Abu Ghraib USA?

No one can accuse me of being some kind of fuzzy-minded soft-on-criminals radical--violent felons deserve swift harsh punishment, but not torture. Anne-Marie Cusac writing over at the far-left Progressive offers a good bit of evidence that the sort of infamous torture practiced by American soldiers and intelligence agents at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq is not unknown in US domestic prisons including mock executions and sexual sadism.

Comments

[Mark S.]

Most of the law-and-order types I've talked to do honestly believe that prisons should be hell holes and tortures chambers because they believe there is a deterrence factor. They state that people would think twice before offending if the threat of becoming someone's "bitch" existed.

Since I believe this belief is prevalent among a large portion of voting Americans, I doubt there will ever be much done to remedy prison abuse.

[Lil' Jon]

The sadism in the prison system keeps everyone paying taxes, doesn't it? I'm sure as hell going to make sure they don't send me to "Federal-pound-me-in-the-ass" prison. I wouldn't last a NY minute on the inside. I'm too pretty.

[Out Left]

How exactly does this make Bush look bad? And if there's no solid angle for that, why should we care?

[drf]

sadly,
"Most of the law-and-order types I've talked to do honestly believe that prisons should be hell holes and tortures chambers because they believe there is a deterrence factor. They state that people would think twice before offending if the threat of becoming someone's "bitch" existed."

to extend that to iraq: many "towel-head-haters" feel that any person imprisoned in iraq is 1) guilty and 2) therefore deserving of such punishment. probably because they weren't sufficiently happy to be liberated.

or as the onion notes: "dead iraqi would have loved freedom"...

happy fourth,
drf

[Don]

"Most of the law-and-order types I've talked to do honestly believe that prisons should be hell holes and tortures chambers because they believe there is a deterrence factor. They state that people would think twice before offending if the threat of becoming someone's "bitch" existed."

I've noticed this among SOME law-and -order types, but I've also noticed it among left wing feminsts and among liberal policitcians.

[Czar]

I'm all for making prisons just row after row of solitary confinement cells, but hey.

[R C Dean]

Say, drf - would that include the hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis killed by Saddam because they objected to his rule?

[Karl Gallagher]

I figure the biggest mistake the Army made at Abu Ghraibh was letting civilian-life prison guards near the Iraqi prisoners.

[Ex Con]

Stuck in prison and getting ass raped is one thing. But trying to get a life going as a sodomized ex-con is the real hell. Inside the joint, you get your meals, a roof over your head, a basketball court, and a lover of your choice based on the level of protection you need. Once out, good luck trying to get a job in order to feed yourself, put a roof over your head, finding any kind of lover as a broke assed, ex con loser, and voting in Florida!

Might as well hand out life sentences for any felony committed. (Unless you worked in the Reagan Admin, heh heh!)

[Jennifer]

Doesn't the Constitution forbid cruel and unusual punishment? Granted, somebody heartless could say "It's not unusual--it happens all over the country!" but it's still pretty goddamned cruel.

But then, the same heartless stickler could then say, "The Constitution forbids punishment which is cruel AND unusual, not cruel OR unusual!"

The punishment is supposed to lie in the loss of freedom, not the tortures and humiliations needlessly added onto it.

[Mona]

Ron Bailey, thank you. I also am not "soft on crime," but have long been deeply concerned by the rampant sadism in American prisons. Couple this with the fact that nearly 2/3 of those in federal prisons are put there for non-violent drug crimes, and the morality of sustaining this situation is even more untenable.

Even armed robbers, tho, do not deserve torture, rape and other abuses. But this is the environment in many American "correctional" facilities

--Mona--

[Douglas Fletcher]

"I'm all for making prisons just row after row of solitary confinement cells, but hey."

I think there's been a few small attempts at that but they've been overruled in the courts as a violation of prisoner rights, somehow. I once saw a documentary on the tube about prisons and according to them the solitary arrangement was how they do it in Japan. I don't know if that was accurate or incomplete, though.

[M. Simon]

For the military the corallary to the Abu G. problem is simple:

Bring in fewer prisoners.

Not every effort to right a wrong leads to improvement.

[John Doe]

Anti-segregationists may have made prisons worse, especially for outnumbered white inmates.

[Jennifer]

The problem isn't that white and black prisoners are kept together; it's that violent and non-violent offenders are.

[Skeptikos]

John Doe,

May I take it you've never heard of the Aryian Brotherhood. They jump ass with the best of them.

[kwais]

I'm all for all solitary confinement all the time. It would be better for the inmates and better for us when they are released.

The most people I have heard talk about prison rape as though it were a good thing were liberals.