Prison Abuse is Homegrown
When John Ashcroft announced the appointment of the team to restore Iraq's criminal justice system last year, he said, "Now all Iraqis can taste liberty in their native land, and we will help make that freedom permanent by assisting them to establish an equitable criminal justice system based on the rule of law and standards of basic human rights."
With images of the Iraqi prison abuse still in our minds, maybe now would be a good time to listen to human-rights observers who have been telling us for years that inhumane behavior toward prisoners is routine in America.
Experts tell us that prison rape by guards and other inmates and so-called gladiator fights are widespread behind American bars.
In fact, the same Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International reports that condemned Saddam Hussein also condemned the American prison system.
In the past week we've heard the same litany from our leaders: "We're better than this," or "This is not the American way." Well, the fact is, that we're not better than this and it is, in fact, the American way.
The contractor who reopened Abu Ghraib in Iraq was a former Utah prison director who quit his job after a prisoner died, chained to a restraining chair for more than 15 hours. When he started his own company as a prison director, the Justice Department investigated him twice, citing him for unsafe conditions and substandard medical care. Additionally, the two men who were running the cell blocks in Abu Ghraib where the abuse occurred are both corrections officers, from Virginia and North Carolina.
In Pennsylvania and some other states, inmates are routinely stripped in front of other inmates before being moved to a new prison or new units within their prison, and in Arizona, male inmates at the Maricopa County jail in Phoenix are made to wear pink underwear as a form of humiliation. At Virginia's Wallens Ridge maximum security prison, new inmates have reported being forced to wear black hoods, and said they were often beaten and cursed at by guards and made to crawl.
Prison sentences have long been equated with rape and other torturous abuses in this country.
But why should we care? They are prisoners, after all.
As the beacon of democracy and human rights for the rest of the world, our criminal justice system should be First World, not Third World. If we don't really want a First World system, then we need to at least have the integrity to stop pretending that we value human rights and sentence our inmates to 10 years plus gang rape, or five years plus sodomy, three years plus sexual humiliation and one year plus torture. And while we're at it, let's stop calling our jails "correctional" facilities, since they correct nothing and produce ex-cons who are angrier and less equipped for society than when they began their sentences.
How can we set the standard for the world when we sentence children in Florida to life in prison? How can we be an example of justice when half of Illinois' death row inmates are released after being found factually innocent? How can we promise Iraq a "criminal justice system based on the rule of law and standards of basic human rights" when we force our own inmates to wear women's pink underwear and sit chained nude to a chair until they die?
See, the problem with treating our prisoners like trash and sweeping them away for a few years is that, unlike trash, they eventually are released. Stripped of self-esteem and dignity, they will return to our towns and neighborhoods, where we will expect them to become productive, law-abiding members of society. Anyone with even a cursory understanding of psychology will tell you that it's not going to happen.
So, I'll finish with a pop quiz.
If the abuse at Abu Ghraib is "deplorable" and "shameful," then the abuse in American prisons is: a) just as deplorable and shameful, or b) the American way, or c) acceptable because they're convicted criminals. If you guessed "a" you get an "A" If you guessed "b" or "c" don't feel too bad. At least you're in the majority.
With images of the Iraqi prison abuse still in our minds, maybe now would be a good time to listen to human-rights observers who have been telling us for years that inhumane behavior toward prisoners is routine in America.
Experts tell us that prison rape by guards and other inmates and so-called gladiator fights are widespread behind American bars.
In fact, the same Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International reports that condemned Saddam Hussein also condemned the American prison system.
In the past week we've heard the same litany from our leaders: "We're better than this," or "This is not the American way." Well, the fact is, that we're not better than this and it is, in fact, the American way.
The contractor who reopened Abu Ghraib in Iraq was a former Utah prison director who quit his job after a prisoner died, chained to a restraining chair for more than 15 hours. When he started his own company as a prison director, the Justice Department investigated him twice, citing him for unsafe conditions and substandard medical care. Additionally, the two men who were running the cell blocks in Abu Ghraib where the abuse occurred are both corrections officers, from Virginia and North Carolina.
In Pennsylvania and some other states, inmates are routinely stripped in front of other inmates before being moved to a new prison or new units within their prison, and in Arizona, male inmates at the Maricopa County jail in Phoenix are made to wear pink underwear as a form of humiliation. At Virginia's Wallens Ridge maximum security prison, new inmates have reported being forced to wear black hoods, and said they were often beaten and cursed at by guards and made to crawl.
Prison sentences have long been equated with rape and other torturous abuses in this country.
But why should we care? They are prisoners, after all.
As the beacon of democracy and human rights for the rest of the world, our criminal justice system should be First World, not Third World. If we don't really want a First World system, then we need to at least have the integrity to stop pretending that we value human rights and sentence our inmates to 10 years plus gang rape, or five years plus sodomy, three years plus sexual humiliation and one year plus torture. And while we're at it, let's stop calling our jails "correctional" facilities, since they correct nothing and produce ex-cons who are angrier and less equipped for society than when they began their sentences.
How can we set the standard for the world when we sentence children in Florida to life in prison? How can we be an example of justice when half of Illinois' death row inmates are released after being found factually innocent? How can we promise Iraq a "criminal justice system based on the rule of law and standards of basic human rights" when we force our own inmates to wear women's pink underwear and sit chained nude to a chair until they die?
See, the problem with treating our prisoners like trash and sweeping them away for a few years is that, unlike trash, they eventually are released. Stripped of self-esteem and dignity, they will return to our towns and neighborhoods, where we will expect them to become productive, law-abiding members of society. Anyone with even a cursory understanding of psychology will tell you that it's not going to happen.
So, I'll finish with a pop quiz.
If the abuse at Abu Ghraib is "deplorable" and "shameful," then the abuse in American prisons is: a) just as deplorable and shameful, or b) the American way, or c) acceptable because they're convicted criminals. If you guessed "a" you get an "A" If you guessed "b" or "c" don't feel too bad. At least you're in the majority.
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