Subject: ARO: STUNNING BBC DOCUMENTARY OF TORTURE IN AMERICA'S DOMESTIC
PRISONS
Friends,
This documentary illustrates one of the key features of drug prohibition --
the dehumanization of drug users and all offenders. If you have the
opportunity to view it, do so. You will undoubtedly want to share it with
others who are indifferent to the state to which our justice system has
sunk.
Eric
STUNNING BBC DOCUMENTARY OF TORTURE IN AMERICA'S DOMESTIC PRISONS
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article8451.htm
DEBORAH DAVIES, BBC CHANNEL FOUR - It's terrible to watch some of the videos
and realise that you're not only seeing torture in action but, in the most
extreme cases, you are witnessing young men dying. The prison guards stand
over their captives with electric cattle prods, stun guns, and dogs. Many of
the prisoners have been ordered to strip naked. The guards are yelling abuse
at them, ordering them to lie on the ground and crawl. 'Crawl, motherf- - -
- - s, crawl.'
If a prisoner doesn't drop to the ground fast enough, a guard kicks him or
stamps on his back. There's a high-pitched scream from one man as a dog
clamps its teeth onto his lower leg.
Another prisoner has a broken ankle. He can't crawl fast enough so a guard
jabs a stun gun onto his buttocks. The jolt of electricity zaps through his
naked flesh and genitals. For hours afterwards his whole body shakes.
Lines of men are now slithering across the floor of the cellblock while the
guards stand over them shouting, prodding and kicking.
Second by second, their humiliation is captured on a video camera by one of
the guards.
These were exactly the kind of pictures from inside Abu Ghraib prison in
Baghdad that shocked the world this time last year. And they are similar,
too, to the images of brutality against Iraqi prisoners that this week led
to the conviction of three British soldiers.
But there is a difference. These prisoners are not caught up in a war zone.
They are Americans, and the video comes from inside a prison in Texas
They are just some of the victims of wholesale torture taking place inside
the U.S. prison system that we uncovered during a four-month investigation
for Channel 4.
Our findings were not based on rumour or suspicion. They were based on solid
evidence, chiefly videotapes that we collected from all over the U.S.
In many American states, prison regulations demand that any 'use of force
operation', such as searching cells for drugs, must be filmed by a guard.
The theory is that the tapes will show proper procedure was followed and
that no excessive force was used. In fact, many of them record the exact
opposite.
Each tape provides a shocking insight into the reality of life inside the
U.S. prison system , a reality that sits very uncomfortably with President
Bush's commitment to the battle for freedom and democracy against the forces
of tyranny and oppression.
In fact, the Texas episode outlined above dates from 1996, when Bush was
state Governor. . .
All the lawyers I spoke to during our investigations shared Carlson's belief
that Abu Ghraib, far from being the work of a few rogue individuals, was
simply the export of the worst practices that take place in the domestic
prison system all the time. . .
Many of the tapes we've collected are several years old. That's because they
only surface when determined lawyers prise them out of reluctant state
prison departments during protracted lawsuits. But for every 'historical'
tape we collected, we also found a more recent story. What you see on the
tape is still happening daily.
It's terrible to watch some of the videos and realize that you're not only
seeing torture in action but, in the most extreme cases, you are witnessing
young men dying.
In one horrific scene, a naked man, passive and vacant, is seen being led
out of his cell by prison guards. They strap him into a medieval-looking
device called a 'restraint chair'. His hands and feet are shackled, there's
a strap across his chest, his head lolls forward. He looks dead. He's not.
Not yet.
The chair is his punishment because guards saw him in his cell with a
pillowcase on his head and he refused to take it off. The man has a long
history of severe schizophrenia. Sixteen hours later, they release him from
the chair. And two hours after that, he dies from a blood clot resulting
from his barbaric treatment.
The tape comes from Utah , but there are others from Connecticut, Florida,
Texas, Arizona and probably many more. We found more than 20 cases of
prisoners who've died in the past few years after being held in a restraint
chair.
Two of the deaths we investigated were in the same county jail in Phoenix,
Arizona, which is run by a man who revels in the title of 'America's
Toughest Sheriff.'
His name is Joe Arpaio. He positively welcomes TV crews and we were promised
'unfettered access.' It was a reassuring turn of phrase , you don't want to
be fettered in one of Sheriff Joe's jails.
We uncovered two videotapes from surveillance cameras showing how his tough
stance can end in tragedy. The first tape, from 2001, shows a man named
Charles Agster dragged in by police, handcuffed at the wrists and ankles.
Agster is mentally disturbed and a drug user. He was arrested for causing a
disturbance in a late-night grocery store. The police handed him over to the
Sheriff's deputies in the jail. Agster is a tiny man, weighing no more than
nine stone, but he's struggling.
The tape shows nine deputies manhandling him into the restraint chair. One
of them kneels on Agster's stomach, pushing his head forward on to his knees
and pulling his arms back to strap his wrists into the chair.
Bending someone double for any length of time is dangerous , the manuals on
the use of the 'restraint chair' warn of the dangers of 'positional
asphyxia.'
Fifteen minutes later, a nurse notices Agster is unconscious. The cameras
show frantic efforts to resuscitate him, but he's already brain dead. He
died three days later in hospital. Agster's family is currently suing
Arizona County. . .
A few years ago, in Florida, the new warden of the high security state
prison ordered an end to the videoing of 'use of force operations.' So we
have no tapes to show how prison guards use pepper spray to punish
prisoners. But we do have the lawsuit describing how men were doused in
pepper spray and then left to cook in the burning fog of chemicals.
Photographs taken by their lawyers show one man has a huge patch of raw skin
over his hip. Another is covered in an angry rash across his neck, back and
arms. A third has deep burns on his buttocks.
'They usually use fire extinguishers size canisters of pepper spray,' lawyer
Christopher Jones explained. 'We have had prisoners who have had second
degree burns all over their bodies. . .
And why were they sprayed? According to the official prison reports, their
infringements included banging on the cell door and refusing medication.
From the same Florida prison we also have photographs of Frank Valdes ,
autopsy pictures. Realistically, he had little chance of ever getting out of
prison alive. He was on Death Row for killing a prison officer. He had time
to reconcile himself to the Electric Chair , he didn't expect to be beaten
to death.
VIDEO OF FULL SHOW
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article8451.htm
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article8451.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Eric E. Sterling
[email protected]
President
The Criminal Justice Policy Foundation
www.cjpf.org
"Humanitarianism consists in never sacrificing
a human being to a purpose."
-- Albert Schweitzer, M.D. (1875-1965), 1923,
Nobel Peace Prize laureate, 1952
Tel: 301-589-6020 Cell: 202-365-2420 Fax: 301-589-5056
8730 Georgia Avenue, Suite 400
Silver Spring, MD 20910-3649
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