[Ppnews] Correlation of prisoners’ issues and conditions to international covenants and treaties

[PPnews at freedomarchives.org]

Correlation of prisoners' issues and conditions to international covenants 
and treaties
http://www.sfbayview.com/041404/prisonersissues041404.shtml
by Askia A. Baraka

Some of the overt forms of physical torture that tend to be employed by 
repressive governments and paramilitary groups worldwide are now being 
openly practiced in the United States penal system and have been for 
several decades now at either the state, federal or local levels.

There are a number of criminal justice policies and practices that 
constitute "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment" of the 
type prohibited under Article 1 of the Convention Against Torture and under 
numerous other legally binding international human rights instruments. 
Among the areas where the U.S. government is not meeting its obligations to 
prevent highly abusive conduct of this type are the following:

    * the existence of so-called death row, which is the ultimate human 
rights violation
    * punitive violence and brutality in specially created super-maximum 
and control prison facilities
    * indefinite and arbitrary solitary confinement
    * the practice of punitive "cell extractions"
    * conditions of detention of immigrants and asylum seekers awaiting 
deportation
    * prison overcrowding
    * prison rape and sexual abuse
    * methods of prosecuting and detaining juveniles
    * treatment of the mentally ill in prisons
    * correctional officer brutality through abusive use of chemical sprays 
and dangerous methods of restraint and unnecessary use of force, including 
electro-shock devices
    * health and safety violations
    * abuse of prisoner classification system
    * illegal incarceration of political prisoners
    * murder of prisoners by corrupt correctional officials
    * misuse of prison labor, and
    * reinstatement of "chain gangs" as a form of punishment

The gist of the position taken by the U.S. government in its Nov. 21,1995, 
submission to the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture, and its 1995 report 
to the Human Rights Committee under the Covenant on Civil and Political 
Rights, is that adequate legal protections exist under domestic law to 
prevent abusive practices in prisons.

For example, the government has contended: "The constitution and laws of 
the United States and those of its constituent states prohibit torture and 
any form of cruel and unusual punishment, ... (protect) every individual's 
right to bodily integrity and security, ... (and provide) numerous 
judicial, administrative and other remedies and avenues of recourse for 
individuals (claiming violations)."

It is true that U.S. laws do provide a number of essential protections 
against abuses in the criminal justice system, that the government and the 
courts have taken action to prevent or punish prohibited conduct in a 
number of instances, and that some aggrieved prisoner victims of abusive 
treatment at the hands of law enforcement and/or correctional authorities 
have been able to obtain redress.

But the extensiveness of the violations that currently are being reported 
and documented suggest that these legal protections and avenues for 
obtaining relief are far from adequate, and that a pattern and practice of 
significant abuses continues to exist, requiring more substantial remedial 
action than the government or individual states have taken to date.

To make matters worse, the likelihood of violations is increasing because 
of a number of recent initiatives by the U.S. Congress to reduce the 
ability of victims to use the federal courts to obtain effective judicial 
review and relief. In addition, the increasing fear of crime in American 
society has been used as a justification for law enforcement and prison 
authorities to initiate or substantially expand the use of prisoner control 
and punishment techniques, such as "super-max" and control unit facilities 
and the reintroduction of the "chain gang," that greatly increase the risk 
and likelihood that cruel and degrading treatment will take place.

International treaties, conventions, minimum standards, rules, declarations 
and principles that are being violated:

    * Basic Principles for the Treatment of Prisoners
    * Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form 
of Detention or Imprisonment
    * Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women
    * Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Being Subjected to 
Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment of Prisoners
    * Principles of medical ethics relevant to the role of health 
personnel, particularly physicians, in the protection of prisoners and 
detainees against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment 
or punishment
    * Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners
    * Safeguards guaranteeing protection of the rights of those facing the 
death penalty
    * United Nations Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of 
their Liberty
    * United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of 
Juvenile Justice

Write to Askia Baraka as follows: Askia A. Baraka (Troy Thomas), H-01001, 
CSP Solano 14-H-1up, P.O. Box 4000, Vacaville CA 95696.


The Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 863-9977
www.freedomarchives.org 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/ppnews_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20050208/f0be9126/attachment.htm>