Sex and intercourse in any form in the prison system, is not about sex in ways that the non-prison world sees or thinks about the subject. It is almost as bad an issue as cis and trans have in understanding in each other. Sex in a prison system is a game of power played by the disempowered on the even less powerful. This is true for both the female and male populations. The most powerful inmate inside gets points for every new body they can gain some power over. The inmate forced into the passive role "has less power" than the inmate in the agressive role according to those rules.
Once the concept of power has been established, variations do materialize. An inmate can "accept the protection" of another inmate, and in a sense of fantasy, beeome one of the "un-raped" inmates, or the "spouse" of the other inmate, and depending on the overall status of the "Protecting" inmate, may become monogamous for a very long time. At this point, the dominant and the submissive leave the world that non-inmates can readily comprehend. Survival is about lying, cheating, and power and more power in the real sense. Once power and relation is established, anyone "in the system" be it inmate, guard or warden see a "happy couple". The game is played and it is like we do when denying our trans ness, inside, you see your sexual arrangement as natural and non threatening after the "honeymoon" is over. The mind is numb to the concept of sex as it was OUTSIDE.
Once outside, after the return to those thoughts, the horror of what went on "inside" is told to non-inmates, with probably still some of the lying or at least survival thinking that has been the norm for the time. They think that outside survival will improve if they tell the de-briefing counselors a certain tale, and it does take a skilled counselor to understand where to accept the story and where not to. The truth is that they did go through absolutely horrific things as people "outside" understand them, but outsiders will have trouble knowing the feelings and adequately judging what is the correct answer here.
I for one look at the question of SRS in light of the "game of power" and need to have much more information and observation time to evaluate this inmate's true position in things. It is true that she wants more power and feels as if she is the most powerless. What power will SRS give her, and will it give her an advantage over men in a mens facility or women in a female facility. Its the only game in town!! In an eerie way though is says something about the ability of humans to survive.
