A rare photo from the Swedish gulag

[struggle4progress]

A new "open" prison near Kolmarden has no fences, and room doors are locked by the prisoners themselves.
http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2005/03/20/international/20stockholmCA01ready.html

hattip:
The Pirate Bay’s Founders Are Going to a Prison That’s Better than Your Life
http://gizmodo.com/5881212/the-pirate-bays-founders-are-going-to-nice-prison

[midnight]

1. I wonder how this is possible? I would love a follow up on this new "open" prison concept

in a few years to see what the impact has been... It looks very humane. Maybe treating people with respect will reap better results than those prisons where we treat people like objects...

[Systematic Chaos]

3. I saw a tv show on this model years ago, so it's been around a while.

And since nobody's pissing all over themselves for it to be changed, it must work.

As long as we have a for-profit prison system in this country, we'll never see anything like what Sweden has. Instead, we'll have prisoners like in the deep south, who were threatened with losing all their "good behavior" time if they didn't go and "clean" the Gulf without any protective gear and therefore with the risk of permanent injury and disability or even death, all for a quarter a fucking hour.

[Fumesucker]

2. Your campaign is working amazingly well..

Every OP about Assange increases the number and determination of his supporters on DU..



Who says reverse psychology doesn't work?

[cali]

4. what is your point?

[Luminous Animal]

6. Are you an advocate for these kind of prisons in the U.S.?

I am. And I have been for years. What I haven't done is use a prisoner's or a prison's conditions to advance propaganda. Assange and his lawyers have argued that he is willing to return to Sweden if guaranteed that they won't send him to the disgusting and inhumane U.S. prison system.

[struggle4progress]

7. IIRC these Scandinavian experiments work

[LadyHawkAZ]

14. Yeah, it's done wonders for their rape stats

Oh wait...

[PufPuf23]

8. You have no credibility because of day after

day posts in regards to WikiLeaks.

There are questionable Swedish rape charges.

Have you the clue given your many threads that even guilt for the most hideous Swede rape charges is minut compared to the war crimes, needless deaths, and lies to American Citizens revealed by WikiLeaks?

What is the matter with your logic and morals?

[struggle4progress]

10. At least I give links: Argentina's ambassador to the UK badly needs a history lesson

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021244276

[PufPuf23]

11. Please answer my question in your own words and a short sentence.

Argineina-UK is off topic and avoids my question.

As an aside regard to the Falklands, the residents identify with UK not Argentina.

[Cleita]

20. The lynching mentality cannot be reasoned with no matter how many

facts you try to present to them.

[treestar]

38. No, the crazy arguments of the blind supporters

are what gets less credibility. They are reduced to these personal attacks.

The insanity of the Julian supporters deserves to be crushed by the facts. It's their problem that they can't stand it and start lashing out with baseless personal attacks and raving emotional posts.

I pretty much expect this one to rant on about the non-existant pursuit of Julian for death by the CIA.

[joeybee12]

9. My advice...get a cat...nt

[struggle4progress]

12. Go get your own cat if you like: I won't own one for you

[dionysus]

18. you should get one regardless.. just because they're cool. nt

[struggle4progress]

21. I prefer the birds and chipmunks native to my yard

[dionysus]

22. but you can't play with or snuggle with those. if my cat went outside his life expectancy with be

less than 5 minutes.

[Cleita]

13. You know that if Assange is extradited from Sweden, that

isn't the type of prison he will end up in.

[struggle4progress]

16. While we're imagining stuff, what are you doing to keep the UK from sending Assange to Mars?

[Cleita]

17. Absolutely nothing.

Mars has not issued memos in their DOJ suggesting that Assange be extradited to their planet.

[struggle4progress]

26. I guess I'm glad you draw the line somewhere

[Cleita]

27. I shouldn't even reply to your silliness.

There are so many errors of logic in what you post because your whole view of the Assange affair is based on faulty premises because you ignore some basic facts that don't fit in with your preconceived ideas.

[Robb]

28. You can always go back to alerting MIRT

...if hitting "reply" is similarly unsatisfactory.

[piratefish08]

15. they could take a lesson or to from the USA! they are NOT turning a profit with a system like that.

[dionysus]

19. other for rapists and murderers and stuff, i'd get behind that.

he does occasionally murder moths and spiders though.

[Octafish]

23. A rare photo from the American GULAG.

Not that this awaits Assange, but how is Bradley Manning doing these days?



Know your BFEE: WikiLeaks Stratfor Dump Exposes Continued Secret Government Warmongering

[struggle4progress]

24. Manning's trial begins in February, and prosecutors will be able to point out that the kid

had been disciplined and given extra training on how to handle restricted materials after a security slip-up. So, of course, Manning's defense will tell us during the trial that command knew Manning was slightly bonkers and therefore should have kept him away from anything sensitive

[dsc]

30. that actually is a pretty valid point

it is hard to say that the secrets stolen were the equivalent of the Hope diamond but that you put an untrustworthy nut in charge of keeping them safe.

[Octafish]

32. The US Government has done a great many things to make him feel that way.

Thanks. Here's why I asked...

Stripped naked every night, Bradley Manning tells of prison ordeal

US soldier held on suspicion of leaking state secrets speaks out for first time about experience

'Stripping me of all of my clothing is without justification'

Ed Pilkington in New York
The Guardian, Thursday 10 March 2011

EXCERPT...

The most graphic passage of the letter is Manning's description of how he was placed on suicide watch for three days from 18 January. "I was stripped of all clothing with the exception of my underwear. My prescription eyeglasses were taken away from me and I was forced to sit in essential blindness."

Manning writes that he believes the suicide watch was imposed not because he was a danger to himself but as retribution for a protest about his treatment held outside Quantico the day before. Immediately before the suicide watch started, he said guards verbally harassed him, taunting him with conflicting orders.

When he was told he was being put on suicide watch, he writes, "I became upset. Out of frustration, I clenched my hair with my fingers and yelled: 'Why are you doing this to me? Why am I being punished? I have done nothing wrong.'"

He also describes the experience of being stripped naked at night and made to stand for parade in the nude, a condition that continues to this day. "The guard told me to stand at parade rest, with my hands behind my back and my legs spaced shoulder-width apart. I stood at parade rest for about three minutes … The [brig supervisor] and the other guards walked past my cell. He looked at me, paused for a moment, then continued to the next cell. I was incredibly embarrassed at having all these people stare at me naked."

CONTINUED...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/11/stripped-naked-bradley-manning-prison

One can only imagine what would be done to him if he had actually hurt national security.

[struggle4progress]

33. "... David Coombs, a lawyer for Pfc. Bradley Manning, ... said Manning was confined in such a way

to prevent anything bad from happening to him ..."
Lawyers in WikiLeaks Case Argue Over Email Access
By ERIC TUCKER Associated Press
FORT MEADE, Md. August 28, 2012 (AP)
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/us-soldiers-wikileaks-case-back-military-court-17093558

[SidDithers]

25. DU rec...

Sid

[suffragette]

29. And a picture from one aspect of the US version

I'll even throw in a link to the article about the growth rate in solitary confinement with examples of its uses and abuses.


http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2011/03/201137125936219469.html


If your point was that we should change our inhumane, privatized prison system, I would be only too glad to agree with you.

Yet, somehow, I doubt that's your point.

[riderinthestorm]

31. Assange's already convicted in his mind, S4P's showing his true colors

Showing a Swedish prison? There's not even a presumption of innocent until proven guilty. Nope, just show pics of the slammer.

Getting really pathetic....

[suffragette]

36. Yep, that about sums it up

[treestar]

39. BS. It's not either/or.

If he faces the Swedish system and goes free, fine. The wrong position is the one saying he should never have to answer to it, and that he can apparently commit no crime and do no wrong.

[backscatter712]

34. Of course, we all know that Assange is bound for a Swedish prison, right?

No, he couldn't possibly be extradited to the US to rot in a Supermax, would he? Why the Swedes would refuse to extradite a prisoner to such cruel conditions... Oh wait...

[struggle4progress]

35. "... There was at one stage a suggestion that Mr Assange could be extradited to the USA

... There was at one stage a suggestion that Mr Assange could be extradited to the USA (possibly to Guantanamo Bay or to execution as a traitor). The only live evidence on the point came from the defence witness Mr Alhem who said it couldn’t happen. In the absence of any evidence that Mr Assange risks torture or execution Mr Robertson was right not to pursue this point in closing. It may be worth adding that I do not know if Sweden has an extradition treaty with the United States of America. There has been no evidence regarding this. I would expect that there is such a treaty. If Mr Assange is surrendered to Sweden and a request is made to Sweden for his extradition to the United States of America, then article 28 of the framework decision applies. In such an event the consent of the Secretary of State in this country will be required, in accordance with section 58 of the Extradition Act 2003, before Sweden can order Mr Assange’s extradition to a third State. The Secretary of State is required to give notice to Mr Assange unless it is impracticable to do so. Mr Assange would have the protection of the courts in Sweden and, as the Secretary of State’s decision can be reviewed, he would have the protection of the English courts also. But none of this was argued ..."

City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court (Sitting at Belmarsh Magistrates’ Court)
The judicial authority in Sweden -v- Julian Paul Assange
Findings of facts and reasons

If Assange had wanted to argue that in court, he was free to do so. He did not -- because the theory is so ridiculous that one of his own specialist witnesses testified against the possibility

[Liberal_in_LA]

37. interesting. kick