The first night, the young guy knocked out the molester while he was asleep, cut off all his genitals, and poored bleach on new wounds...the molester died his first night in prison.
He said that people got killed all the time in prison. A shiv hear, a fatal beat down there...it adds up. These types of things are not reported on the news for some reason.
Yes, the sodomy and gang raping DOES happen...especially to the new guys. The safest guys are the ones who never talk to anyone, never make eye contact, and do not get involved in anything. They said that even then, those quiet guys get beat up just because some other inmate wanted to be tough.
Also, the stuff you saw on the new "longest yard" with those girly gays guys is absolutely accurate...except for one detail....they actually have PIMPS in the prison and if you look at the girly guys, the pimps will beat the shit out of you...you can "buy" time with the girly guys from the pimps.
I have actually visited a pen twice but this is not the type of picture the "speaker" inmates gave us. They said stuff like, "You have to stay out of that bad stuff and be mature" etc. I guess they said stuff like that because I was younger than 18 and they didn't think it appropriate to go into the horrid details.
Case in point, it is much worse in the prison system than I thought. They only become hardened when they go to prison. The prison life is BRUTAL.
Rehab? The cast majority do NOT get rehabbed...rather, they become more vicious. There are the few that educate themselves and become better people...but according to these two gents I spoke to, the majority learn how to be better criminals and keep out of trouble.
This was info from only 2 men who served time recently. I can ask them about more stories if you guys want to read them.
The excuse that the death penalty is actually showing mercy may be accurate. If you really want revenge, many years in the system will definitely be much worse than a simple death.