Warden’s offer of Christian rehab suggests Black Panther’s 35 years in solitary was political

[unhappycamper]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/07/21/wardens-offer-of-christian-rehab-suggests-black-panthers-35-years-in-solitary-was-political/



Warden’s offer of Christian rehab suggests Black Panther’s 35 years in solitary was political
By David Edwards
Monday, July 21, 2014 15:28 EDT

The warden of America’s largest prison said that he was considering letting a Louisiana inmate out of solitary confinement for the first time in decades so that he could participate in religion-based rehabilitation programs.

Kenny “Zulu” Whitmore has spent 35 years in what officials call closed cell restriction since being sentenced to the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola for second-degree murder in 1977. Whitmore, who has been in solitary for the last 28 consecutive years, reportedly attributes his vision damage, hypertension and other problems to the confinement.

Angola Warden Burl Cain, who has been running the prison for the past two decades, told students at The Medill Justice Project that he was thinking about allowing Whitmore to return to the general population.

~snip~

In 2005, Cain explained to the Shreveport Times that his faith-based rehabilitation program worked because it gave the prisoners a sense of morality.

[hobbit709]

1. He's the head screw, what would he know about morality.

[jollyreaper2112]

2. hmm

He doesn't even have a wikipedia page. Strange. who did he murder?

[Trillo]

3. This should be on the front page

but I doubt it would ever get enough reccommendations. After 35 years of solitary confinement, surely that is enough rehabilitation. The head Christian has put the prisoner in solitary, either blinded or seriously damaged his eyes, in short, the prisoner is broken. Surely that is enough Christian rehabilitation. No more no more!

Yeah, perhaps the prisoner deserved it. But 35 years is a long damn time. Give him some secular psychological counseling, and if he's ready for release, then release him. Surely, he's had enough Christian treatment already!

[surrealAmerican]

4. Ah, Warden Torquemada ...

... he can't imagine he's done anything wrong.

[malaise]

5. To the greatest page

This man has been tortured - this is nothing more than a violation of basic human rights - and there are no words.

Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! I've had enough!!!

[RainDog]

7. That's how I feel right now, too

Too much, just too much.

Eric Garner's death just makes me sick to my stomach. A man murdered for selling individual cigarettes - murdered in the street in broad daylight in New York.

A man kept in solitary - unless he concedes to brainwashing from sick as fuck religious believers.

If you want to know about a society - look at how it treats its prisoners.

[malaise]

8. Yep

solitary confinement for decades or RW religious indoctrination.

[Sunlei]

6. It was Cains 'decision' to torture the man for 35 years? Cain has no morality at all!

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. He's in solitary confinement for political links? How is that legal?

How come Cain has the power to decide these things alone, and how come he hasn't been fired for obvious abuse of his position?

This should have had a lawyer screaming 'cruel and unusual punishment' decades ago.

[Starry Messenger]

10. I was wondering too, so I looked it up:

Power and connections, basically. http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/07/burl-cain-angola-prison

"Cain's brother, James David Cain, served in the Louisiana Legislature for more than two decades. Burl Cain himself was until this year the vice chairman of the powerful State Civil Service Commission, which sets pay scales for state workers. Corrections is big business across the nation, but nowhere more so than in Louisiana, which has the highest incarceration rate in the world, keeping 1 in 55 adults behind bars. Angola is one of the largest employers in the state, with a staff of about 1,600 and an annual budget of more than $120 million; it is also a huge agricultural and industrial enterprise, with a network of customers and suppliers that depend on the warden's good graces.

Until 2008, the department of corrections, which oversees the state's prisons, was headed by Richard Stalder, who once worked for Cain. Today, its second in command is Sheryl Ranatza, who previously was Cain's deputy warden. She is married to Michael Ranatza, executive director of the Louisiana Sheriffs' Association. (The sheriffs have a direct interest in prison policy in Louisiana because the state effectively rents space in local jails—at premium rates—to house "overflow" inmates who can't be fit into Angola and other prisons.) Together, the Angola warden and the department of corrections have long been "a political powerhouse in Louisiana," says the Southern Center for Human Rights' Stephen Bright. "[They are] sitting on top of all this power. Governors who come along are afraid to touch them."