Brutality in Prison and Boarding Schools?

Within the American prison system, many of the inmates are treated badly and some are even killed. In multiple states there have been cases where inmates have been shot or brutally beaten. Within the book The Power of One, Peekay, the main character, is treated harshly when he goes to attend boarding school. Peekay is constantly tortured by the other boys and one of the reasons may be because he was the only English speaker and the other boys saw that as a threat. Peekay was both physical and verbally abused, and he was called derogatory names. Like one inmate in California who only had a three minor felonies in his life and was sentenced to 25 years in jail. The only reason that he stole the things he did in the first place was because he was hungry and didn't have any money. This man never shot or hurt anyone and still has to do 25 years. I strongly disagree with this and I think that this is terrible because this many never hurt anyone, he just stole food because he was hungry. I think that California's "three strikes" law is ridiculous because even for minor offenses a man can go to jail for longer than he needs to. Another example is that some prison guards make prisoners rape other prisoners for extra food. This is absolutely terrible and needs to be stopped and hopefully it is because it is already enough to have to be in prison and then to be physically harassed and raped just makes the jail experience that much worse. I hope the guards who make the prisoners do this have to jail time and find out what it is like in the jail cell to begin with so they can see how they physically and emotionally hurt people. The above facts about the brutality the American prison system came from "Inside the US prison system-frame-ups, brutality,and murder."  An article wrote by Kate Randall in July 1999.