---

Prison patterns
Alachua County looks closer at jail culture

He has been in jail for a long time, so long that the guards know him well. Held on a violent crime, he waits for and watches younger, smaller inmates held on nonviolent offenses. When one of those inmates winds up in his cell, he strikes - and expects the guards to look the other way.

That's the profile of the typical prison rapist, says Joanne Mariner, author of a study of prison rape in 37 state prison systems.

"There's definitely a pattern to this behavior," said Mariner, a New York attorney for the group Human Rights Watch and the author of its 2001 study on prison rape. "And the pattern is clear enough that prison authorities ought to be able to stop it more often than they do."

If recent reports from the Sheriff's Office are correct, this year's string of rapes at the Alachua County jail fits that pattern almost perfectly. Sheriff's office investigators say Randolph Jackson, 35, raped at least four fellow inmates while awaiting trial for the alleged July 2002 rape of a Gainesville woman. At least two of his alleged victims were in their late teens, held on nonviolent offenses.

Sheriff's Officials have not revealed the identity of any of the victims.

Two guards at the jail were fired for allegedly extending special privileges to Jackson, and bringing other inmates to Jackson's cell at his request. Four others were disciplined for allegedly failing to report incidents that led up to the rape.

Mariner's study - one of only a handful of large-scale studies of the prison-rape phenomenon - is filled with similar stories. Stories of larger, older inmates preying on smaller, younger inmates. Stories of guards who ignore inmate complaints about rape, or even "set up" young prisoners by putting them in cells with known rapists.

"In some places, it seems to be part of the culture of the prison," Mariner said. "The guards either don't care and look away, or they actively set up prisoners as a form of punishment."....