NYT: Mistreatment of Prisoners Is Called Routine in U.S.

[kskiska]

Physical and sexual abuse of prisoners, similar to what has been uncovered in Iraq, takes place in American prisons with little public knowledge or concern, according to corrections officials, inmates and human rights advocates.

In Pennsylvania and some other states, inmates are routinely stripped in front of other inmates before being moved to a new prison or a new unit within their prison. In Arizona, male inmates at the Maricopa County jail in Phoenix are made to wear women's 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, in theory to keep them from spitting on guards, and said they were often beaten and cursed at by guards and made to crawl.

The corrections experts say that some of the worst abuses have occurred in Texas, whose prisons were under a federal consent decree during much of the time President Bush was governor because of crowding and violence by guards against inmates. Judge William Wayne Justice of Federal District Court imposed the decree after finding that guards were allowing inmate gang leaders to buy and sell other inmates as slaves for sex.

The experts also point out that the man who directed the reopening of the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq last year and trained the guards there resigned under pressure as director of the Utah Department of Corrections in 1997 after an inmate died while shackled to a restraining chair for 16 hours. The inmate, who suffered from schizophrenia, was kept naked the whole time.

more…
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/08/national/08PRIS.html?hp

[NMDemDist2]

1. contractors strike again

hire a "dirty" warden to teach the troops, hire a "dirty" ambassador to screw the "brown people"

[yardwork]

8. Ashcroft hired this criminal and the rest of the Iraq prison staff

Why am I not surprised that Ashcroft picked this piece of work, with a long history of investigations and questionable practices, to oversee the opening of a prison in Iraq?

This whole administration is one bunch of sadistic psychopathic criminals, I swannie.

[Voltaire99]

2. Prisons-r-us

Gee, could it be we're not really the nation featured in the fantasies of Tom Brokaw and Donald Rumsfeld?

Could it be we're actually the world's biggest "democratic" prison? And a really vicious prison at that?

Nah. Get thee away, troubling thoughts: it's time for NASCAR!

[RC]

3. Let's see how this administration

survives in our prison system. They have committed more than enough crimes to warrant it.

[grasswire]

4. thank God someone is telling this side of it...

America's prisons are filled with sadistic and inhumane acts every day. Few Americans notice, few care. A disproportionate number of those who are humiliated and tortured at the hands of captors are men with brown skin.

If you are outraged about the treatment of Iraqis, please take time soon to inform yourself about mistreatment and violence and cruelty inside America's own prisons.

[Mr.Green93]

10. Agreed

It bothers me that people here and elsewhere joke about prisoners getting "Bubba" for a cellmate. Too many here think anal rape in prison is just fine punishment.

[bemildred]

5. Land of the Free?

Incarceration rates in George W. Bush's America and
Stalin's USSR:

USSR (1950): 1423 per 100,000
USA (2002): 2298 per 100,000

Incarceration rates for Black men in South Africa before
ANC rule and contemporary America:

South Africa (1993): 851 per 100,000
USA (2002): 2298 per 100,000

[Skittles]

6. I have seen prison rape jokes made by DUers

I'm glad the mods act on them as very inappropriate.

[section321]

7. This is part of the steep price for the "war on drugs."

People in America who go to prison come out hardened. Its bad news.

[Kimber Scott]

9. This is not true

"In Arizona, male inmates at the Maricopa County jail in Phoenix are made to wear women's pink underwear as a form of humiliation."

The Maricopa County Jail inmates wear pink BOXERS because the sheriff figured they wouldn't steal them. Problem was, they became more popular than the original blue, or white, ones. In fact, some local stores starting selling the pink boxers as souvenirs.

The Iraqi prison abuse story is horrid enough without having to add lies to it.

[DoYouEverWonder]

11. What lies?

That abuse and torture don't happen on a daily basis in American prisons?