Bill Maher joked that ‘we’ve all been’ imagining Donald Trump being raped if he is sent to prison for his 34 felony convictions.
The comedian said it was a ‘puzzling paradox’ that rape jokes were ‘completely unacceptable and unthinkable’ – unless they were about prison.
Maher said such jokes would be made more often since the former president’s convictions for falsifying business records last Thursday.
‘With all the talk now about Trump possibly going to jail, we’ve all been doing it. I mean, come on, it’s Donald Trump!’ he joked on his HBO show.
‘Given the opportunity, it’s natural to want to imagine him getting f**ked in the a**.’
Trump is unlikely to be jailed when he is sentenced on July 11 after the ‘hush money’ trial, despite the number of felonies, as he is a first-time non-violent offender.
But Maher’s bizarre joke set up a serious segment about American’s attitude towards criminal punishment, and the country’s prison system generally.
‘I’m just saying maybe we shouldn’t (joke about prison rape,’ he continued.
‘If not for him, then for the nearly two million people behind bars at any given time in this country. That’s more people than in 12 states. They should have their own two senators.’
Maher pointed out that the US had a higher incarceration rate than Russia, China, or ‘almost any of the other evildoer countries’ that Americans worried about.
‘But for some reason, Americans simply accept that not only do we lock up way more people, but that if you’re a criminal of any kind? Yes, sodomy is the appropriate comeuppance,’ he said with disdain.
Maher explained that many prisons were so overcrowded that inmates had to fight for toilets and showers and even sleep on the floor – or were locked in solitary confinement.
The US also has four of the world’s 25 most dangerous prisons – the Florence Supermax in Colorado, Attica near Buffalo, San Quentin north of San Francisco, and the New Mexico State Penitentiary.
A fifth prison, FCI Dublin near Oakland, was also being shut down because the guard’s ‘rape club’, where staff-on-inmate sexual abuse was rampant, was too ingrained in its work culture to reform, he said.
‘What kind of society is cool with all this? We call them “correctional facilities” but that’s like calling the NFL a brain development program,’ he said.
‘I’m not saying it’s not OK to lock people up, of course it is, but it’s not OK to deliberately violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.
‘Fake tough guys think if prison’s bad enough it will incentivize people to stay out of trouble after they get out, but they’re wrong – it actually does the opposite.’
Maher pointed to the country’s high recidivism rates of 43 per cent in the first year after release and 82 per cent within a decade, as evidence.
He described prison as ‘LinkedIn for lowlifes’ and since almost all inmates are eventually released Americans needed to think about ‘who we really want returning to society’
‘It’s a taxpayer-funded criminal mentorship program,’ he said.
‘Some hapless broke dude goes in for selling drugs or passing a bad check and a few years later he comes out a sexual predator with “white power” written on his neck.
‘We all sort of just accept that as how prison works – you go in bad, you come out worse… but it doesn’t have to be this way, we could change.’
Maher pointed to countries like Norway, which gives prisoners comfortable cells and teaches them trades, and has ‘guards who aren’t maniacs who failed the police psych exam’ – and is rewarded with just a 20 per cent recidivism rate.
Maher blamed the use of private prisons in the US for much of the reoffending problem.
‘Corporations don’t run prisons to improve society, they run them to make money,’ he said.
‘The more prisoners, the more profit… they don’t want them rehabilitated, they want return customers.’
Trump was found guilty of falsifying business records to cover up ‘hush money’ payments to pornstar Stormy Daniels about their extramarital affair to prevent news of it derailing his election campaign.
His convictions could be in doubt after a Facebook post claimed jurors were discussing plans to find him guilty before delivering their verdict.
Judge Juan Merchan sparked speculation of potential mistrial when he sent a letter to the prosecution and defense attorneys about the post.
‘My cousin is a juror and says Trump is getting convicted [heart emoji] Thank you folks for all your had work!!!!’ it read.
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