Prison Rape Survivors Tell Their Stories


SAN FRANCISCO -- As a young, bisexual inmate weighing just 123 pounds, Kendell Spruce made a perfect target for sexual predators.

Nine months after landing in an Arkansas prison for violating parole for check forgery, he said he had been raped by 27 fellow prisoners, including a cellmate who infected him with HIV.

Spruce, now 42, told his story to a congressional commission studying prison rape and sexual abuse. Other witnesses included juveniles attacked in adult prisons and transgender men and women.