Saturday, May 06, 2006

Torture at home

Yet another tragic and infuriating Drug War story from my little home state of Rhode Island:
PROVIDENCE -- Three state correctional officers, including a captain who allegedly forced an inmate to taste his own feces on Valentine's Day, were arrested and charged yesterday with multiple counts of assaulting five inmates in the Adult Correctional Institutions.

[snip]

The prisoners allegedly involved were serving short sentences for crimes such as felony shoplifting and drug possession.
Wonderful. Just wonderful.

Tell me how we can justify this? How can we, as a so-called "civilized" society, possibly justify subjecting non-violent drug users and petty criminals to this kind of treatment? How can we justify locking them up in an environment where they are in constant danger of being abused - physically, sexually, and emotionally - not just by other prisoners, but by prison guards!?
According to affadavits that state police detectives submitted to the court, the guards are accused of whacking inmates in the head with phone books and a clipboard. Others allege that they were punched in the head, slapped in the face or had packets of soup tossed at them.
This kind of disgusting bahavior isn't just going on in Iraq, folks. It's happening every day in our prisons. This happened in my back yard. And it's happening in yours.

And for what reason? To protect us from ourselves? Thanks but no thanks. I'd rather have a severe opiate addiction with access to treatment, than be locked in a hell-hole where I can't even count on the guards to protect me.
Inmate Walsh, a laborer and father of a 6-year-old girl, is scheduled to be released from the ACI this month.

[snip]

Walsh, through his lawyer, Kenneth A. Schreiber, said he was punished for trying to smuggle cigarettes into the prison. He was strip searched and forced "to take [his own] fecal matter and put it in his mouth," Schreiber said.
Sick.

So, have these bastards apologized to Walsh for their actions yet? Here's what their defense lawyer, John D. Lynch Jr. had to say:
After their arraignments yesterday, Lynch defended the guards and said that they were simply doing their jobs in a difficult environment.

"They're running a prison," he said. "They're not elementary school teachers. They're prison guards."
I've got two words for you, Mr. Lynch:

Eat shit.

3 comments:

the bewilderness said...

That's right, they are running a prison. They have absolute control over every inmate. So, of course they abuse them. Don't kid yourself. If they were running a nursery school they would abuse those inmates too.
The people who are most attracted to positions of authority without accountability, such as law enforcement and corrections, are the very people who should be screened out. Instead we as a society have moved in the direction of contracting out prisons for profit. What that says about our social contract with our citizens speaks volumes.

xoites said...

This is the nasty little "secret" of our prison system. Comedians joke about it every night in clubs across the country and on TV. The audiences laugh about rape because prisoners are dehumanized. Even violent felons do not deserve beatings, rape and torture. The Constitutions forbids cruel and inhumane punishment.

Our society, our species has a lot of growing up to do.

Anonymous said...

First of all you people are probably ordinary citizens that have no idea what is like to be inside the walls of a prison. You cry for these prisoners, yet they are the same ones that sell drugs to kids, murder people, molest children, rape women, rob banks, and much much more. One day something to happen to you, and you will wish for justice. The inmates in prison are con artists and schemers. Maybe we should just let all these criminals go so they can kill, rape and rob some more innocent people. Fucking liberals eat shit...