The Crime of Cruel and Unusual Punishment in the US by Bindu Desai
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BOOK REVIEW members of sexual minorities and an provisions on enforced disappearances agencies whose reports should form alleged Bangladeshi refugee. which again create administrative lia- part of the country submissions to the bility. Other recommendations include United Nations. She also calls for civil Ways Forward abolition of immunity provisions in society initiatives, which should involve But this is not a treatise which ends in prosecutions for custodial offences and local law schools, and media strategies. despair; it suggests several ways forward. monetary compensation for custodial One of her suggestions at the end was, These include ratifi cation of international torture and enforced disappearances, in fact, a rude awakening: “Pakistan conventions and regular reporting to medical examination of persons in cus- and Afghanistan must abolish all forms United Nations monitoring mechanisms, tody (as is already provided for in India), of physical mutilation as punishment.” penal national legislative provisions etc. The author also advocates review which criminalise custodial torture and mechanisms by the National Human Raju Ramachandran ([email protected]) is create administrative liability, and penal Rights Commission or other designated a senior advocate of the Supreme Court. 350 prisoners at Marion were “subjected The Crime of Cruel and to brutal, dehumanising conditions” (Kurshan 2013: 6). In the initial stage of Unusual Punishment in the US the lockdown 60 guards equipped with riot gear systematically beat nearly 100 handcuffed prisoners and subjected some Bindu Desai of them to forced fi nger probes of the rectum. Who were the prisoners at Marion, Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive Out of Control: A Fifteen Year Battle against a “level 6” (maximum security) federal fi nes imposed, nor cruel and unusual punish- Control Unit Prisons by Nancy Kurshan (San Francisco: prison? A disproportionate number were VIII ment infl icted – th Amendment of the The Freedom Archives), 2013; pp 229, $20. political prisoners – black radicals, native Constitution of the United States 1791. “Time is very long within these four walls”. A Race to Incarcerate: A Graphic Retelling American activists, Puerto Rican Nation- by Sabrina Jones and Marc Mauer (New York: prisoner in solitary confi nement at the Eastern alists. Prisoners who could infl uence and The New Press), 2013; pp 111, $17.95. Penitentiary, Philadelphia to Charles Dickens lead other prisoners like Sundiata Acoli, “American Notes” 1842. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the a former Black Panther, and Rafael Cancel Zubayda’s ‘hard time’ began when he was Age of Colourblindness, revised edition by Miranda, a Puerto Rican Nationalist, Michelle Alexander (New York: The New Press), 2012; locked into the ‘tiny coffi n’ for hours on end, were considered a particular threat by which he described as excruciatingly pain- pp 312, $19.95. ful. It was too small for him to stand or stretch the prison authorities. CEML out, so small he said he had to double up his The was run by volunteers, all limbs in a foetal position….He described a massive rebirth in the “control units” of whom also had to earn their living the box as black both inside and out...While that were fi rst instituted in the Marion with full-time jobs. Perennially short of locked in the dark interior, he had no way of Federal Prison in Marion, Il in 1983 money, for instance, raising $400 when knowing when, if ever, he would be let out.... and have since mushroomed all over the they needed $10,000 to host a conference, (Mayer 2008: 165). US prison system at state and federal they somehow laboured on, often spend- he modern use of solitary confi ne- levels. Presently the “new and im- ing out-of-pocket from their modest in- ment in the US began in 1829 at proved” versions of control units lock comes. The Puerto Rican community in Tthe Eastern State Penitentiary in 80,000 individuals some for decades, Chicago was a solid base of support with Philadelphia. The word “penitentiary”, some forever. some in it having relatives imprisoned in derived from “penitence”, was based on Marion. The CEML was determined to the Quaker belief that isolation with Confronting the System bring the plight of the Marion prisoners only a Bible for solace in a cold stone Nancy Kurshan’s Out of Control: A Fifteen to public attention. No other group had cell would lead prisoners to repent, pray Year Battle against Control Units recounts taken on this important task. Never and reform. These hopes were belied as the decade and a half efforts of a small, more than 24 individuals at one time, prisoners committed suicide, lost their highly dedicated and creative group in the CEML still managed over 15 years to minds and were later never able to func- the Chicago area – the Committee to End sponsor about a 100 demonstrations tion normally. By the end of the 19th the Marion Lockdown (CEML) – to shut throughout the US, held 200 major century the US Supreme Court con- down this unit. She describes organising educational events and conferences, demned the use of solitary confi nement in the years before emails, the internet organised rallies at the prison itself, (US Supreme Court 1890). In 1971, the or cell phones. Marion was subjected to a gave radio and television interviews, Eastern State Penitentiary was closed “lockdown”, a confi nement of prisoners published newsletters, and made video down. But the practice of solitary con- to their cells, following the killing of two documentaries. Though a Congressional fi nement, never totally abandoned, got guards by prisoners. For two years all Committee had held hearings on Marion Economic & Political Weekly EPW december 21, 2013 vol xlviii no 51 29 BOOK REVIEW in 1985 and a 754-page book was meant to break prisoners, isolate them available: Freedom Archives 2013), Jones published no changes resulted. physically and psychologically. The CEML and Mauer’s Race to Incarcerate: A Graphic Kurshan provides a vivid and honest wanted to end these units because it Retelling is a “comic book” version of an account of the joys and defeats of struggle, believed the unit at Marion would: earlier scholarly and highly respected especially one largely ignored by the • Create conditions of long-term solitary work by Marc Mauer: Race to Incarcer- media in a country steadily moving confi nement that amounted to torture. ate, fi rst published in 1999. It provides rightward. Brave and committed attor- • Incarcerate all those most despised by horrifying statistics showing how the neys assisted them, but the brunt of the US including many political leaders and number of prisoners skyrocketed from the work was done by the CEML. Their dedicated activists who had become political about 110 per 1,00,000 in the early 1970s prisoners. families too were involved no matter • Serve as the capstone to a racist prison to nearly 750 per 1,00,000 in 2011, an in- how young, coming to protests and system which we saw serving as a capstone crease in total from 3,30,000 in 1975 to demonstrations. There is an uncanny of a racist society. 22,66,800 in 2011. Another four million resemblance in their valiant efforts and • Proliferate across the country, replicating are under “correctional supervision” those of similar groups in India seeking its horrors wherever it went (Kurshan 2013: 1). (parole, probation). Ninety-three per cent justice for victims of the notorious riots of prisoners are male, 38% black, 34% of 1984 and 2002. No matter how severe Horrifying Statistics white, 23% latino while they form 13%, the criticism, the lockdown did not end Each of these fears has come true, as 72% and 12% of the population respec- for 23 years when Marion was converted control units have multiplied under vari- tively. Forty-seven per cent are incarcer- into a medium security prison. In 1987 ous semi-Orwellian names like supermax ated for nonviolent drug related or prop- Amnesty International issued a report on prisons, administrative maximum faci- erty crimes. One in every 13 black males Marion where it found that the prison lity (ADX), communication management between the ages of 30 and 34 is in pris- violated every part of the UN’s Standard unit (CMU), administrative segre gation on, as is one of every 36 hispanic and 1 in Minimum Rules for the Treatment of (Ad-Seg) and special housing units (SHU). 90 white males. A black man has a 32% Prisoners (Freedom Archives 2013). While Kurshan’s moving account chroni- chance of serving time in prison at some The “ideological brainchild” of a pro- cles a grass-roots effort to confront the point in his life, compared to a 17% fessor at MITs Sloan School of Manage- US prison system (a shorter online version chance for a hispanic and 6% for a white ment, Edgar Schein, control units were with multiple audio and video links is man. How and why did this prison popu- Land & People of Indian States & Union Territories (In 36 Vol.) Edited by SC Bhatt & Gopal Bhargava Director, Publication Division (GoI) Town & Country Planning Organisation (GoI) It is the first time when a 36 volumes set with authentic and encyclopaedic information about all the 28 States, 7 Union Territories and 1 National Volume is being presented. Spreading over 14600 pages, each volume is weaved in 27 chapters. 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