Citizen Scandal: Judge Uses Racism, Homophobia To Scare Teen Straight

While there’s a long history of using the threat of prison to scare juvenile deliquents on to the straight and narrow, Magistrate Brian Maloney of Sydney, Australia may have crossed a line when lecturing a 19-year-old who drove drunk without a license.

“[In jail,] you’ll find big, ugly, hairy strong men who’ve got faces only a mother could love that will pay a lot of attention to you — and your anatomy,” Maloney told the repeat offender, adding that the teen will “shower with the gorillas in the mist down at Long Bay jail” if he drives again before 2013, or fails to fulfill his community service requirements.

While a newspaper editorial praised the comments as a “vision in clarity,” one should step back and consider what’s being said. Even if “gorillas” wasn’t intended as a racial slur, telling a defendant they can look forward to prison rape calls into question whether authorities have any interest in curbing the amount of sexual and physical assault that occurs in jail. If judges are going to use the threat of forced homosexual sex with “gorillas” on teens, maybe they should give rapist inmates points for good behavior. After all, what would prison be without them?