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<font size=3>Correlation of prisoners’ issues and conditions to
international covenants and treaties<br>
<a href="http://www.sfbayview.com/041404/prisonersissues041404.shtml" eudora="autourl">http://www.sfbayview.com/041404/prisonersissues041404.shtml<br>
</a><b><i>by Askia A. Baraka<br><br>
</i></b>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. <br><br>
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:<br><br>
<ul>
<li>the existence of so-called death row, which is the ultimate human
rights violation
<li>punitive violence and brutality in specially created super-maximum
and control prison facilities
<li>indefinite and arbitrary solitary confinement
<li>the practice of punitive “cell extractions”
<li>conditions of detention of immigrants and asylum seekers awaiting
deportation
<li>prison overcrowding
<li>prison rape and sexual abuse
<li>methods of prosecuting and detaining juveniles
<li>treatment of the mentally ill in prisons
<li>correctional officer brutality through abusive use of chemical sprays
and dangerous methods of restraint and unnecessary use of force,
including electro-shock devices
<li>health and safety violations
<li>abuse of prisoner classification system
<li>illegal incarceration of political prisoners
<li>murder of prisoners by corrupt correctional officials
<li>misuse of prison labor, and
<li>reinstatement of “chain gangs” as a form of punishment
</ul><br>
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. <br><br>
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).”<br><br>
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. <br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
International treaties, conventions, minimum standards, rules,
declarations and principles that are being violated:<br><br>
<ul>
<li>Basic Principles for the Treatment of Prisoners
<li>Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form
of Detention or Imprisonment
<li>Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women
<li>Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Being Subjected to
Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment of Prisoners
<li>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
<li>Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners
<li>Safeguards guaranteeing protection of the rights of those facing the
death penalty
<li>United Nations Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of
their Liberty
<li>United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of
Juvenile Justice
</ul><br>
<i>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.<br><br>
</i></font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
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(415) 863-9977<br>
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