Abuse of prisoners of any kind is never acceptable. By anyone, anywhere. The fact that there is
prisoner abuse in America's state and federal prisons, should make abuse in military detention camps,
no surprise. But, as in any society, there are going to be sick, depraved individuals who take pleasure
in the torture and suffering of others. Just because the victims are criminals, does not mean they lose
their basic human rights
I have the utmost respect for our men and women in uniform, the few who dishonored the uniform should not
the lasting image of America's fighting forces. The vast majority are fine, honest people, who serve with
integrity and valor, and treat people with respect and decency. They serve to protect our freedom and democracy.
Guantanamo Bay - Eye on Camp Delta
Camp Delta News
The war in Iraq was just a few months old and the nation had yet to hear of the torture chambers of Abu Ghraib prison when Capt.
The Bush administration has suffered another significant setback in its long series of court defeats over its handling of prisoners in the war on terror.
During the widely seen and analyzed premier presidential debate, Barack Obama was grossly mistaken when, toward the end, he said: "I give Senator McCain great credit on the torture issue, for having identified ...
Gitmo methods used on US soil http://www.aclu.org/safefree/detention/37083prs20081008.html FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: 549-2666; media@aclu.org NEW YORK - According to newly released military documents, the ...
A U.S. federal judge has ordered the release of 17 Chinese Muslim prisoners from Guantanamo Bay, ruling their indefinite detention is unconstitutional and setting a deadline of Friday for their freedom.
A Baltimore-based refugee aid organization that is normally charged with helping victims of torture and civil war from far-flung countries said today it will try to help detainees from Guantanamo Bay settle in ...
A US military officer warned Defense Department officials that American detainee Yaser Esam Hamdi was being driven nearly insane by months of punishing isolation and sensory deprivation in a US military brig, ...
A federal court has for the second time in a little over three months delivered a stunning rebuke of the US government's justification for detaining suspects without trial at Guantanamo Bay prison.
The 700-odd lawyers defending the suspected foreign terrorists held by the United States at Guantanamo Bay say they share a common mission -- to make amends for the US government's actions in its "war on ...
This week's revelation that Sarah Palin could not name a U.S. Supreme Court decision she opposed other than Roe v. Wade only served to confirm once again that she is the ideal running mate for John McCain.
Official Comment Count: 1,020,572 Profile Sb/DonorsChoose Drive Thanks! Blogroll Archives YearlyKos 2007 Video of speech on Dover and the Future of the Anti-Evolution Movement Audio of Greg Raymer Interview ...
The military commission or tribunal system developed by the Bush administration to deal with prisoners being held at Guantanamo Bay has suffered yet another setback.
A U.S. military prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay who alleged his superiors suppressed evidence refused to testify in the war crimes case Thursday, one day after revealing that he quit over what he called ethical lapses.
Army Lt. Col. Darrel Vandeveld, who was called as a defense witness, said he will not testify unless he receives immunity.
His defection has sent ripples throughout the U.S. military's tribunal system, with prosecutors dismissing his claims as 'ridiculous' and defense attorneys in other cases seizing on them as proof the government does not share evidence in good faith.
Military prosecutors have asked the judge who presided over the war crimes trial for Osama bin Laden's driver to order a new sentencing hearing, arguing the detainee should not have received credit for time ...
A U.S. military prosecutor at Guantanamo Bay has quit because his office suppressed evidence that could clear a young Afghan detainee of war crimes charges, defense lawyers said Wednesday.
Our prison system is a complete mess. In every possible way, the process we use to deal with criminals is broken. And those who refuse to correct this disaster are armed with the timeless, ever-effective, yet meaningless slogan: You can't be "soft on crime." Slogans handcuff prison reform (Paradise Post)
SACRAMENTO - A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the Schwarzenegger administration to tell the court whether the state has the $250 million needed to start an $8 billion overhaul of the prison health care system. Judge seeks down payment in prison reform case (Los Angeles Daily News)
HARRISBURG - Some proposals sped through the House and Senate with only a few months of negotiations, others took years to reach a vote, but when the 2007-2008 legislative session ended Wednesday, the General Assembly had approved a number of landmark bills. Despite landmark bills, Pa. legislature has undone work (Philly.com)
Prop. 5 backers, its critics disagree over effectiveness of court-ordered treatment programs, but John Delino knows it can work. Addiction Debate (Daily Breeze)
Free evening event as we approach the 60th Anniversary of the UN Declaration of Human Rights. Speakers include Bruce Kent of CND and Juliet Lyon of the Prison Reform Trust. Human Rights, Human Wrongs (London SE1)
(Editor?s note: Penology as study of crime/punishment and prisons management has no importance in RP as noted by the author.) Rich jailbirds in RP (Manila Bulletin)
Human Rights Watch said in a new report on Wednesday that torture continues to be "routine and widespread" in Jordanian jails, and claimed that some prison bosses have personally abused inmates. Torture 'widespread' in Jordan prisons: HRW (AFP via Yahoo! News)
Although the protests and community activity on prison reentry that riddled New Haven shortly after the ?dumping? announcement by Community Services Administrator Kica Matos have dissipated, city officials and legislators have been working on the problem ? quietly. City focuses on prison reentry (Yale Daily News)
Human Rights Watch condemns the U.S. ally, saying prisoners are tortured and abusers go punished. For three days, he was severely beaten by prison guards. Then, early one morning in May, Firas Zaidan was found dead in his solitary-confinement cell in Jordan, one of the United States' staunchest allies in the Middle East. Torture rampant in Jordan's prisons, report says (Los Angeles Times)
09 October 2008 AMMAN - Authorities have rejected as "inaccurate and full of contradictions" a report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) alleging "routine and widespread torture" in Jordanian prisons. PSD says HRW prisons report 'inaccurate' (Zawya)
Source: Human Rights Watch (Amman, October 8, 2008) ? Jordan should end routine and widespread torture in its prisons, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. Human Rights Watch called on the government to ... Jordan: Torture in Prisons Routine and Widespread (AlertNet)
A new report released Wednesday by Human Rights Watch (HRW) accuses Jordanian authorities of routine and widespread torture of prisoners across the country, and calls for an end to the abuses. According to the 95-page report, based on interviews with 110 random prisoners in several locations in 2007 and 2008. HRW report finds continuing use of torture in Jordanian prison system (The Daily Star Lebannon)
A New York-based human rights group accused Jordan's security services Wednesday of carrying out widespread torture in the country's jails. The Human Rights Watch report comes a year after the U.N. special rapporteur on torture, Manfred Nowak, said he found evidence of systematic abuse in at least two Jordanian detention facilities but did not believe torture was widespread in the country. ... HRW rebukes Jordan for alleged torture (The Charlotte Observer)
Wed, Oct 8, 2008 (2:57 a.m.) A New York-based human rights group accused Jordan's security services Wednesday of carrying out widespread torture in the country's jails. HRW rebukes Jordan for alleged torture (Las Vegas Sun)
California Prisons 'Dysfunctional,' State Report Concludes9 July 2004
The California prison system, exceeded in size by only the federal system, is
'dysfunctional' and plagued by abuses, according to a report commissioned by
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) and authored by former Gov. George Deukmejian(R).
As governor from 1983 to 1991, Deukmejian oversaw much of the expansion that has
turned the California Department of Corrections into a $6 billion a year,
32-prison gulag holding 163,000 prisoners at last count.
Despite the passage of the 'treatment not jail' Proposition 36 initiative in
2002, more than 33,000 drug offenders continue to fill prison cells - 21% of
all California inmates. Among those tens of thousands of victims of prohibition
are some 1,250 doing time for marijuana crime. Additionally, more than a full
third of California's 114,000 parolees are drug offenders.
In many jails, prisons, immigration detention centers and juvenile detention facilities, confined individuals suffered from physical mistreatment, excessive disciplinary sanctions, barely tolerable physical conditions, and inadequate medical and mental health care. Unfortunately, there was little support from politicians or the public for reform.
Fifty-three percent of all state inmates were incarcerated for nonviolent crimes, while criminal justice policies increased the length of prison sentences and diminished the availability of parole. The U.S. incarcerated a greater proportion of its population than any countries except Russia and Rwanda: more than 1.7 million people were either in prison or in jail in 1998, reflecting an incarceration rate of more than 645 per 100,000 residents, double the rate of a decade before. Approximately one in every 117 adult males was in prison.
Surging prison populations and public reluctance to fund new construction produced dangerously overcrowded prisons. Violence continued to be pervasive: in 1997 (the most recent year for which data were available), sixty-nine inmates were killed by other inmates, and thousands were injured seriously enough to require medical attention. Extortion and intimidation were commonplace. Most inmates had scant opportunities for work, training, education, treatment or counseling. Mentally ill inmates-estimated to constitute between 6 and 14 percent of the incarcerated population-rarely received adequate monitoring or treatment.
Many local jails were dirty, unsafe, vermin-infested, and lacked areas in which inmates could exercise or get fresh air. Some jail authorities placed inmates in restraining devices for long periods far in excess of legitimate safety considerations. Severe overcrowding coupled with inadequate staffing in many jails created dangerous conditions reflected in the numbers of inmates injured in fights, who experienced seizures and other medical emergencies without proper attention, and who managed to escape.
Authorities relied increasingly on administrative segregation in super-maximum security prisons to maintain control. Prisoners deemed particularly disruptive or dangerous were isolated in small, often windowless cells for twenty-three hours a day; more than 24,000 prisoners were kept in this modern form of solitary confinement at any given time.
At the end of 1997, Human Rights Watch released a report documenting conditions in two super-maximum security prisons in the state of Indiana. Although excessive use of physical force in these facilities had diminished in recent years, we still found excessive isolation, controls, and restrictions that were not penologically justified, and mentally ill inmates whose conditions were exacerbated by the regime of isolation and restricted activities, as well as by the lack of appropriate mental health treatment. The Indiana Department of Corrections instituted a number of reforms that were responsive to our concerns. Most significant was the development of a special housing unit for the treatment of disruptive or dangerous mentally ill inmates that opened in June 1998.
Abusive conduct by guards was reported in many prisons. The threat of such abuse was particularly acute in supermax prisons. Since Corcoran State Prison in California opened in 1988, fifty inmates, most of them unarmed, were shot by prison guards and seven were killed. In February 1998, federal authorities indicted eight Corcoran officers for deliberately pitting unarmed inmates against each other in gladiator-style fights which the guards would then break up by firing on them with rifles. In July, the state announced a new investigation into at least thirty-six serious and fatal shootings of Corcoran inmates.
Guard abuse was by no means confined to California prisons. Across the country, inmates complained of instances of excessive and even clearly lawless use of force. In Pennsylvania, dozens of guards from one facility, SCI Greene, were under investigation for beatings, slamming inmates into walls, racial taunting and other mistreatment of inmates. The state Department of Corrections fired four guards, and twenty-one others were demoted, suspended or reprimanded. In many other facilities across the country, however, abuses went unaddressed.
Overcrowded public prisons and the tight budgets of corrections agencies fueled the growth of private corrections companies: approximately 100,000 adults were confined in 142 privately operated prisons and jails nationwide. Many of these facilities operated with insufficient control and oversight from the public correctional authorities. States failed to enact laws setting appropriate standards and regulatory mechanisms for private prisons, signed weak contracts, undertook insufficient monitoring and tolerated prolonged substandard conditions. In less than a year, there were two murders and thirteen stabbings at one privately operated prison in the state of Ohio.
Sexual and other abuses continued to be serious problems for women incarcerated in local jails, state and federal prisons, and INS detention centers. Women in custody faced abuses at the hands of prison guards, most of whom are men, who subjected the women to verbal harassment, unwarranted visual surveillance, abusive pat frisks and sexual assault. Fifteen states did not have criminal laws prohibiting custodial sexual misconduct by guards, and Human Rights Watch found that in most states, guards were not properly trained about their duty to refrain from sexual abuse of prisoners. The problem of abuse was compounded by the continued rapid growth of the female inmate population. As a result women were warehoused in overcrowded prisons and were often unable to access basic services such as medical care and substance abuse treatment.
In Michigan, where women were plaintiffs in a civil rights suit jointly litigated by private lawyers and the Department of Justice, these women reported retaliatory behavior by guards, as described in more detail below. The retaliation ranged from verbal abuse, intimidation, and excessive and abusive pat frisks, to loss of visitation privileges and "good time" accrued toward early release.
Men in prison also suffered from prisoner-on-prisoner sexual abuse, committed by fellow inmates. Prison staff often allowed or even tacitly encouraged sexual attacks by male prisoners. Despite the devastating psychological impact of such abuse, there were few if any preventative measures taken in most jurisdictions, while perpetrators were rarely punished adequately by prison officials.
As in previous years, increasing numbers of children were incarcerated nationwide, even as the number of violent juvenile offenders fell. Research by the Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) found that only 6 percent of juvenile arrests in 1992 and 1994 were for violent crimes. Between 1994 and 1995, according to OJJDP, violent crime arrests of juveniles between the ages of fifteen and seventeen fell by 2 percent; arrests of younger juveniles for violent crimes dropped by 5 percent for the same period. Despite this declining percentage of violent juvenile offenders, and in spite of the costs associated with incarceration, most states continued to incarcerate high numbers of children for nonviolent offenses. Between 1992 and 1998, at least forty states adopted legislation making it easier for children to be tried as adults, and forty-two states detained juveniles in adult jails while they awaited trial.
Prompted by a 1996 Human Rights Watch report on human rights abuses in the state of Georgia, the Department of Justice (DOJ) concluded a year-long investigation of the state's juvenile detention facilities in February 1998. The DOJ identified a "pattern of egregious conditions" that violated children's rights, including overcrowded and unsafe conditions, physical abuse by staff and excessive use of disciplinary measures, inadequate educational, medical and mental health services. In March 1998, the state and the DOJ signed an agreement that required the state to make extensive improvements. The DOJ concluded at least two other investigations of juvenile facilities in 1998, finding violations in the county detention centers in Owensboro, Kentucky, and Greenville, South Carolina. In each of these facilities, the DOJ found evidence that staff employed excessive force against juvenile inmates.
