Talk:Suicide of Rodney Hulin

Reference

 * No escape: male rape in U.S. prisons

--Stone (talk) 20:23, 24 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the source :) WhisperToMe (talk) 16:27, 4 May 2010 (UTC)

Rodney Hulin article.
my name is Robert M Rosenberg. I was the attorney who represented the estate of Rodney Hulin that is mentioned in the article. The article incorrectly states that Rodney became a symbol for the issue of housing youthful offenders in adult prison.

in fact the case is not based on that issue and that is not what Rodney became a symbol for in the discussion of prison reform. Rodney became the public face of the need to reform how prison rape is dealt with. When I was asked by the ACLU to represent Rodney's estate the issue the ACLU was pushing was the age matter. That issue was irrelevant because Rodney, along with all other offenders in the Texas prison system under the age of at the time 21 years old, were segregated from.the adult general population. Rodney was being assaulted by other prisoners who were his contemporary in age.

I am the person who raised the issues in the case which were based on the 8th Amendment barring cruel and unusual punishment, ie a system that openly allows rape by prisoners and or guards against other prisoners is an 8th Amendment violation. The other issue was that the system for prison grievance violated rights under 14th Amendment due process.

Rodney's legacy is that Congress passed federal legislation in 2005, which was signed into law by George W Bush to address reforming prisons to eliminate prison rape through various reforms. The age and gender of the rapists and victims are irrelevant to the law, as they were in the litigation involving Rodney Hulin. 172.58.103.63 (talk) 13:36, 22 July 2021 (UTC)