Prison Nation [long] [image heavy]

[Instant Sunrise]

Most of this was taken from this article. I felt that it's importance was enough to post it here.

Required watching:
Prison Nation

Recommended reading:
The Perpetual Prisoner Machine: How America Profits From Crime
The Rich Get Richer and The Poor Get Prison: Ideology, Class, and Criminal Justice
Lockdown America: Police and Prisons in the Age of Crisis
Prison Nation: The Warehousing of America's Poor

The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world, with 738 people per 100,000 behind bars (2005). There is speculation that China may have a slightly higher rate due to jailing of political dissidents, but so far just speculation.

A 2008 study found that more than 1 in 100 American adults are in prison or jail. One in every 31 adults (7.3 million) is in prison, or on parole or probation. One out every 45 whites is under some form of correctional control- and one out of every 11 blacks. 1 in 18 men and 1 in 89 women (races combined). Spending on corrections has risen by 400% in the last 20 years, outpacing all but Medicaid in growth.



The prison population has exploded in recent decades- a phenomenon known as "hyperincarceration," even though violent crime, "serious crime," and property crime has been declining:






The scope of this problem is difficult to overstate- especially because it necessarily includes things like prison gerrymandering, police militarization, mandatory minimum sentences, "tough on crime" politicians, for-profit incarceration, and all sorts of other things including guys with mansions talking about "2 Americas." This is generally known as the Prison-Industrial Complex, or as I (and others) call it- the Machine.

What don't you understand? Why don't you believe?

What more do I have to show you to make you believe?

Tanks crushing cars. Houses burned to the ground while children look on. Puppies thrown into fires while children look on. Newborn babies brain-damaged or snuffed out while their mother is shackled to a bed with a sheet up so she can't see her baby she just gave birth to.

Black guys picking cotton at gunpoint in LA. Swarms of rats chewing off fingers & eyes in IL. Indefinite sensory deprivation. Bags of feces thrown on people in VA. Arms held out of feeding-slots to shatter elbows in VA. Pregnant women beaten so hard the braces get knocked off their teeth in TX. Men forced to fight to the death in gladiator matches in CA. Men shot for sport in CA. Men overcrowded at 300% capacity nationwide. Children given life sentences without the possibility of parole- nationwide. HIV+ inmates beaten and sent to sensory-deprivation isolation with biohazard stencils and no medical treatment. Men put in sensory-deprivation isolation for up to 36 years with no contact with the outside world (including lawyers). Secret medical experiments performed on thousands of inmates in PA. Cops running brutal abuse schemes and creating their own gangs in NY. Penises amputated in WA. Feces mixed into food in CO. These are just the things which I've provided links to on major news outlets in this subforum in the past few weeks.

Stomping on an inmate's head until he involuntarily soils his pants. 41 shots on the street to kill an unarmed man. Executing a cuffed man in front of 100 witnesses and cameras. The countless videos of abuse inside prison walls and the countless more off-camera.

The tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of rapes inside each and every year. The brutal, life-altering rape every four minutes.

Love one another. For God's sake, or whatever you believe in- just love one another. No matter how angry or outraged or just joking about it- whatever you do whoever and wherever you are just do this one thing. We are dying. You are dying. We are being tortured, we are in indescribable pain and hopeless despair. We are you. You lose your humanity when we get gangraped. You are us. We're all in this together.

Cry with us, bleed with us, scream with us.

It's us. All of us- you are us. We are us. We're all human, we're all Life.

All of us.

Here are some links to activist/outreach organizations:

Prison Activist Resource Center
CURE
Justice Policy Institute
Penal Reform International
The Center for Prisoner Health & Human Rights(created by doctors who visited a prison and discovered that instead of treating inmates with HIV/AIDS they just stenciled biohazard symbols on their jumpsuits & put them in seg)
The Sentencing Project
Commission on Safety & Abuse in American Prisons
Critical Resistance
Prison Policy Initiative
Death Penalty Focus
California Prison Focus
Middle Ground(AZ prison reform)
CAADP(AZ death penalty abolition)

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Pound Me in the Ass Prison, LOL That's Hilarious Bro

or

Prison Rape: Real, Rampant, and Sure as Hell Not Funny

Image 1

Image 2

http://www.spr.org/en/survivortestimony ... Bryson.mp3
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Portrait

Alberto Gonzales' DOJ admits to over 60,000 rapes per year in prison. Human Rights Watch and other NGO's involved put the number at more than twice that. For reference, this is what 60,000 people looks like:
Link

Chris J. got gang-raped in prison today. He needs surgery to fix his rectum, and probably other medical attention for the rest of his injuries but he's probably not going to get it. He knows this and is thinking about the pain his rectal scarring is going to cause him for the rest of his life. He laid in his bed for a little while covered in semen and his own blood thinking about AIDS. Since shower time has come and gone, he cleaned himself up with the water in the toilet, he also sat on it for a long time trying as hard as he could to evacuate all the semen out of him. His phone card was stolen as punishment for fighting back and he doesn't have any money in his account to call anyone on the outside, so he's just trying to deal with it on his own. Many inmates and guards are already making fun of him and discussing prices for having a go at him within his earshot. After TV time he's going to have to try and sleep in his cell with 2 other guys who ain't trying to hear his sob story and may even have been involved in his attack.

The pictures of his wife and kids were taken as punishment with promises to defecate or ejaculate on them while a different man was inside him as further punishment for fighting back. He's been clean for 9 months but that heroin would make all this pain go away for just a little while. Chris is more likely than not to go back to the heroin.

Chris will never be able to fully express the pain and rage caused by his rape even to a professional; and he's definitely not getting insurance which covers the help he needs when he gets out. This psychological trauma will have a severe impact on his ability to have healthy relationships on the Outside- out in the World- and will likely lead to bad arguments with his wife resulting in domestic violence. The effects his mental state has on his kids will be profound and probably irreversible. They might grow up in the sort of state in which prison is a very real possibility. When they find out what happened to dad how will they react?

His pain and anger will manifest itself in all sorts of ways and he might go off on some taxpayer in a convenience store or seriously injure someone who cuts him off in traffic. When that happens Chris will go back to prison and there will be similar ripple effects on his victims. Even if that doesn't happen remember Chris uses heroin to suppress his pain and will likely be re-arrested on a drug charge or a property crime he did to get heroin money.

Since there are no secrets in prison when Chris returns it will already be known he is a bitch who likes it in the ass, and he will have to become someone's sex slave. Staff will encourage this. Or he can stab somebody to try get a new rep. If he wins the knife fight & isn't killed outright, the person he kills has loved ones & family members who will become enraged at this, and the violence will continue.

What happened to Chris happened to 200 people today if you go by Alberto Gonzales' DOJ. If you go by HRW it happened to more than 400 people. This does not include juveniles in programs like Nihilanthic posts.

This is every day, every state. There are no exceptions. Going by HRW's numbers it's one Chris every four minutes.

You could be the next Chris, no matter how white you are- no matter how rich your family is. The Machine cares not. It must feed and It will feed.

And the Machine will never be satisfied.

Here's some more prison rape articles

http://www.counterpunch.org/mariner08012003.html
http://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/2001/prison/
http://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/2…son/voices.html
http://toysoldier.wordpress.com/200…-the-abuse-too/

What I would give if only prison rape was treated as seriously as non-prison rape. I've held so many survivors in my arms and... well, I can't explain it. That sharing of insecurities, fears, pain, loss, and rage simply cannot be described, and I'll not try to do so except in the case of Chris who explicitily wanted it out there. The courage it takes to collapse in man's arms after another man (or men) have violated and destroyed so much of your psyche... I don't think I'll ever be as strong as Chris. My best wishes and blessings go out to all who talk to survivors, be they inmates or not.

There is a world where people look down on prison rape jokes, and ostracize those who tell them- a world where that act is seen as vile and disgusting no matter what crime may have been alleged or convicted. That world is just around the corner, and we are so close, we are so close to making that a reality.

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Do we even put the right people in prison?

Not necessarily:

There have been 238 post-conviction DNA exonerations in United States history. These stories are becoming more familiar as more innocent people gain their freedom through postconviction testing. They are not proof, however, that our system is righting itself.

The common themes that run through these cases — from global problems like poverty and racial issues to criminal justice issues like eyewitness misidentification, invalid or improper forensic science, overzealous police and prosecutors and inept defense counsel — cannot be ignored and continue to plague our criminal justice system.

• Seventeen people had been sentenced to death before DNA proved their innocence and led to their release.
• In almost 40 percent of the cases profiled here, the actual perpetrator has been identified by DNA testing.
• The average sentence served by DNA exonerees has been 12 years- that's 2,856 man-years of prison time served by innocent people.
• Exonerations have been won in 33 states and Washington, D.C.
• About 70 percent of those exonerated by DNA testing are members of minority groups.

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What about racism and gang activity in prison?

Stopping racial balkanization in prison would be nearly impossible today, and in many cases it's not necessarily what the administration wants. Inmates self-segregate anyway, the California system has been on the brink of all-out race war since the 1960's when gang formation was actively encouraged by prison staff to prevent things like Attica from happening. Also more and more inmates were starting to get into the whole counterculture/extreme political stuff and staff realized that a united front of inmates of all races would be extremely difficult to control. So a couple guard-sanctioned acts of violence resulted in the creation of the main power structure we've had for the last 40 years. It's no coincidence that the main prison gangs all started within a couple joints in the same part of California- the Black Guerrilla Family, Mexican Mafia & Nuestra Familia, and the Aryan Brotherhood. The main indictments and such of the AB's really only came when they started becoming too allied with the Eme's and started killing too many people on the outside.

Now, prison gangs- the indispensable enemy- are more important than ever at maintaining control. The pacification of Attica required the National Guard and the shooting of hostages. Today's prisons are so overcrowded, with many operating at 200%+ of design capacity, and understaffed with undertrained personnel that a cohesive uprising will be impossible to control. It would take the Marines, if not air strikes. This comes at the steep price of widespread prison violence. There are third-generation racially-based gang members today. Even if the government wanted to end it it would be very difficult.

The other side effect, magnified by the hyperincarceration of minorities and juveniles due to the drug war, is that all street-level gang activity is either directly or indirectly controlled by prison gangs. This is because at some point any serious banger is going to be going to prison and will then need to ally with a prison gang at first in order to avoid being killed outright, and then later for mutual benefit; and partially because in most gangs you can only get so far if you haven't been inside. Criminal trials are a good way to see if you'll snitch or cooperate. So If you're a local street gang in El Paso moving some weed across the border and doing a little local-level distribution, at some point in the chain 5% to 20% of the money is going to be given to the Eme's or NF. Same goes for white gangs selling speed- at some point the Aryan Brotherhood or the NLR's or some such is going to be getting a cut. Nearly all street-gang activity is at some level connected to prison gangs. The taxes are paid voluntarily for many reasons, not the least of which is that nobody wants to be a member of a non-paying gang and then go to prison and face the taxman; to say nothing of the very real possibility that the taxman might one day pay a visit to the neighborhood. Every prison gang has some "Davids," remember.

Wait a minute, are you saying that instutionalized gang warfare and racism are deliberate tools used by an overcrowded prison system to prevent the prisoners from unifying against their jailers?

That was part of the reason for its genesis, but I don't think even back then they realized how bad it would get or how quickly they would lose control. They started with control-units (now called SHU's) to try to keep it in check, and when that didn't work they built a prison where the whole thing was a SHU (Pelican Bay). When that didn't work they SHU'd it up too, and then when it hit 200% capacity they built another one just like it (Kern Valley). It filled up twice over as well, and it still didn't work.

In the 60's, it was thought that racial conflict inside prisons was preferable to wholesale uprisings nationwide like Attica; that the price was worth preventing total anarchy systemwide. It was thought that increased racial strife between cons could be effectively managed by increased harshness on the part of the facility. We now know this not to be true, but far too late. It was also thought at the time that the country was much closer to some kind of major upheaval than it really was. Vietnam, civil rights movement, counterculture, all of it- Nixon, not realizing Nam would end not with a bang, etc. felt that some kind of uncontrollable uprising was inevitable. Attica and the violent episodes which happened in the streets as a result of civil rights + Vietnam were seen as mere hints to some future mass revolt, instead of what they wound up being. The drug war is usually credited to Reagan but in fact it was Nixon's last, greatest war- and will be his legacy once future historians look on the matter with more educated eyes.

What the government could not have foreseen was how their initial efforts could so completely backfire. In the 60's, there were things which would be totally unheard of in prison today. There were gangs of big strong gay men who roamed the tiers, protecting all small inmates of any race from rape- and killing prison rapists. This is unthinkable in today's prisons. So it started by sending groups of Hispanics in a juvenile facility into tiers with older black offenders, knowing that they would be victimized and gang up. Knowing that they would take to the adult prisons this allegiance. This was the birth of the Eme's- the Mexican Mafia, one of the most feared and powerful criminal organizations as has ever existed in this country and which will endure for the entire lifetime fo the USA. The administrators could not have foreseen this.

So, why do people even join gangs now?

Well, besides the protection it affords from prison rape: The gang addresses all the needs which the facility does not, and those which the con might not have gotten fulfilled on the outside before incarceration. To join you have to be vetted- you will get a background check of sorts (and there are no secrets in prison). This is to ensure undesirables do not gain entry but gives many guys a sense of importance they may not have otherwise had. You will be mentored, taught to read & write, taught the rules- all gangs have a charter, or constitution, you will need to recite this from memory at a certain point or you will be denied entry and forced to fend for yourself (and probably punished harshly by members). This is done to ensure obedience and to weed out those who cannot follow orders, but gives a sense of belonging to something important, to have put in effort and succeeded. You'll have someone to push you for that last rep on the weight bench, to help you deal with the problems you have with your girlfriend, to send someone on the outside to look in on your kid. Many in prison did not have mentors, role models; poverty, drugs & the "baby-daddy" effect- magnified (as almost every social ill) by hyperincarceration- have seen to that.

The big brother or father is provided by the gang. People join clubs, fraternities, military, etc. looking for a sense of belonging; the sense of "tribe" or "family." How powerful would it be if you knew- not thought but knew- that the only way you get in is by taking a life, that all the others have taken one, that they will go to prison before betraying you... that they will die for you- that they will kill for you?

Since all prison gangs are racial in nature, even more importance can be assigned (tribe). There is a reason the whites use Norse runes/symbols, and Hispanics use Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican imagery and tradition. To speak the ancient language of Nahuatl allows covert communication by members, but it also allows these angry men who have stunted senses of community, belonging, importance to reach back through the centuries and identify with the invincible Eagle Warriors of the Aztec empire; same for the Norse imagery providing identification with the mighty Vikings.

By the way, the government knows how important and effective this shit is, and part of USMC boot camp is filling the recruits' minds with stories of Zulus, Spartans, and other legendary warriors to build up "a warrior mind" or whatever excuse they use nowadays.

This is the power of gangs- at the top they're essentially businesses, but at the bottom they fulfill these very primal needs of angry and needy people; the brains of the soldiers are effectively starved for a sense of belonging, of purpose, and once the gang provides that it's like the first shot of heroin. It's absolutely irresistible for many, many people.

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Well, bad things could certainly never happen in MY region or state!

Let's take a quick look at some correctional facilities around the country. This list is of course not exhaustive, and almost entirely reposted from previous threads I've posted in.

Starting with Louisiana:

One out of every 45 people in Louisiana is in prison. Think about that for a minute. This is the highest rate in the country (and the world) by a wide margin.

The crown jewel of the Louisiana prison system is Angola. This is one of the most backward and barbaric prisons in the world. They tell horror stories about Angola in Pelican Bay.

Image

Angola is a former slave plantation which still maintains a massive (18,000 acres) farming operation run wholly without machinery. Inmates- overwhelmingly black- still pick cotton by hand there, along with soybeans. They work the fields with hand tools just like in the "good old days." Some of the guards there are directly descended from the slave-drivers who worked there when it was a slave plantation. Inmates also maintain a large golf course for use by the staff.

Picking cotton

The "Angola 3" are three Black Panthers who were kept in solitary for 36 years. This is the longest time anyone has been in solitary US history as far as any surviving records indicate. This is also in violation of international treaties the US has ratified. They got let out after John Conyers visited the prison and was stunned by that fact. One of them, Robert King Wilkerson, got released from Angola after 29 years in solitary. He is now a nationally-recognized prison activist and his motto is "I'm free of Angola, but Angola will never be free of me."
Wilkerson

Another pic



Over 600 of the 5100 inmates have been in there over 25 years. 85% of them (of the 5100 not the 600) are expected to die in there due to the extreme length of prison sentences in Louisiana. Many were wrongly convicted, but due to shoddy records and shady forensics, we will never know how many. Michael Williams was 16 years old when he was wrongly convicted of rape based on one eyewitness. He was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. Shortly after his 40th birthday- after 24 years in Angola- he was freed based on DNA testing. He received no compensation, because compensating people for wrongful conviction or imprisonment is illegal in Louisiana.
Williams 1
Williams 2

Torture is rampant at Angola, last year they finally had a hearing on the abuse, and practices such as the freezing treatment were at last exposed in open court. The freezing treatment is stripping someone naked and spraying them with water and throwing them in an unheated cement room with open windows in the winter time. They got to hear about jaws being broken if you talked back, forcing inmates to urinate and defecate on themselves (and beating those who refused until they lost control of their bodily functions). For example "one of the guards was hitting us all in the head. Said he liked the sound of the drums – the drumming sound that – from hitting us in the head with the stick." Medical records supported almost every allegation. The state agreed to settle without admitting liability. Some of the inmates got $7,000 settlement payments, most got nothing.


But you don't have take my word for it: http://www.counterpunch.org/flaherty01272009.html
http://www.counterpunch.org/flaherty06102008.html

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The Harris County Jail in Houston, TX is the third largest joint in the country and one of the largest in the world. Only the Rikers Island (which is actually a complex of 10 different jails) and the LA County Jail (largest on the planet) are larger. 25% of the $1.5 billion Harris County budget is law enforcement, with more than $750,000 a day spent on detainees. A shortage of guards means the jail shells out $35 million a year on overtime; some guards are topping out at $100,000 a year in total pay.


An average of 10,000 people are held there per day, not counting another 1,100 bused 6 hours to and from Northern Louisiana each day. Some of them- up to 1,700 at some points- have to sleep on the floor because parts of it are unused due to severe staff shortages. When state inspectors come, the floor-sleepers are hidden in underground tunnels until the inspectors leave. It has operated without Texas Jail Standard Commission certification since 2004, in violation of state law.

My granson is in Harris County Jail. His cell has 48 beds but has 60 inmates. During the state inspections inmates sleeping on the floor are moved to the the jail tunnel system which temporarily "solves" the overcrowding situation. After the inspectors leave, the inmates in the tunnel system are returned to the floors. The county currently decides when the inspection takes place. The state should make this decision and should be able to access any facility at anytime.

The jail also operates in violation of federal law- the Department of Justice ruled that the poor access to health care in life-threatening situations, unnecessary use of physical force, denial of mental health care, and inattention to suicide prevention violates the U.S. Constitution.

The [DOJ] found that the jail fails to provide detainees with adequate: (1) medical care; (2) mental health care; (3) protection from serious physical harm; and (4) protection from life-safety hazards

In Harris County there is an "assembly line" set up to more quickly and efficiently certify children as adults so that they can go to adult jails & prisons. With its 162 juvenile-to-adult certifications in 2007-08, Harris County alone certified 19 more juveniles as adults than in the state’s nine other leading counties which altogether certified just 143 juveniles as adults. In Texas the juvenile system is known as the "School-to-Prison Pipeline."

Houston attorney Christene Wood represents one teenager who has mounted a legal challenge, along with Texas Appleseed, of the county’s certification process. She told the Chronicle that the judge who sent her client into the adult system laughed, surfed the Internet, and never once made eye contact with the boy before certifying him as an adult. “The certification process [in Harris County] is an absolute joke,” the attorney told the newspaper.

In its "medical tank," inmates have been left in their own blood and feces for days on end (including pregnant women), and the tank has a tendencey to flood.

Sarah and other women in the room kept telling the guards to take this pregnant woman first. The guards only replied with things along the lines of “Shut the fuck up, the bitch shouldn’t have gotten herself in here to begin with. This is jail, not a country club.”

“Well, I guess my travel agent sure messed up, didn’t she?” Sarah laughed, trying for some dark humor. After spending more time in Big Baker and learning the ropes, Sarah saw that inmates tried to avoid going to Medical and she herself vowed to never report injuries or sicknesses again.

Sarah saw Officer Otto grab the woman by the back of her neck again and slam her face into the floor. By this point, Sarah had ducked into a utility closet because “You don’t really want an officer to know you’ve seen them do something like this.” Sarah heard the woman scream at him, “You fucker, I’m pregnant.” When the woman stood up, Sarah saw that her face was all bloody and busted and her braces were hanging out of her mouth. Sarah also saw that the woman was pregnant and showing.

Sarah said the guards’ nickname for her was “the Yuppie,” and they thought it was funny to send her into J-POD where the most violent offenders were housed.

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The Cook County Jail in Chicago is the largest single-site jail in the country. 100,000 people are admitted to the jail each year. Like other large county jails, it too operates in direct violation of state law and the US Constitution; with everything from inmates sleeping on the floor to sleeping inmates being injured by swarms of rats- and even unnecessary amputations. A bunch of inmates were also each awarded $200 settlement payments after suffering penis injuries from improperly performed STD tests.

Image

The building itself is dilapidated, in violation of almost every applicable building code or safety regulation. After a 2007 inspection it required over 40,000 seperate work orders.

Undertrained guards, despite their brutality, have trouble actually doing their jobs there- one inmate was able to not only get a loaded pistol into the jail but from there into the courtroom simply by tucking it in to the waistband of his boxers.

DOJ found that the 8th Amendment civil rights of the inmates have been extensively and systematically violated.

Specific violations that have resulted in federal sanctions include:

1. Systematic beatings by jail guards.
2. Poor food quality.
3. Inmates forced to sleep on cell floors due to overcrowding and mismanagement (resulting in a $1,000 per inmate class action settlement).
4. Rodent infestation and injury caused to sleeping inmates by rat and mouse bites.
5. Violations of privacy during multiple invasive strip searches.
6. Failure to provide adequate medical care, including failure to dispense medications.
7. Invasive and painful mandatory tests for male STD's (resulting in a $200 per inmate class action settlement).
8. Unnecessarily long waiting time for discharge upon payment of bond, completion of sentence, or charges being dropped. Wait times are currently routinely in excess of 8 hours, nearly all of which is spent with many inmates packed into tiny cells.

Not only to they routinely fail to provide psychiatric drugs to those inmate who need them, they also forcibly inject other inmates (who DON'T need them) with unusually high doses of things like Haldol, Zyprexa, and Ativan. Misuse or overuse of Zyprexa can cause irreversible motor dysfunction. Haldol leads to severe complications in over half the people it's given to, even when properly prescribed. The drugs are prescribed over the phone without examination or proper diagnosis, which is actually a criminal offense in IL; as is forcibly injecting psychotropic drugs except under a very specific set of circumstances, none of which are met at Cook County. At least three inmates have died from overdoses of or side effects from these medications.

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The Holmesburg Prison Experiments
August 24th, 2008

From 1951 until 1974, inmates of Philadelphia’s Holmesburg Prison were used as experimental guinea pigs for secret medical experiments. The experiments were overseen and sponsored by the U.S. Army, the CIA, The University of Pennsylvania, and at least two private corporations: Dow Chemical Co. and Johnson & Johnson.

The Holmesburg Prison experiments are in blatant violation of the Nuremberg Code of 1947 as well as the Oath of Hippocrates yet they were carried out and financed in secret for decades. By 1963, there were 50 human experiments involving nearly 1,000 Holmesburg inmates involving anything from poisonous vapors, radioactive isotopes, mind controlling drugs, and triggers for psychological disturbance and violence. Experimenters also used inmates to study various skin diseases encountered during World War II. Dr. Albert Kligman, the director of the blatant abuses carried out at Holmesburg for decades, saw Holmesburg Prison as “acres of skin” and himself as “a farmer seeing a fertile field for the first time.”

Attention has been drawn slowly but steadily to one of the darkest moments in American medical and research history through efforts of former research subjects as Allen M. Hornblum’s “Acres of Skin: Human Experiments at Holmesburg Prison, A True Story of Abuse and Exploitation in the Name of Medical Science.” The analogy drawn between the Nazi experiments during World War II and those sanctioned by major private corporations, a well respected research institution, and the United States Government at Holmesburg is a chilling one.

Links to sources for the above passage as well as useful sites for more information:

“In Prison Air: The Cells of Holmesburg Prison”
http://www.powerhousebooks.com/titl...nprisonair.html

“Human guinea pigs demand justice”
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/artic ... E_ID=27784

“Acres of Skin: Human Experiments at Holmesburg Prison, A True Story of Abuse and Exploitation in the Name of Medical Science”
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_q ... i_n8940481

Democracy Now’s Segment on Holmesburg Prison
http://www.democracynow.org/2000/8/1/holmesburg_prison

Even today, the conditions at Holmesburg are clearly unacceptable:

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Something more recent:


Riker's Island. The Rock. Adult inmates refer to the savage juvenile building as "Vietnam." Actually a penal colony of 10 separate jails, the Rock is the second-largest confinement facility in the entire world. When it comes to putting people in cages Cali is king, but the Big Apple gives it a serious run for its money with Riker's. The Rock has been a jail sine 1884, and has been overcrowded almost continuously since that time.



Most of the jails are dilapidated. They ran out of room to hold all the inmates, so there are huge prison barges anchored there to hold the overflow- one purpose-built, 2 modified British troop transports decommissioned after the Falklands War; and also two converted ferry boats (built in 1930) were used until 2003.



3 guards were handed a 58-count indictment earlier this year for running what known as "The Program." Here's how it worked: the guards took a group of Bloods and trained them how to deliver beatings while making sure injuries were hard to notice. This group was known as "the Team." The Team was responsible for handing down punishments for things the guards didn't like- one boy was beaten half to death with broom handles for taking too long on a phone call. They also went forth in search of new recruits for the Team, they would ask inmates "are you with it" or "are you down with it," if the answer was "no" or "down with what" a crushed eye socket or collapsed lung was the result. As compensation, Team members were allowed to extort whatever money, food, or toiletries they could find from nonmembers; and were allowed exclusive access to things like TV time and phone calls. Between July and October of 2008 the unit was locked down as a result of Program-related violence an average of once every three days.

Documents show that higher-ups at the jail were regularly briefed about the Program.

One 18 year old was killed by the Team.

They turned jail into almost a nightmare environment.

One woman was tied up and gang-raped with a foreign object, and officials "won't talk about" how inmates managed to get into her single cell without guards noticing or putting a stop to it.

This won't be the first time Riker's will have to pay many tens of thousands of dollars as a result of guard-sanctioned violence. Previous settlements of $500K and $100K, and many more suits pending seem to indicate a pattern.

As many as 150,000 inmates were wrongfully and improperly strip-searched in violation of a 2002 court order (which itself cost the NYC taxpayers over $50M).

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Pelican Bay

Well, there it is. Pelican Bay.

Califas is notorious for its prisons, and many of its joints are legendary- San Quentin, Corcoran, Folsom, Alcatraz. These are some of the toughest prisons ever built, filled with violent men and staffed by sadistic guards shielded by one of the most invincible unions in history. The names of these facilities are synonymous with cruel and brutal prison time, even among lay people- but one stands out. It doesn't really have an ominous nickname like "the Rock" or anything because its name and rep speak for itself.

Pelican Bay is the end of the line. Most times, once you go in you don't come out. Some have, and then gone to other facilities, and there are very few badges of honor in prison more respected than having survived at Pelican Bay. It became fashionable enough that inmates at many facilities have had to institute a death penalty for lying about having been there.

In fact, when other prisons come under fire from the Justice Department, one of their main defenses is "hey, at least we're not Pelican Bay."

Pelican Bay watchtower

The main line

Half of Pelican Bay is “just” a maximum security prison, and like other prisons, the general population is known as the main line. This is how they roll on the main line at Pelican Bay. Skip to 0:51 to see just how quickly a prison fight starts, and why things like martial arts, “confidence,” and the like are totally worthless in prison. Those 2 guys aren't punching him, they're stabbing him. This is prison fighting 101.

Even the guards don’t mess around:

"The Eighth Amendment's restraint on using excessive force has been repeatedly violated at Pelican Bay, leading to a conspicuous pattern of excessive force," Henderson wrote in describing the severe beatings then common at the facility, the third-degree burns inflicted on one mentally ill inmate who was thrown into boiling water after he smeared himself with feces, and the routine use of painful restraining weapons against others.

These guards got convicted of setting up inmate attacks.

The four-page indictment says that Powers and Garcia told Pelican Bay prisoners that other inmates were child molesters, thus making them targets for retaliatory attacks.
On seven occasions, the two guards spread rumors about inmates to encourage attacks on them, then put them together with other inmates so that attacks could take place. In one instance, the inmate who was attacked, Watson White, died from stab wounds he received during the assault.

Pelican Bay guard

The Forever

Pelican Bay's SHU- supermax- is considered the gold standard by which all other SHUs and control units are judged. California was a pioneer in control-unit incarceration, it’s designed to “break” inmates like you’d break a horse. For those who can’t be broken, it’s a supermax warehouse where they can be kept out of the way. 22.5 hour a day solitary lockdown, with exercise time done in a 12x28 concrete chamber (with 12 foot walls):




SHU cells are specifically designed to reduce “visual stimulation” to an absolute minimum. The cells are designed so that inmates can’t see out, or can only with great difficulty, and they aren’t allowed to put anything on the wall. No direct sunlight reaches the SHU. Inmates are fed in their cell, twice a day, through a slot.

When Dr. Craig Haney made his first visit to the prison, he was told by a guard that this was the only design flaw in the prison—that they had not figured out a way to "automatically" feed the prisoners, eliminating any need for contact with them whatsoever.[78] SHU inmates are permitted to shower three times per week.[79]

No contact visits, no phone calls, no TV, no nothing. This level of isolation requires “step-down” programs for SHU inmates. After 8-12 years in a SHU, inmates usually need a 1 to 2 year program of resocialization to adjust even to a maximum security unit. The difference between SHU and the main line is almost as drastic as the difference between the main line and the street. Many in the SHU won’t have to worry about that because they are serving indefinite SHU assignments. This is called The Forever.

Needless to say, SHU time can cause severe psychological trauma- sometimes irreversibly so.

Even when I’m enjoying myself, I’m thinking about the 2 million people who can’t enjoy themselves. It’s not just the 2 million, though. As I said, there’s between 6 and 10 million people going in and out of prison each year. But then there are all the people touched by the prison system, families and children of prisoners, which is a huge population. Children’s lives are being destroyed by the fact that they have a parent in prison. If someone has a father who is in a SHU and they know their father is being tortured and beaten, they can’t go on with their life. They can’t live to their full potential while that’s gnawing at them. You find families broken up, and you have a generational cycle where someone’s parents are in prison, which has repercussions on their livelihood. And there are effects on the community. Communities become completely unstable when so many men and women are in prison.

Full article.

Want to build your own supermax unit? It's as easy as Legos!

Hellhole.

In California, 34,164 inmates are serving life sentences.

Seven prison systems — Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Pennsylvania, South Dakota and the federal penitentiary system — do not offer the possibility of parole to prisoners serving life terms.
That policy also extends to juveniles in Illinois, Louisiana and Pennsylvania. A total of 6,807 juveniles were serving life terms in 2008, 1,755 without the possibility of parole. California again led the nation in the number of juveniles serving life terms, with 2,623.

Note that you can still get life without the possibility of parole sentence in other states (even as a juvenile), it’s just that in the quoted states all life sentences are automatically no-parole.

Burk Foster, a criminal justice professor at Saginaw Valley State University in Michigan and an expert on the Louisiana penitentiary system, said the expansion of life sentences started at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, the nation’s largest maximum penitentiary, in the early 1970s, when most people sentenced to life terms were paroled after they had been deemed fit to re-enter society.
“Angola was a prototype of a lifer’s prison,” said Professor Foster. “In 1973, Louisiana changed its life sentencing law so that lifers would no longer be parole eligible, and they applied that law more broadly over time to include murder, rape, kidnapping, distribution of narcotics and habitual offenders.”
Professor Foster said sentencing more prisoners to life sentences was an abandonment of the “corrective” function of prisons.
“Rehabilitation is not an issue at Angola,” he said. “They’re just practicing lifetime isolation and incapacitation.”

---

The Red Onion State Prison in Wise County, VA is identical to the Wallens Ridge prison in Big Stone Gap (pictured). These are Level 6 supermax facilities- general population here is equivalent to SHU time at other prisons. Essentially, these places are SHUs. Punishments at these facilities include being strapped spread-eagle on a steel slab in your underwear and then turning the temperature down while not allowing you up to use the toilet, and leaving you in your own filth for a couple days. This is in violation of federal law, the US constitution, international treaties, and United Nations guidelines on prisoner treatment.

The day I arrived I was...told that I was at Red Onion now and if I act up they would kill me; and there was nothing anyone could or would do about it.

There are no vocational programs, no skill training programs, no group activity of any kind, including religious services. Very little reading material is allowed, and is heavily restricted. Even the length of letters is restricted, to further isolate them from the outside world. Visits are noncontact- through glass w/ intercom phone and the inmate is shackled & chained during the visits.

3 ten-minute showers are allowed per week, but there are no doors or curtains and female guards are used at shower time to humiliate the inmates. When this was done at GITMO, they called it torture and there was worldwide outrage.

Life in segregation is even more restrictive. Nobody really knows how many inmates are in segregation because the facilities don't disclose it. Segregation in Virginia is indefinite. DOC policies provide no guidance on permissible length of time in segregation. Inmates do not know what, if anything, they can do to secure their release to general population. While the DOC’s operating procedure mandates periodic reviews of an inmate’s placement in segregation, it does not specify criteria for guiding the institution’s decision-making process. Nor does it affirm the goal of safely transferring inmates to lesser custody as soon as feasible.

Human Rights Watch has issued a scathing report on the human rights violations at Red Onion.

Connecticut used to send prisoners to WR, and when CT legislators visited the prison investigating inmate abuse, they discovered the warden's office decorated with Civil War "memorabilia" and a model of a slave ship. The practice of sending CT guys to WR has stopped as a result of an [url=http://www.aclu.org/prison/conditions/1 ... 10724.html]ACLU lawsuit.

Amnesty International has been unsuccessfully trying to visit Wallens Ridge to investigate inmate deaths caused by tasers and stun belts.

"A prison system that has nothing to hide and is serious about addressing human rights concerns should welcome scrutiny and advice," said Dr. William F.. Schulz, Executive Director of Amnesty International USA. "There are long-standing concerns about misuse of stun guns in Wallens Ridge. That misuse may now have resulted in a death, and urgent scrutiny is required if Virginia is to avoid further tragedies."

Abuse is widespread and heinous at Red Onion.

Owens, Tomkins, and Kennedy came to cell after lights out to strip search Blount. Ransacked cell throwing hundreds of pages of transcripts, legal mail, personal mail ect around cell. Lt. Mullins, Sgt. Dat, Sgt O’Quinn, CPL Lee, CPL Nicholson came running placed legal mail /work in orange bag. Blount needed legal materials for court date on April 14, 2005. O’Quinn said “We know. Fuck you and court”. Blount said there was no need for that kind of language. Mullins whispered in Blount’s ear “I’ll Fuck you Nigger!” Then sexually assaulted by Lt. Mullins. Mullins tried to stick finger in Blount’s anus causing scratches around the rectum and broken skin. Officers, medical staff obstructed grievance procedure. Medical staff refused to examine him with cameras around and said to say that Blount refused the search. When Blount asked for legal material back the officers laughed. (Blount is pressing charges. See copy of lawsuit for full details.

(Reported by Kevin Johnson #189542) Sgt. O’ Quinn, Sgt. D. Tate and Lieutenant S. Mullins Upon one handcuff being applied to one of Mitchell’s wrists these three guards together yanked his arm out of the cell door’s food access hatch up to the shoulder using a nylon leash that was attached to the handcuffs. O’ Quinn then began yelling repeatedly in an excited tone “Break his goddamn arm! Break his arm!” with his extended fully outside the slot by Mullins and Tate, O’ Quinn began dropping his body weight down onto Mitchell’s arm attempting to break it at the elbow joint. (Sgt. Quinn broke both wrists of another inmate in previous years.) ROSP

Assaulted by LT. Mullins while I was hog tied-They ran in on me with the shield and gas and assaulted me because I was kicking on the door because they were beating another man that was dying of HIV and could not move and because he failed to respond to them in any manner.

Fowler and R. Phipps had been propositioning an informant white inmate Dennis Webb #151452 to throw feces on me. On July 5th, despite the required search of the prisoner and his items prior to being brought out of his cell for a shower Webb had taken several bloated bags of the feces mixture to the shower. Second, only Webb, I, and one other prisoner were placed in showers in the unit next door to our own (C500 unit), which unlike our own C400 unit showers has no Plexiglas covering the shower fronts or locking covers on the handcuff slots. The C400 showers are designed this way to keep substances from being thrown from them. So, not only was Webb allowed to take the feces bags into the shower, but we were placed into showers in another unit from which Webb could easily throw the feces.

---

ADX Florence aka "The Alcatraz of the Rockies" or "The Last Worst Place" is the federal supermax prison. The other common name is simply "Supermax," because most of the general public is unaware that supermax facilities exist in the state system. It serves two purposes, one of which is to house escapees and "worst of the worst" federal inmates, like the Aryan Brotherhood shot-caller who got tired of killing inmates and killed a couple guards while he was in maximum security. Its other purpose is to house high-proile inmates like John Gotti and mass-bomber dudes like McVeigh and Unabomber. Guys which are too high-profile like that aren't safe in regular prisons (and espceially not state systems) because if you're already serving double life you're never getting out anyway so why not be the guy who pulled a decap on John Gotti?


It doesn't look like much from the air, because the majority of it is actually underground.

Cell block

This housing unit at ADX is atypical, because in most units the cells are angled diagonally in the block so that inmates can't see each others cells.

Because ADX is federal, there is much less abuse than in the other facilities I've posted here. This is not to say that there isn't any, just that it is much less. There were a group of guards known as "The Cowboys." The Cowboys were your basic abusive prison guards, mixing urine and feces into inmate food, spraying them with fire extiguishers, putting burning paper on them, forcing them to run in shackles until the shackles cut their legs to the bone. This was done primarily to nonviolent drug offenders, and heavily biased toward black inmates.



Even despite the high-tech security at ADX, inmate violence is not unheard of. A high-ranking Eme was in there, and because he was suspected of snitching on shot-callers he got taken out. Whether guards were bribed or the hitter simply waited until the right moment to take advantage of understaffing and undertraining is not clear; but it's also irrelevant. What is relevant is that ADX or no, SHU or no, snitching on an Eme shot-caller is certain death. If they want you, they're going to get you- and even the most secure supermax can't save you. Remember that this gang was essentially created by California DOC.

Many inmates in there still contniue to run gangs on the outside, because in many cases supermax is super lax.

[url=http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_5510710]Woody Harrelson's dad died in ADX.

ABC news did a piece called How to Survive Supermax.

---

"Obviously a dog is more of a deterrent [than a Taser gun].You get more damage from a dog bite.I think it's right up there with impact weapons . . ."

The use of dogs to threaten and attack prisoners to facilitate cell extractions has been a well-kept secret, even in the world of corrections. Human Rights Watch has spoken with more than two dozen current and former correctional officials who had no idea dogs were authorized, much less ever used, for this purpose. Many were, as one said, "flabbergasted."

In three of the five states that authorize use of dogs in cell extraction, the policies appear to be used rarely if at all. In Connecticut (20 cases in 2005) and Iowa (63 cases between March 2005 and March 2006), use of dogs for this purpose is far more common.

Human Rights Watch knows of no other country in the world that authorizes the use of dogs to attack prisoners who will not voluntarily leave their cells. Dogs are often used in prisons in the United States and elsewhere to patrol perimeters and to search for contraband, a use that does not raise human rights concerns.

When Human Rights Watch began this research in 2005, two additional states, Massachusetts and Arizona, also permitted the use of dogs in cell extractions. In 2006, however, corrections departments in those states instituted new policies prohibiting such use of dogs. We welcome these decisions and urge the corrections departments of Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, South Dakota and Utah to follow suit. If they do not do so, the respective state legislatures should enact legislation prohibiting the practice. The American Correctional Association, which publishes standards for professional corrections management, should include a prohibition on the use of dogs for cell extractions in its use of force standards.

http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2006/10/0 ... -degrading

[Simon_Jester]

This is not a criticism or even a comment on the overall post, in general. It is a specific point:

Do you have any citations for the section on the origin of racial prison gangs, and the claim that the creation of these gangs was promoted by the government?

[Instant Sunrise]

This is not a criticism or even a comment on the overall post, in general. It is a specific point:

Do you have any citations for the section on the origin of racial prison gangs, and the claim that the creation of these gangs was promoted by the government?

Unfortunately, the original article didn't have a cite for that, so I'm trying to find some more stuff on that.

EDIT: This study by the university of New Mexico shows that prisons which have racially motivated gangs are prone to less incidences of mass violence, such as rioting.

[Norade]

I'm not normally the type to tilt at windmills, but this prompted me to make a facebook group. I know it won't do fuck all, but I figured that even making a few more people aware is of some use.

A link to the group page.

[The Romulan Republic]

I'm not normally the type to tilt at windmills, but this prompted me to make a facebook group. I know it won't do fuck all, but I figured that even making a few more people aware is of some use.

A link to the group page.

That link just takes me to my Facebook homepage.

Anyway, I'll admit to only having skimmed the article thus far, but if even half of that shit is accurate, its both utterly disgusting and rage-inducing.

[Norade]

Hmm, I don't usually link to facebook pages so let me try to see if I can make it work.

Either way I called the group 'Stop American Prison Abuse'. I'm a Canadian, but even if all it does is raise a very small amount of awareness then I have done a good thing.
'

[Einhander Sn0m4n]

Now it's time we do an expose on the corporations who own and run the prison camps, then the shareholders who own the prison corps. I bet dollars to donuts it'll be the same handful of billionaire families who own monstrosities like BP and Goldman Sachs.

[Oni Koneko Damien]

Could I ask... no, beg a favour from the mods? I know that Shep's blatant trolling in this thread will, at worst, earn him a mild slap on the wrist, despite the fact that others have been banned for as much. But, if he continues to shit this thread with blatant flamebait and repeated DR violations, could whatever mod that deems it necessary just take a few extra seconds to split only his shit out, rather than moving the entirety of the thread to HoS and locking it?

I ask because if even half the shit in the OP is true, this is a serious fucking problem that needs to be addressed. And, I don't want to sound like a conspiracy nut, but I can't help but wonder if Shep uses his unique position on the board, and the fact that he tends to face little to no punishment for his actions, to deliberately shit up threads he doesn't like for the sole purpose of getting them moved and locked safely away.

[Serafina]

I would like to second Oni Koneko Damien's motion.

Shep simply disregards the fact that one single story that could be wrong does not disproove a large amount of data.
I do not think that he does not realize this - which tends to support that he is just trolling, for the above mentioned reason.

[Eleas]

This is tangential at best, but the part about prison dogs resonated with me. It made me recall an observation my girlfriend made a few days back, about large dogs.

Here in Sweden, we see large dogs as... you know, usually just large playmates or big goofballs. Whereas people who come here tend to move their children away from them and be very nervous. It's because here, dogs are seen as companions, as part of the family, whereas in a lot of places abroad, particularly authoritarian regimes, dogs are weapons and tools used to control and frighten the populace.

It comes as no surprise to me that prisons in America use them in this manner.

[Edi]

The Shep tangent split here.

[Temujin]

Well I just finished reading through the whole thing! You think you know a lot about what's going, and than you read something like this.

People get upset about Gitmo and Abu Ghraib, but how many of those same people realize that things that are just as bad, if not far worse are happening in their own state, let alone their own country? This shit is downright fucking medieval.

I remember a thread, or a conversation within a thread about how the US prison population rivals that of the Soviet Union under Stalin. Which is ironic when the you realize the people who advocate the most for this kind of shit, the conservatives, are also the ones who cried the most and the loudest about the evil Soviet Union and the gulags.

This is tangential at best, but the part about prison dogs resonated with me. It made me recall an observation my girlfriend made a few days back, about large dogs.

Here in Sweden, we see large dogs as... you know, usually just large playmates or big goofballs. Whereas people who come here tend to move their children away from them and be very nervous. It's because here, dogs are seen as companions, as part of the family, whereas in a lot of places abroad, particularly authoritarian regimes, dogs are weapons and tools used to control and frighten the populace.

It comes as no surprise to me that prisons in America use them in this manner.

I don't how prevalent this attitude is in other countries, but in the US big aggressive dogs are definitely seen as macho, and often bought the same way males seeking to enhance their image of masculinity buy fancy cars, guns, or other big boy's toys.

[Bluewolf]

I don't how prevalent this attitude is in other countries, but in the US big aggressive dogs are definitely seen as macho, and often bought the same way males seeking to enhance their image of masculinity buy fancy cars, guns, or other big boy's toys.

I think this is a general attitude given the UK has had a few dog attack incidents involving large dogs that were basically used as a form of macho cred. I wouldn't be surprised if this was also the case in some cases in Europe and North America too.

[Eleas]

I think this is a general attitude given the UK has had a few dog attack incidents involving large dogs that were basically used as a form of macho cred. I wouldn't be surprised if this was also the case in some cases in Europe and North America too.

Oh, it definitely exists over here as well. But it's not a generalized thing, at least not as I see it. Whenever I see a large dog in my city, as a rule it'll be big and friendly and stupid.

[Questor]

I think this is a general attitude given the UK has had a few dog attack incidents involving large dogs that were basically used as a form of macho cred. I wouldn't be surprised if this was also the case in some cases in Europe and North America too.

Oh, it definitely exists over here as well. But it's not a generalized thing, at least not as I see it. Whenever I see a large dog in my city, as a rule it'll be big and friendly and stupid.

What are you defining as a large dog?
According to the AKC 2009 dog breed registration, The four most popular dog breeds in America are (in order) Labrador Retrievers, German Shepherd Dogs, Yorkshire Terriers, and Golden Retrievers. Labs and Goldens are well known as family dogs, and GSDs have a reputation that is almost as good. (All three breeds are used by police and military in various roles as well, before someone brings up GSDs "reputation" as attack dogs.) The first "macho" dog is either the Boxer (at 6) or the Bulldog (at 7). Both of those breeds also can tend to the cuddly. the first breed with a genuinely bad (if undeservedly so) reputation on that list is the Rottweilers at number 13.

All of the dogs that I've mentioned in this post, with the exception of Yorkshire Terriers, are medium to large.

Don't generalize the American experience with dogs based on what you read about prison guard dogs. Just like it would be stupid to generalize the German experience with dogs based on the guard dogs used at Nazi PoW camps, generalizing american dogs based on such a minuscule percentage of dogs is idiotic. Walk around any suburb in america and you will see dozens of dogs, who - as a rule - are friendly, just as you describe in your county. Of course, I'd describe most of the dogs I meet as relatively intelligent for a canine, but my sister's bulldog has re-calibrated my scale.

[Eleas]

Don't generalize the American experience with dogs based on what you read about prison guard dogs. Just like it would be stupid to generalize the German experience with dogs based on the guard dogs used at Nazi PoW camps, generalizing american dogs based on such a minuscule percentage of dogs is idiotic. Walk around any suburb in america and you will see dozens of dogs, who - as a rule - are friendly, just as you describe in your county.

I didn't. Also, I apologize for going off on a tangent; I actually didn't mean to derail the thread.

That said, what I said - or at least the intent of my words - was that it was not surprising that American prisons - which represent what I feel is a blatantly sadistic and deeply unpleasant cultural niche - use them in that manner. I should definitely have been clearer, but the subject of my tangent was not the US as a whole, but rather this bizarre system within the country.

[Questor]

Apologies for continuing the tangent.

That said, what I said - or at least the intent of my words - was that it was not surprising that American prisons - which represent what I feel is a blatantly sadistic and deeply unpleasant cultural niche - use them in that manner. I should definitely have been clearer, but the subject of my tangent was not the US as a whole, but rather this bizarre system within the country.

I'm sorry, how were you unclear?

It's because here, dogs are seen as companions, as part of the family, whereas in a lot of places abroad, particularly authoritarian regimes, dogs are weapons and tools used to control and frighten the populace.

I'm saying that 99% of all dogs in the United States are seen the same way. While attack dogs certainly fit your description, I would doubt that attack dogs even represent a plurality of american working dogs, or even police working dogs. The use of dogs for tracking fugitives (which is a different specialization then attack) is important, but those same dogs spend time finding elderly people who have wandered off or little kids who have done the same. The other major area police use dogs (and I would suspect the most common) is drug and contraband search. Cadaver dogs are very small percentage.

Are you saying that Sweden does not have any working dogs in its military or police forces?

If your second comment is how you actually feel, I suspect you and I agree, but your first comment is a blatant accusation and misrepresentation of the American (and other non-Swedish nation's) experience with dogs, and by extension a misrepresentation of the Swedish experience in that it implies that Sweden is better about integration of dogs as companions than other countries..

Also, I checked around for some data, according to this website, Sweden ranks higher than the United States in "death by dog" per million people. I don't know if that includes data from working dogs, though.

[Eleas]

Apologies for continuing the tangent.

My fault, really.

I'm sorry, how were you unclear?

By fucking up my phrasing. The statement you quoted here...-

It's because here, dogs are seen as companions, as part of the family, whereas in a lot of places abroad, particularly authoritarian regimes, dogs are weapons and tools used to control and frighten the populace.

...well, that was me veering into yet another side track. Countries I had in mind with that sentence were more along the lines of Eritrea and the like, and I failed to articulate what I really meant. In other words, mea culpa, and I concede on all counts.

(To be as honest as possible, yeah, I may have some lingering bias as to how pronounced the "macho men keeps big dogs" tendency is in the US and Britain. Given your posted links, seems as if this bias is unfounded on my part.)


EDIT: Argh. Fucking headache. Please excuse any and all spelling and/or logic errors in the above.

[The Yosemite Bear]

Now it's time we do an expose on the corporations who own and run the prison camps, then the shareholders who own the prison corps. I bet dollars to donuts it'll be the same handful of billionaire families who own monstrosities like BP and Goldman Sachs.

you do realize that dick cheney is under federal investigation for his partnership in a group of fundy for profit teen "Rehabilitation/brainwashing" prisons, where rapes and murders were common.

[MKSheppard]

The Red Onion State Prison section said:

The Red Onion State Prison in Wise County, VA is identical to the Wallens Ridge prison in Big Stone Gap (pictured). These are Level 6 supermax facilities- general population here is equivalent to SHU time at other prisons. Essentially, these places are SHUs. Punishments at these facilities include being strapped spread-eagle on a steel slab in your underwear and then turning the temperature down while not allowing you up to use the toilet, and leaving you in your own filth for a couple days.

Leaving out any context as to when the spread eagle punishment is used.

For example, when I was at the Montgomery County Correctional Center; I personally witnessed someone being bound up in a kevlar straitjacket; and then chained to the floor of the cell -- the cell had a nice handy eyebolt at the center for this.

Reason? The guy was a complete pathological cutter. He kept cutting himself, requiring a full on medical response team and bodily fluid clean up team each time he did it -- and when he did it; everyone in that cell block was immediately placed on lockdown. You wanted to go outside your cell? TOO BAD. We are closing the day room off to deal with this guy and clean up his mess.

This was not a problem when it occured early in the "outside of cell" cycle -- since they would let you back out once the problem was fixed. But if it was on the tail end of the cycle, like at 8 PM? You're going in your cells until next morning's breakfast call.

So nobody -- inmates or guards -- was shedding any tears when the jail administration had him straitjacketed and chained.

Visits [at Red Onion] are noncontact- through glass w/ intercom phone and the inmate is shackled & chained during the visits.

At MoCo Corrections, you spoke to people through glass and intercom phones; and inmates were generally allowed to move through the facility without chains under supervision -- but you were chained up when you became a security risk -- e.g. they chained you up if you were going to the courthouse for a court hearing.

Human Rights Watch knows of no other country in the world that authorizes the use of dogs to attack prisoners who will not voluntarily leave their cells.

Left out is why the dogs are being used. Because they're a safer alternative to the prisoner than going into the cell with a full scale extraction team, who are all padded up and armed with lexan shields, nightsticks, tasers, and given carte blanche to remove the prisoner forcibly from their cell.



That is your typical extraction team. Numbers and equipment vary from state to state; but there's one thing in common -- virtually all extractions in the US are now videotaped for legal and liability reasons.

If I have a choice between sending in an extraction team to beat and whale on someone until they submit; or sending in a large irritable dog to bark at the inmate to chase them out; I'm going to pick the dog each time.

I could go on debunking more of the original post.

But as for the statistics on prison rape...

They are fruits from the poison tree -- Less than 25 actual studies have been done over the last 40 years on the subject; and many of them had poor methodology -- they simply consisted of asking people at random if they had been the subject of sexual assault and taking their word as gospel, without actually checking to see if they were telling the truth or not.

When the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) in 2004 examined administrative records at correctional facilities at the state and local level, they found that the actual prevalence was much lower.

Link

They randomly sampled 2,730 facilities across the nation, from prison systems at the state/fed level, to local jails; holding 1,754,092 inmates.

They found that during 2004, there were:

5,528 allegations of sexual violence; broken down as:

42% staff sexual misconduct
37% inmate-oninmate nonconsensual sexual acts
11% staff sexual harassment
10% abusive sexual contact

Out of these 5,528 allegations, only 1,213 (21%) could be corrobated and substantiated by investigations.

They did some extrapolations on that data; and the national estimate for 2004 based on the sample was:

8,210~ allegations of sexual violence nationwide, of which 2,090 (25%) could be corrobated.

This is about 0.94 sexual assaults per 1,000 inmates.

The actual rates for prison assaults are much lower -- 0.31 to 0.69 per thousand inmates. But what drives the overall average statistics up? Juveniles; who get their shit ruined at like 5~ per 1,000 inmates.

By comparison, the national sexual assault rate in 2004; as defined by the BJS' Criminal Victimization in the United States LINK was 209,880 nationwide; or 0.9 per 1,000 population, age 12 and over.

[Edi]

Opening post edited to reduce the number of pics, because it makes the thread a bitch to load to see new replies.

Original post available with proper board formatting by request.

[Terralthra]

The Red Onion State Prison section said:

The Red Onion State Prison in Wise County, VA is identical to the Wallens Ridge prison in Big Stone Gap (pictured). These are Level 6 supermax facilities- general population here is equivalent to SHU time at other prisons. Essentially, these places are SHUs. Punishments at these facilities include being strapped spread-eagle on a steel slab in your underwear and then turning the temperature down while not allowing you up to use the toilet, and leaving you in your own filth for a couple days.

Leaving out any context as to when the spread eagle punishment is used.

For example, when I was at the Montgomery County Correctional Center; I personally witnessed someone being bound up in a kevlar straitjacket; and then chained to the floor of the cell -- the cell had a nice handy eyebolt at the center for this.

Luckily for the original article, the punishment you describe isn't even what it's talking about. Oh well. Random tangents are fun, I guess?

But as for the statistics on prison rape...

They are fruits from the poison tree -- Less than 25 actual studies have been done over the last 40 years on the subject; and many of them had poor methodology -- they simply consisted of asking people at random if they had been the subject of sexual assault and taking their word as gospel, without actually checking to see if they were telling the truth or not.

When the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) in 2004 examined administrative records at correctional facilities at the state and local level, they found that the actual prevalence was much lower.

No kidding? Records of allegations made to prison authorities are extremely low when it's known that tattling on another prisoner will get you killed even in a supermax and authorities in many prisons are even complicit or instigating many crimes? No way....

That you could refer to a survey of recorded allegations as authoritative while claiming the methodology of surveying prisoners as flawed in the same breath is amazing hypocritical.

[Instant Sunrise]

The Red Onion State Prison section said:

Leaving out any context as to when the spread eagle punishment is used.

For example, when I was at the Montgomery County Correctional Center; I personally witnessed someone being bound up in a kevlar straitjacket; and then chained to the floor of the cell -- the cell had a nice handy eyebolt at the center for this.

Reason? The guy was a complete pathological cutter. He kept cutting himself, requiring a full on medical response team and bodily fluid clean up team each time he did it -- and when he did it; everyone in that cell block was immediately placed on lockdown. You wanted to go outside your cell? TOO BAD. We are closing the day room off to deal with this guy and clean up his mess.

This was not a problem when it occured early in the "outside of cell" cycle -- since they would let you back out once the problem was fixed. But if it was on the tail end of the cycle, like at 8 PM? You're going in your cells until next morning's breakfast call.

So nobody -- inmates or guards -- was shedding any tears when the jail administration had him straitjacketed and chained.

Okay, but the article was talking about Red Onion State Prison and Wallen's Ridge State Prison, not Montgomery County Correctional Center.

At MoCo Corrections, you spoke to people through glass and intercom phones; and inmates were generally allowed to move through the facility without chains under supervision -- but you were chained up when you became a security risk -- e.g. they chained you up if you were going to the courthouse for a court hearing.

What does Montgomery County Correctional facility have to do with Red Onion and Wallen's Ridge?

Left out is why the dogs are being used. Because they're a safer alternative to the prisoner than going into the cell with a full scale extraction team, who are all padded up and armed with lexan shields, nightsticks, tasers, and given carte blanche to remove the prisoner forcibly from their cell.

[img-jail_extraction_team_big.jpg]

That is your typical extraction team. Numbers and equipment vary from state to state; but there's one thing in common -- virtually all extractions in the US are now videotaped for legal and liability reasons.

If I have a choice between sending in an extraction team to beat and whale on someone until they submit; or sending in a large irritable dog to bark at the inmate to chase them out; I'm going to pick the dog each time.

And yet no other first world or even third world nation feels the need to use attack dogs to extract prisoners from cells. And the dog is not there to just bark loudly to scare the prisoner into compliance either.

The dog handler is supposed to maintain his hold on the dog’s leash while it attacks the prisoner. But this is not always the case. As one prisoner in Connecticut described his experience: “The dog was barking uncontrollably and jumping up and out towards me. The k-9 officers released the dog leash, and the dog, a German Shepherd, charged me.”5

The dog is trained to bite whatever part of the prisoner it can grasp first. According to an Iowa corrections official, “[The dogs are] taught a deep—a full-mouth bite. The dog opens his mouth real wide and gets as much as [he can] whether it’s a thigh or whatever in his mouth.”6

That certainly sounds like just allowing the dog to bark loudly and scare the inmate into compliance. Not only that but the dog is part of that forced extraction team.

I could go on debunking more of the original post.

But as for the statistics on prison rape...

They are fruits from the poison tree -- Less than 25 actual studies have been done over the last 40 years on the subject; and many of them had poor methodology -- they simply consisted of asking people at random if they had been the subject of sexual assault and taking their word as gospel, without actually checking to see if they were telling the truth or not.

When the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) in 2004 examined administrative records at correctional facilities at the state and local level, they found that the actual prevalence was much lower.

Link

They randomly sampled 2,730 facilities across the nation, from prison systems at the state/fed level, to local jails; holding 1,754,092 inmates.

They found that during 2004, there were:

5,528 allegations of sexual violence; broken down as:

42% staff sexual misconduct
37% inmate-oninmate nonconsensual sexual acts
11% staff sexual harassment
10% abusive sexual contact

Out of these 5,528 allegations, only 1,213 (21%) could be corrobated and substantiated by investigations.

They did some extrapolations on that data; and the national estimate for 2004 based on the sample was:

8,210~ allegations of sexual violence nationwide, of which 2,090 (25%) could be corrobated.

This is about 0.94 sexual assaults per 1,000 inmates.

The actual rates for prison assaults are much lower -- 0.31 to 0.69 per thousand inmates. But what drives the overall average statistics up? Juveniles; who get their shit ruined at like 5~ per 1,000 inmates.

By comparison, the national sexual assault rate in 2004; as defined by the BJS' Criminal Victimization in the United States LINK was 209,880 nationwide; or 0.9 per 1,000 population, age 12 and over.

So what. according to the BJS Rape is underreported, with only 60% of rapes ever being reported to the authorities. But you're missing the point.

Rape of any kind of traumatic, degrading and will scar you for the rest of your life.

When it happens to prisoners, people joke about it. Or worse, they see it at being "deserved."

Rape can never be justified, and nobody EVER deserves to be raped.

[Keevan_Colton]

The Red Onion State Prison section said:

Leaving out any context as to when the spread eagle punishment is used.

For example, when I was at the Montgomery County Correctional Center; I personally witnessed someone being bound up in a kevlar straitjacket; and then chained to the floor of the cell -- the cell had a nice handy eyebolt at the center for this.

Reason? The guy was a complete pathological cutter. He kept cutting himself, requiring a full on medical response team and bodily fluid clean up team each time he did it -- and when he did it; everyone in that cell block was immediately placed on lockdown. You wanted to go outside your cell? TOO BAD. We are closing the day room off to deal with this guy and clean up his mess.

This was not a problem when it occured early in the "outside of cell" cycle -- since they would let you back out once the problem was fixed. But if it was on the tail end of the cycle, like at 8 PM? You're going in your cells until next morning's breakfast call.

So nobody -- inmates or guards -- was shedding any tears when the jail administration had him straitjacketed and chained.

Two points
1. That isnt what they're talking about in the article.
2. That story doesn't really help, it just shows how fucked the system is since that sounds like a serious mental health issue...which gee, might be best addressed with psych treatment rather than chaining the person in the corner.

[Serafina]

The Red Onion State Prison section said:

Leaving out any context as to when the spread eagle punishment is used.

For example, when I was at the Montgomery County Correctional Center; I personally witnessed someone being bound up in a kevlar straitjacket; and then chained to the floor of the cell -- the cell had a nice handy eyebolt at the center for this.

Reason? The guy was a complete pathological cutter. He kept cutting himself, requiring a full on medical response team and bodily fluid clean up team each time he did it -- and when he did it; everyone in that cell block was immediately placed on lockdown. You wanted to go outside your cell? TOO BAD. We are closing the day room off to deal with this guy and clean up his mess.

This was not a problem when it occured early in the "outside of cell" cycle -- since they would let you back out once the problem was fixed. But if it was on the tail end of the cycle, like at 8 PM? You're going in your cells until next morning's breakfast call.

So nobody -- inmates or guards -- was shedding any tears when the jail administration had him straitjacketed and chained.

Wait - they don't even have people who can deal with basic DSH?
Wow...it's not like it's that hard to deal with it, anyone with a bit of social or psychological training can do it.

Someone who is doing something like this has serious mental health issues - essentially, they are denying him health care. And before you cry that he is a filthy prisoner and doesn't deserve treatment - it's better than locking down an entire cell block, don't you think?