[Ppnews] Beyond Abu Ghraib and Gitmo Stop Torture in the U.S.

[Political Prisoner News]

From: "US Human Rigths Network" <info at ushrnetwork.org>
Sent 6/26/2008 2:14:33 PM

Subject: Beyond Abu Ghraib and Gitmo Stop Torture in the U.S.

[]


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Beyond Abu Ghraib and Gitmo: Stop Torture in the U.S.

June 26 marks the United Nations International Day in Support of 
Victims of Torture. The spotlight has been shining for months on U.S. 
government torture of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay 
detention facilities, and these abuses will likely be a major focus 
of attention on June 26. But the U.S. Human Rights Network and its 
255 member organizations have long argued that torture does not begin 
and end outside U.S. borders, and we urge that local, state and 
federal governments take immediate steps to stop the domestic 
physical and mental abuses that contravene international anti-torture 
law. "Examples of torture in the U.S. have been documented by U.S. 
organizations and verified by the U.N. for more than a decade," says 
Network Executive Director Ajamu Baraka. "It is high time for these 
practices to be abolished."

Though most people associate torture with waterboarding, sleep 
deprivation and other interrogation techniques, the actual definition 
goes well beyond that narrow scope to include "cruel, inhuman or 
degrading treatment or punishment." Various international agreements 
and covenants that have been ratified by the U.S. use this language, 
including the universal Declaration of Human Rights and the U.N. 
Convention Against Torture, which came into force on June 26, 1987.

Under that broader definition, several common practices in the U.S. 
deserve closer scrutiny, for example, forced psychiatric drugging is 
being done in domestic jails and prisons, psychiatric institutions, 
wards of general hospitals, juvenile detention facilities and 
residences, nursing homes, as well as by outpatient commitment orders 
and mental health courts, to name a few.  Forced electroshock is also 
on the rise, alarmingly, including for behavior control.  "These 
repressive measures are mislabeled as help and healing -- 
unimaginably so.  Whether they are considered torture or cruel, 
inhuman and degrading treatment, they constitute severe forms of 
violence condoned and authorized by the state and by public opinion - 
and must be stopped", says Daniel Hazen Torture Survivor and 
organizer with StopForce

The sentencing of juveniles to Life Without Parole (LWOP), for 
example, would arguably contravene international anti-torture law. 
According to research by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty 
International, there are at least 2,225 child offenders serving LWOP 
in U.S. prisons. The majority of these inmates (59 percent) are 
first-time offenders. Such sentences, which effectively mean death by 
incarceration, violate international human rights law as well as the 
principles of fairness and justice that should underpin the U.S. 
criminal justice system.

The indiscriminate use of TASERs by law enforcement - and a series of 
deaths that have resulted - is another example of torture that would 
fit under the broader definition. Rather than a substitute for lethal 
force as the devices were intended, TASERs are routinely used to 
incapacitate suspects deemed unruly or simply uncooperative. In its 
final report on U.S. compliance with the Convention Against Torture 
in May of 2006, the U.N. Committee Against Torture noted that the 
extensive use of TASERs "raises serious issues of compatibility" with 
the Convention.

The report criticized several other criminal justice practices in the 
U.S., including housing children in adult jails and prisons; the 
prolonged isolation of prisoners housed in so-called "supermax" 
prisons; the circumstances and lack of accountability around the 
Burge police torture cases in Chicago; and the treatment of women 
inmates, including gender-based humiliation. The Committee noted that 
many of these same concerns were the subject of its previous review 
in 2000, but that the problems had persisted without resolution.

Rather than arguing the fine points of what constitutes "cruel, 
inhuman or degrading," as U.S. officials have often done, a more 
enlightened approach would be to address these problems at their 
source and bring US practice in line with objective international 
standards. Anything less would undermine U.S. credibility on the 
subject at a most critical juncture. "It is important that defenders 
of human rights in the U.S. express our fundamental solidarity with 
all victims of torture and ill treatment in this country and around 
the world," Baraka says. "This day reminds us of our moral 
responsibility to demand that the humanity of marginalized and 
vulnerable individuals and groups is recognized and protected by all 
governments, under all circumstances."



The images above were drawn by Todd (Hyung-Rae) Tarselli, a prisoner 
confined in a Pennsylvania "close-security" or "supermaximum" prison, 
tell a story-one that graphically portrays the devastating effects of 
a prison on the mental health of its inmates. To reach him: BY 8025 
175 Progress Drive Waynesburg, PA 15370-8089



Freedom Archives
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San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

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