Wichita Falls, Texas – Roderick Johnson, a former inmate at the Allred Unit, a violent prison a few miles from here, belonged to a gang called the Gangster Disciples, but not in the usual sense, the gang’s former No. 2 man explained Wednesday in Wichita Falls federal court.
“Was Mr. Johnson considered a member of the Gangster Disciples?” one of Johnson’s attorneys asked the witness, whose name was withheld by the court because his testimony could subject him to retaliation.
“No,” said the witness, a soft-spoken, bald black man in a prison uniform and shackles.
“What was he considered?” asked the attorney, Jeffrey Monks.
“Property,” came the reply.
That meant, the witness continued, that gang members could rape Johnson at will. They could, he said, also rent him out for sex, and they did, daily.
A purchased rape, the witness said, cost $3 to $7. Johnson says the abuse went on for 18 months.
Johnson, who was in Allred for probation violations after a burglary conviction, has sued seven prison officials there for violating the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment.
The officials, the lawsuit says, failed to protect him and took sadistic pleasure in his victimization. Johnson was released in 2003.
His lawsuit, filed in 2002, has drawn national attention to the issue of sexual slavery in prisons.
Testimony last week has corroborated aspects of his account and opened a window onto a world in which, Johnson and other prisoners said, sexual slavery at the hands of prison gangs is common.
Attorneys for the defendants say that Johnson made up the story of his victimization and that, in any event, the officials did all the law required to protect him in an inherently dangerous environment.
Some of the sex was consensual, attorneys for the officials say, pointing to seemingly affectionate letters Johnson wrote to men he has accused of raping him.
A letter to another prisoner discussed the money Johnson hoped to win in the lawsuit.
Johnson, 37, is a black gay man with a gentle manner. He is represented by the National Prison Project of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Johnson was a “free-world homosexual,” the witness said. That meant that the other prisoners considered him a woman in prison, and chattel.
They called Johnson by a nickname, Coco, and referred to him using feminine pronouns.
Prison officials, the witness said, knew what was going on.
“They turned a blind eye,” he said. “They seen what was happening, but they pretended they didn’t.”
