December,
2006
By Kiilu
Nyasha, published first here.
This report
is just the tip of the iceberg. I've had to cut so much of the information I've
gleaned doing the research into U.S. gulags to curb length. So this paper is
just the first part of a series I'm pulling together. The next segment will
focus on the history of U.S. prisons and the rise of the prison industrial
complex. I'm hoping this series will be a wake-up call to the general public as
well as the Movement that we must take action against the terror of a growing
police state -- and fascism.
 |
| Pelican Bay State Prison visitor's center |
The
recently exposed tortures by American troops at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq were
part of a long history of prison brutalities in America's torture chambers. In
fact, among the torturers were prison guards transferred directly from U.S.
prisons where similar tortures are inflicted on their captives.
The
director of the American Civil Liberties Union's National Prisoner Project,
Elizabeth Alexander, accused U.S. governments of honing torture tactics in
American prisons before they were implemented in Afghanistan, Iraq and
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. "If you look at the iconic pictures from Abu
Ghraib," she told reporters, "you can match up these photos with the
same abuses at American prisons, each one of them." (CNS News.com)
Then
there's extraordinary "rendition," the secret transfer of so-called
terror suspects into the custody of other nations - including Egypt, Jordan and
Syria - where physical and psychological tortures are used to gather
intelligence, and to keep detainees away from any judicial oversight.
("USA Below the radar: Secret flights to torture and
'disappearance,'" 4 April 2006 Amnesty International)
American
torture chambers necessarily include death rows. It is surely a torture to have
impending execution hanging over one's head for years on end. Just this month,
at San Quentin -- where over 650 await state murder -- a death row prisoner
committed suicide (S.F. Chronicle, 12/2/06).
The Bureau
of Justice Statistics (BJS),as of 2003, reported of over 3300 condemned
prisoners, 267 had their death sentences overturned or removed, 60 percent from
Illinois where the Governor commuted all 155 death sentences after learning of
the innocence of a dozen or more prisoners slated for death.
In a
national study (Hayes and Rowan 1988) of 401 suicides that took place in U.S.
jails in 1986 "one of the largest studies of its kind" two out of
every three people who committed suicide were being held in a control unit. In
one year, 2005, a record 44 prisoners killed themselves in California prisons
alone; 70 percent of those suicides occurred in segregation units (Thompson
2006).
From 1995 -
2000, the daily count of people in disciplinary segregation increased 68
percent -- a rate of growth more than double the growth rate of the prison
population overall. Some 80,000 people were confined in lockups, only a
fraction of all those in high-security control units or supermax prisons. (BJS
1998, BJS 2004).
In the
words of prison chaplain Sister Antonia Maguire, prisoners are treated like
"animals, without souls, who deserve whatever they get."
Endless
stories of "appalling, sadistic treatment inside America's own
prisons" were uncovered during a four-month investigation, culminating in
a video report titled, Torture Inc. America's Brutal Prisons, produced for BBC
Channel 4 last Spring. "Abu Ghraib...was simply the export of the worst practices
that take place in the domestic prison system all the time."
Deborah
Davies notes:
"It's terrible to watch some of the videos and realize that you're not only seeing torture in action but, in the most extreme cases, you are witnessing young men dying....Savaged by dogs, electrocuted with cattle prods, burned by toxic chemicals, does such barbaric abuse inside U.S. jails explain the horrors that were committed in Iraq?"
"In
one horrific scene, a naked man, passive and vacant, is seen being led out of
his cell by prison guards. They strap him into a medieval-looking device called
a 'restraint chair'....Sixteen hours later, they release him... And two hours
after that, he dies from a blood clot. The tape comes from Utah - but there are
others from Connecticut, Florida, Texas, Arizona -- more than 20 cases of
prisoners who've died in the past few years after being held in a restraint
chair." Amnesty International has called for banning its use and the use
of tasers, responsible for at least 70 more deaths.
To expose
the corruption and brutality of prison officers in Florida, Frank Valdes
started writing to local newspapers. To shut him up, a gang of guards stormed
into his cell, broke almost every one of his ribs, punctured his lung, smashed
his spleen and left him to die.
Several of
the guards were later charged with murder, but the trial was held in their home
town where nearly everyone works for the five prisons which ring the town. The
jury foreman was a former prison officer. The guards were all acquitted, and
the warden has been promoted. He's now in charge of all the Florida prisons.
Also video
taped are two California whistle blowers.
Leaving a
note calling for an investigation into the 2002 Folsom riot saying "the
job killed him," Capt. Doug Piper, committed suicide less than a year
after he tried to quash the filmed melee by closing the yard. Piper was stopped
by his superiors who had released rival prison gangs together in an obvious set
up. He was subsequently "treated like a traitor" by the other staff.
Salinas
Valley whistle blower Donald Vodicka, who "broke the code of
silence," lost his job, his career, his finances, friends and relatives;
wears a bullet proof vest and carries a concealed weapon. He was interviewed on
camera at an undisclosed location because he's on the run in fear for his life.
Even
politicians have been targeted for inquiring into whether a code of silence is
protecting corrupt officers and victimizing whistle blowers. Ca. State Senator
Gloria Romero and others have received threats and intimidation by the powerful
prison-guard "gang" who refer to themselves as "the green
wall."
Described
as one of the harshest juvenile facilities in the country, the notorious junior
prison at "Chad" is the scene of a savage, on-camera beating of two
wards of the California Youth Authority (CYA). The BBC Video pictures the
prolonged brutality and tours the CYA "prison" where youngsters were
shackled and kept locked up to 23 hours a day, with tiny cages for classrooms
and an outdoor cage for recreation.
The British
investigators also collected horrific photographs taken by prisoners' lawyers.
One shows a man with a huge patch of raw skin over his hip. The guards use fire
extinguisher-size canisters of pepper spray resulting in prisoners having
second degree burns all over their bodies. Information Clearing House
In a piece
titled, "California's Prison Crisis 2006: Is the System Beyond Help?"
Barbara Christie writes,
"Alarming cries are being heard up and down the state these days: Prisons near 200 percent capacity! Recidivism rate at nearly 70 percent! Shocking reports of violence, abuse, and neglect! Virtually no rehabilitation, treatment, or education programs! "Life-threatening" conditions place prison healthcare system in federal receivership! Entire prison system under threat of federal takeover! These words are coming from not only inmates' families, but from journalists, oversight organizations, university research centers, and numerous advocates for criminal justice, prison, and parole reform."
The United
States has the highest rate of incarceration in the world with 5000 prisons and
jails nationwide. China holds 500,000 fewer prisoners than the U.S. with four
times the population. A brand new report brings the U.S. to seven million
people in prison, on probation or parole, or one out of every 32 adults.
"ConfrontingConfinement by the Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons"
(June 2006) notes,
"Over the course of a year 13.5 million people spend time in jail or prison, and 95 percent of them eventually return to our communities....High rates of disease and illness among prisoners, coupled with inadequate funding for correctional health care, endanger prisoners, staff, and the public. As a result of poverty, substance abuse, and years of poor health care, prisoners as a group are much less healthy than average Americans. Every year, more than 1.5 million people are released from jail and prison carrying a life-threatening contagious disease. At least 350,000 prisoners have a serious mental illness."
Capturing
the degree of failure in California, Dr. Joe Goldenson noted, "There are
facilities with four or five thousand people that only have two or three
doctors." Some physicians are operating on a license that restricts their
work to prisons because they are deemed unqualified to provide care in the
community.
"Prison
Focus" recently reported over the last 30 years the California prison
population has grown 800% and the system has expanded from 12 penitentiaries to
33 with 173,000 prisoners (a figure that can be at least doubled by those on
probation or other forms of penal control.) It includes 11,600 women, 80% of
whom are mothers. At Central California Women?s Facility (CCWF) women are
living eight to a cell designed to hold four, a torture in and of itself.
The S. F.
Chronicle reported in an article last May titled, "Babies Behind
Bars," more than 300 babies will be born this year -- one almost everyday
-- as the state prepares to open its first prison nursery.
"I
think we owe it to ourselves to create community-based alternatives to mass
incarceration so that the idea of babies behind bars will shock us, not pacify
us," said Donna Willmott of Legal Services for Prisoners with Children in
San Francisco.
One young
mother, described her child birth experience shackled to a bed rail. Her
"most vivid memory is humiliation" and "the fleeting sensation
of cuddling her newborn," whisked away by a social worker. "I cried
every single day for a month," she said. Where are the Madonna's to look
out for these babies?
Women
prisoners are statistically much less prone to violence, more likely to have
been victims of sexual abuse, and much more likely to be the sole parent to
their children. What's happening to their children is yet another indictment of
this torture-happy system.
Overcrowding
has caused many prisons to operate on continual "lockdown" status,
meaning that a "shockingly high" percentage of inmates are confined
to their cells around the clock. While on lockdown, prisoners do not receive
therapy, recreation time, educational programs or other services and are
released only for an occasional shower. California's prisons are operating at
double, triple and in some cases more than five times the original capacity as
in High Desert State Prison at Susanville. More than 17,000 inmates are housed
in areas not designed as sleeping quarters, including hallways and gymnasiums
with at least 1,500 sleeping in triple-decker bunks.
In Los
Angeles, a lawsuit by the ACLU prompted a U.S. District Judge to remedy
"almost unspeakable conditions" in county jails, where up to 60 men
were housed in holding cells designed for 20 and prisoners had to take turns
standing because there was no room to sit or sleep. "Inmates, particularly
pretrial detainees who are imbued with presumption of innocence, deserve better
than to be housed in a system which has defaulted to the lowest permissible
standard of care," the judge said. (L.A. Times 10/28/06) In fact, 62% of
jail prisoners have not been convicted of a crime.
Incarceration
is not just about slave labor and the prison industrial complex (to be
addressed in another part of this series). A majority of prisoners are just
being warehoused in torturous conditions for profit -- and for social and
population control along economic and ethnic or "racial" lines
(There's one human race.). But classism and White supremacy are alive and well.
Removing the reproductive years of young Black and Brown captives precludes
reproduction, divides families, and destroys poor communities.
The United
States spends more than 60 billion dollars annually on so-called corrections.
Between 1995 and 2003, the fastest growing age bracket of state and federal
prisoners was 55 and older -- at an annual cost estimated to be three times
that for younger prisoners: $69,000 per year, compared with $22,000.74. (Greene
& Roche 2003) More recent reports tally the annual cost per prisoner at
about $30,000, doubled or tripled by segregation, age or infirmity.
As of June
2005, there were 6,397 prisoners age 55 and older in California prisons
unequipped to deal with their health needs. The California Legislative
Analyst"s Office projects their numbers will increase to 30,200 by 2022.
Since they have the lowest arrest and recidivism rates, why doesn't the State
release these seniors who pose almost no risk to society" By so doing the
state could have saved $9 million in 2003/2004!
Instead, to
relieve prison overcrowding, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has issued an emergency
proclamation to transfer prisoners to privately-run facilities in other states.
California is poised to sign three- to five-year contracts for 2,200 beds at
private prisons in Oklahoma, Indiana, Arizona and Tennessee. An additional 19
states have expressed an interest in housing California's felons, representing
a total of about 10,000 beds in private and government facilities. It's obvious
prisoners have become chattel, worth tens of thousands of dollars per person.
Prisons are
already located hundreds of miles from their homes; sending prisoners out of
state would virtually eliminate family and friends' visits, and further subject
them to unmonitored abuse.
While
demagogic politicians campaign on platforms of lockemup and throw away the key
and most prisons are about punishment, a Zogby International poll released in
April, 2006, found 87 percent of Americans favor rehabilitative services for
prisoners as opposed to punishment only. However, as you may have noticed,
politicians are beholden to the corporations who fund their campaigns, not the
people.
Reports
cited herein, such as "Confronting Confinement" advocate reform of
the prison system. As George Jackson wrote, "Fascism has temporarily
succeeded under the guise of reform." I and many others advocate the
abolition of prisons and jails per se and abolition of the death penalty.
Naturally, the question that first comes to mind is, "What about the
dangerous criminals?'
Aside from
the fact that the most dangerous criminals are in the White House, there are
known to be locked mental health facilities that provide humane treatment to
sick prisoners who pose a danger to society. We should capture the Capitol Hill
Gang ASAP and lock them into one.
After
decriminalizing drugs for which the vast majority of ordinary people are
imprisoned, we could convert prisons and jails into various institutions for
mental and physical therapy, rehabilitation, and education: hospitals,
counseling and drug treatment programs, trade schools, community colleges, and
universities. Of course, that would take a revolution. But as the martyred
Jonathan Jackson once wrote, "If there's a big job of growing to do; the
sooner begun, the sooner done."
"People
who come out of prison can build up the country
Misfortune
is a test of people's fidelity.
Those who
protest at injustice are people of true merit.
When the
prison doors are opened, the real dragon will fly out."
(Ho Chi
Minh)
[Note: If
the above hyperlink doesn't work, then try
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info and then in the search function type
in "Torture Inc. Americas Brutal Prisons"]
