TORTURE In America's Prisons

[RestoreGore]

This is an outrage and embarrassment to the United States of America! We are really no better than a third world dictatorship. To think that the torture that went on in Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and in prisons in Afghanistan under our watch actually happens under our watch right here in America is appalling and sickening, and I am sickened, sad, and outraged as a citizen who believes in following the law and in human rights. What I see as the real face of America now is not the face I thought I was looking at all of these years.

The face of America now is not one of compassion, equity, morality, and justice... but one of hate, anger, hurt, and TORTURE... TORTURE... TORTURE... We TORTURE people in this country! We torture CHILDREN in this country. We torture the mentally ill in this country. We torture pregnant women in this country. Let that sink in and marinate for a while. Let that get into your brain. Then watch this, and if you still can accept it then move on and read no further.

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TORTURE Inc. America's Brutal Prisons
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This is not about being able to strut around as if one is morally superior because they wear a badge, or wear a military uniform, or carry a gun. This is about possessing the capacity to exert justice fairly and within the confines of the 8th amendment to the Constitution! This is about having a soul and about preserving the soul of our nation! Perhaps some don't think it effects them because they are out here. Perhaps some just don't give a damn about anything. Perhaps some actually even enjoy the notion that those who are weak, or black, or women, or mentally ill, or children, are beaten, raped, tortured, and violated in every way in body and soul because it gives them some sort of perverse pleasure to exert so much control over those they hate or who are vulnerable.

Well, they are then sociopaths, and that is exactly what we have running this country right now, and apparently many of our prisons in this country where this torture is not only practiced but EXPORTED! I truly do not know how much more I can take of all of this. Every day all I read is about war and torture.

WHERE DOES IT END?

WHERE HAS THE CONSCIENCE OF AMERICA GONE?

WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE?

Is this really the essence of America now? For if it is, I tearfully and with a very heavy heart state that I am enbarrassed to be an American.

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Prisons at Center of Damning Report on U.S. Human Rights

by Haider Rizvi

UNITED NATIONS - Rights advocacy groups in the United States are calling for the United Nations to take note of the gross human rights violations being committed in their country.A coalition of human and civil rights organizations Monday sent a 465-page report to a key United Nations committee, which details ongoing abuses of human rights across the United States....the coalition accused the U.S. State Department of trying to sidestep the UN process on the question of ongoing human rights abuses in the United States and described its behavior as 'a systematic pattern' of ignoring international human rights obligations.

The "shadow report" comes at a time when the Geneva-based UN Committee on Human Rights is about to complete its findings on human rights abuses in the United States.The UN inquiry into the United States' human rights conduct is part of a review process that takes place every four years for countries that have ratified the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, also known as the "International Bill of Rights."

As a signatory to the treaty, the U.S. government is bound to respond to the Committee's questions on human rights. The official U.S. response to the UN inquiry is due next week.Rights groups say the Bush administration is expected to defend its human rights record, as it did in the past in response to the UN findings on torture, which called in February for the closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison camp.

"It's time for the United States to own up to its responsibility and acknowledge its patterns of human rights violations," says Tonya McClary of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker human rights group, which is part of the coalition that prepared the report for the UN.The report documents various forms of human rights abuses in the United States, which include police brutality, abuse of immigrants, racial discrimination, and the use of torture in prisons.

"Prisons are one of the largest growth industries in the United States," according to the AFSC. With only five percent of the world's population, the U.S. holds about 25 percent of the world's prison population."The principle offender is the prison system," says McClary, who co-authored the report, entitled, "In the Shadows of the War on Terror: Persistent Police Brutality and Abuse in the United States.""Because prisons are a closed system, operating in secrecy, the public does not comprehend the extreme forms of abuse, violence, and racism practiced daily behind bars."

more at the link.
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And what will the Marquis DeSade Bush do? DEFEND THIS. He will DEFEND TORTURE. We have a MONSTER in the White House, ladies and gentlemen, and the pattern is very clear. The policy they espouse is one that is sick, twisted, cruel, and inhumane. So what can we do as Americans to bring this into the light? When is writing to committees and Congressional representatives going to make a difference? When are petitions going to make a difference?

How can anyone condone torture? Is it because they just really don't give a damn? Is it because they feel helpless to stop it? When our society has actually reached a point where these gross abuses of human rights no longer fill them with outrage, we know the breakdown of our society has begun. I simply cannot put into words how I feel right now. I am tired, I am spent, I am disgusted, frustrated, and generally all around FED UP with the sh** coming down in this country! We have allowed these "Dementors" to suck the soul right out of our country.

They have made a mockery of the Founding Fathers. Of our judicial system. Of our Congress. And they have continued to use 9.11 as their excuse to nullify our Constitution and every law that protects our people in concert with those laws. And they must be held accountable.

Americans need to be made aware of the fact that ANY of us can now be arrested and subjected to torture. This is not some illusory, far away practice that cannot touch us OR OUR CHILDREN. It has also been made much easier to take our rights away by the (un)Patriot(ic) Act, and by law enforcement believing that because of this "war on terror" they have a blank check to do as they please regarding our civil and Constitutional rights.
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From Al Gore's speech at NYU, May 2004:

There is good and evil in every person. And what makes the United States special in the history of nations is our commitment to the rule of law and our carefully constructed system of checks and balances. Our natural distrust of concentrated power and our devotion to openness and democracy are what have lead us as a people to consistently choose good over evil in our collective aspirations more than the people any other nation.

Our founders were insightful students of human nature. They feared the abuse of power because they understood that every human being has not only "better angels" in his nature, but also an innate vulnerability to temptation - especially the temptation to abuse power over others.

Our founders understood full well that a system of checks and balances is needed in our constitution because every human being lives with an internal system of checks and balances that cannot be relied upon to produce virtue if they are allowed to attain an unhealthy degree of power over their fellow citizens.

Listen then to the balance of internal impulses described by specialist Charles Graner when confronted by one of his colleagues, Specialist Joseph M. Darby, who later became a courageous whistleblower. When Darby asked him to explain his actions documented in the photos, Graner replied: "The Christian in me says it's wrong, but the Corrections Officer says, 'I love to make a grown man piss on himself."

What happened at the prison, it is now clear, was not the result of random acts by "a few bad apples," it was the natural consequence of the Bush Administration policy that has dismantled those wise constraints and has made war on America's checks and balances.

The abuse of the prisoners at Abu Ghraib flowed directly from the abuse of the truth that characterized the Administration's march to war and the abuse of the trust that had been placed in President Bush by the American people in the aftermath of September 11th."
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An abuse of trust. That explains it susinctly in four words. It is also no surprise to me that Al Gore sees this. All Americans who love this country and believe in the rule of law can see this. The United States is no longer special in regards to our commitment to the rule of law and our carefully constructed system of checks and balances, and that is not only an abuse of our trust it is unconstitutional and illegal. We have become a slave to vileness, cruelty, and torture, and we must join together to stop this abuse of our trust that has led to the breakdown of our Democracy.
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Excerpt from Final Report of the Commission On Abuse In America's Prison:

"For the vast majority of inmates prison is a temporary, not a final, destination. The experiences inmates have in prison — whether violent or redemptive — do not stay within prison walls, but spill over into the rest of society. Federal, state, and local governments must address the problems faced by their respective institutions and develop tangible and attainable solutions," said Senator Tom Coburn, M.D. (R-OK), Chair of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Corrections and Rehabilitation. The Subcommittee's Ranking Member is Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL).

The 20 members of the Commission include Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals, those who run correctional systems and those who litigate on behalf of prisoners, scholars, and individuals with a long history of public service and deep experience in the administration of justice. Beginning in March 2005, the Commission held four public hearings in cities around the country, visited jails and prisons, consulted with current and former corrections officials and a wide range of experts working outside the profession, and conducted a thorough review of available research and data. The Commission is staffed by and funded through the Vera Institute of Justice.

To read a summary of the commission's findings and recommendations and a brief Q&A about the report, or to access the complete report, go to

Commission On Abuse In America's Prisons

This e-mail was sent by Vera Institute of Justice on behalf of the Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons. Vera is located at 233 Broadway, 12th Floor, New York, NY 10279 in the United States.
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Though I truly now wonder what good this will do, I still ask that you write to the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Corrections and Rehabilitation to demand that they END TORTURE in our prisons:

U.S.Senate

Subcommittee on Corrections and Rehabilitation

Majority Members: 5 Total Members: 9
Minority Members: 4

Members:
Coburn, Tom (OK), Chairman
Specter, Arlen (PA)
Sessions, Jeff (AL)
Cornyn, John (TX)
Brownback, Samuel (KS)

Durbin, Richard (IL), Ranking Member
Leahy, Patrick (VT)
Biden, Joseph (DE)
Feingold, Russ (WI)

U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary
Subcommittee on Corrections and Rehabilitation
224 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510

TORTURE is not only inhumane, it is the antithesis to what any Democratic society practices. And it must be stopped now, because in Bush's America, it could be you.