Sexual Necropolitics and Prison Rape Elimination

Recent US policy aimed at eliminating prison rape demonstrates the racialized sexual relationship between imprisoned people and the state. While invoking a biopolitical concern for prisoners’ safety from sexual violence, the 2003 Prison Rape Elimination Act and the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission contribute to operations of necropolitical power against prisoners in two ways: through reinforcing fantasies of sexually violent black and brown bodies and through expanding state-sanctioned sexual violence against those bodies. Prisoners live on a continuum between biopolitics and necropolitics, and racialized constructions of gender and sexuality determine how their bodies slide along the continuum. However, antiviolence advocates have too often failed to strategize against the necropolitical operations of state power, instead acting as if they are only confronting the biopolitical aspects of the state. An examination of the report issued by the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission reveals a consistent biopolitical vision of the state’s relationship to sexual violence, despite the fact that the report documents numerous situations in which injuries and deaths of prisoners are being actively caused by state actions. Moving beyond the limiting framework of state benevolence, alternate advocacy paths can work to limit state involvement while promoting erotic and bodily autonomy.