Accountability in the treatment of prisoners
CSC
For a More Just and Humane World
With more than 2 million inmates in U.S. prisons and a new report documenting extensive abuse in prisons nationwide, the time has come to address the urgent need for greater accountability in the treatment of prisoners. On Friday, April 27, 2001, the Center for Civil and Human Rights will host a conference on this issue involving prominent scholars, advocates and practitioners.
At the beginning of this year, the number of individuals in the United States living behind bars grew to over 2 million. To put this in context — the U.S. incarcerates a greater proportion of its population than any other country except Russia and Rwanda. With the U.S. prison and jail population tripling in the past 15 years, the reality is that facilities are dangerously overcrowded. The rapid growth of the inmate population has resulted in state prisons operating as much as 17 percent above capacity, while Federal prisons operate at 32 percent above capacity.
According to Ms. Joanne Mariner of Human Rights Watch, one of the scheduled conference speakers, prisoners in the United States suffer from "severe overcrowding, chronic violence, rampant sexual abuse and inhuman conditions." Medical systems are overwhelmed; work, education, and treatment programs are inadequate; extortion and intimidation are commonplace. It is estimated that over 13 percent of the general prison population suffers from severe mental disabilities, yet prison administrators themselves describe their mental health programs as grossly inadequate.
In a ground-breaking new Human Rights Watch report, "No Escape: Male Rape in U.S. Prisons," Ms. Mariner charges that state authorities are responsible for allowing widespread prisoner-on-prisoner sexual abuse in U.S. men's prisons. The conditions in America's jails and prisons virtually ensure psychological impairment and physical deterioration for thousands of men and women each year.
Indiana alone houses over 20,000 inmates in its 24 prisons and jails. Indiana also has the unfortunate distinction of having two maximum control unit facilities — commonly referred to as "supermax" prisons — where prisoners are placed in solitary confinement for between 22 and 23.5 hours a day, possibly for years.
Another Human Rights Watch report on conditions in Indiana's two supermax facilities noted that prisoners, many severely mentally ill, "faced physical abuse, including beatings and unnecessary and excessive use of cell extractions carried out by five member teams of guards, macings and placement in four-point restraints as punishment."
In spite of these and other dangerous conditions, many prison authorities turn a deaf ear to the prisoners' cries for relief and protection. Who then will speak for the prisoners? Where are the witnesses to the abuses that occur? Shielded from public view, and populated largely by the poor, uneducated and politically powerless, prisons tend to remain hidden sites of human rights abuse. Ms. Mariner calls on litigators and advocates to seek new means by which to protect prisoners' rights by holding prison authorities accountable for these abuses.
The challenge is before us — as students and practitioners with a commitment to service and to the community — to decide what we can do to address this issue. The April 27 conference provides a significant opportunity for us to join with local human rights advocates and organizations, national and international scholars and experts, government officials and other interested individuals to re-examine the existing mechanisms of accountability regarding treatment of prisoners.
This conference comes at a promising time in the development of Indiana's policies and practices regarding the treatment of prisoners, as the Indiana Legislature is presently considering a number of promising reforms. The Center for Civil and Human Rights has actively encouraged both the Legislature and the Indiana Department of Corrections to take steps to foster accountability in prison conditions.
Most recently, the Center has successfully advocated for the creation of an Ombudsman for Creations to promote greater transparency, for improvement in the treatment of supermax prisoners and for greater access to prisoners by prison monitors.
In conjunction with the conference, the Center will conduct training for prison monitors on Saturday, April 28, 2001. I would encourage all who are concerned about the treatment of prisoners to attend in order to learn the basic skills needed for effective prison monitoring. You will also be given contact information for organizations who are doing effective work in this area and who would welcome your help.
The current abusive conditions faced by many U.S. prisoners cannot be justified. Yet without witnesses and without a voice, prisoners will continue to be subject to abuse and inhuman conditions. Join us as we consider what can be done to bring an end to their silence.
For more information or to register for either the conference or the training for prison monitors, please contact the Center at (219) 631-8555 or by email at cchr@nd.edu, or visit the conference website: http://www.nd.edu/~cchr/events/prisoners.html.
"For a More Just and Humane World" is a bi-weekly column. The author of this column, Michelle Mack, J.D. '99, LL.M. '00, is the project coordinator in the Center for Civil and Human Rights at the Notre Dame Law School.
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
All Viewpoint Stories for Wednesday, April 25, 2001
