ILGA, inmates run projects to aid prisoners

"In prison homosexuals are often beaten, maltreated and segregated," reported Peter Wingquist, international secretary [of ILGA]. "They are sometimes put in isolation... Homosexuals are often raped and used as sexual scapegoats. They get fewer visits and less mail." "All these injustices are doubled if you are in prison for violating age of consent and especially for prisoners regarded as pedophiles," Wingquist added. [...]

Karl Ahlers, a 55-year-old prisoner serving a 48-year sentence for consensual sex with an under-aged partner, announced that a letter-writing campaign has been launched to persuade Amnesty International to aid him and two other inmates. According to Ahlers, his case was chosen along with Ray Latham (serving 43 years) and Robert Butler (23 consecutive life sentences) to persuade Amnesty International, which intercedes on behalf of political prisoners worldwide, to change their policy and begin accepting the cases of inmates whose consensual relationships violate age-of-consent laws. "All three cases are strikingly similar," Ahlers said. "Besides extraordinarily long sentences, none of the three had even been accused of doing anything wrong by the people involved. Every accusation was made by the police and other authorities. There was no rape, kidnapping, force nor injury of any kind."

source: Article 'ILGA, Inmates Run Projects to Aid Prisoners' by Chris Farrell; NAMBLA Bulletin, vol. 9, n. 9; November 1988