US jail practices are racist and an 'affront to human dignity,' UN experts say
In a report published on Thursday, three U.N.-appointed experts said they had found practices in U.S. prisons that amounted to "an affront to human dignity" in visits in April and May.
The U.S. diplomatic mission in Geneva declined to comment. The Federal Bureau of Prisons said it was committed to ensuring the safety and security of incarcerated individuals as well as employees and the public.
One such practice is restraining and shackling women prisoners during childbirth, the report said.
The experts "heard, first hand, unbearable direct testimonies of pregnant women shackled during labour, who due to the chaining, lost their babies", it said. Asked to give details, a U.N. rights spokesperson referred to "several" cases and confirmed they all involved Black women.
I mean, honestly, this is a rather unfair assessment.
It's not just our jail system. It's pretty much the entire judicial system at every step of the way, from a traffic stop to eventual execution.
our police/courts/corrections is an industry, unfortunately. Who knew that placing ever more profit motives on arresting, processing, and jailing people would end up leading to bad outcomes.
But, hey, it's just the unwashed the masses, so who cares, I guess.
Stop and film.
Don't talk to the police.
True about a lot of U.S. practices, especially those involving people of color.
I very much don't disagree, but one of the reasons we hear about these issues in the US is that we have a much larger "minority" (meaning not the people in power, even if there is a plurality) population.
In places like South America, the Middle East, Asia, and Europe, there's either a homogenous population where this doesn't make sense as a criticism or it's just not being reported on. There's huge amounts of racism all over the world.
The US and Canada have problems, but there are going to be pains as we identify and try to correct these racial injustices.
Remember: while colonialism and triangle trade slavery were the worst examples of racism, and the West invented that, it did not invent racism.
What it did invent was feeling bad about racism and trying to improve things.
This is not to defend or deflect anything. It's more that I find "consciousness raising" to be effective.
I disagree. I think the reason why we hear about these stories is because the U.S. is supposed to be the 'land of the free' and the place for 'your tired, your poor, your huddled masses.' And then it turns out that no, it's actually a shithole. And then it turns out that it's especially bad for minorities due to whatever specific situation the story is about. So I think you've kind of got it backwards.
I don't see your comment as addressing the same thing at all.
The land of the free was never really a thing. If you are even considering that as part of the discussion, I think you're being naive. America (us and Canada) just has a lot of resources in the sense that it was guaranteed to be a world power for geographic reasons. ("Guns, germs, and steel" is an interesting, but accessible, but also dated, discussion of that)
Any trivial understanding of US, European, or world history will show you the same. Getting people to interact well with out groups is extremely hard. especially in the event of diaspora.
My ancestors, like most of everyone poor brought to the new world, were transported here as human garbage. They weren't taken as chattel slaves, but a share cropper or indentured servant is still not something to be admired either.
We're talking about addressing racial issues. My ancestors were "non white" whites. They disappeared because they didn't have an observable difference. We're now addressing the observable ones.
"Shithole"?
Strongly disagree. Whatever problems the USA has, there are far more places that are far worse, and very few that are better.
Just because there are worse places in no way means that America is not a shithole as well ... specifically because it promises hope and freedom and but gives murdering cops and killer capitalism instead.
Then all countries are shitholes and the term is rendered meaningless.
In this spirit, I suggest "porta-potty" country. A step up from shithole, since we have structure and something to sit on, but it's still unpleasant and bad in many ways.
"shithole" does not imply that it's better or worse than anywhere else. It's simply "shithole". Don't overthink it. The state of things in other countries has absolutely zero to do with whether or not the US is a shithole.
So, what does it mean to be a shithole?
Even if I gave my opinion it would be subjective. Reach your own conclusion.
You do you man.
"Better" and "worse" are such useless qualifiers in this context. If 99.9% of all people have nothing and one dude has half the world's money, it can be the richest country in the world and statistically lead in all categories yet still have most of the population be ruined if they ever need an ambulance transport, let alone price-gauging medical treatment.
You have an okay point. Liberalism is good at advocating for certain issues, one being against racism and against the police state. I see this as an issue worth watching because the issues in some key prisons have gotten worse and more brazen in very recent years, not better.
I get a deep sense of satisfaction every time a filthy 01/06 insurrectionist ends up in prison and whines about conditions.
Suck it up, buttercup. You were loving it when you thought it was just "those people".
What happened on the 1st of June?
No idea, it's just like people always going on about the 9th of November. Something about plane crashes i think?
YOU DONT SAY
The headline says "jail" but the article only refers to cases in prisons. I know the entire criminal justice system is messed up, but did this UN study specifically find both jails and prisons to be severely repressive and racist?
This is an important distinction because jail is where people wait pre-trail, meaning they typically have not yet been found to be guilty of the charges brought against them, while prison is where people who have been charged, found guilty and sentenced to prison will go. Jail is where a cop that decides to arrest someone for dubious reasons will take them, whether that's enforcing an unconstitutional law (such as flag desecration laws which is protected speech under federal caselaw), findings from a blatantly illegal search, or even they arrested the wrong person because they went to the wrong address to execute a warrant, or any number of other reasons
That is a good distinction to make, but even convicted felons should be treated humanely.
Not strictly true, jails can also house those convicted of less serious crimes (say, less than 1yr), as well as temporarily awaiting transfer to other facilites.
Looks like the UN only visited jails in person, but interviewed people with a range of experiences. You can read the full report here: https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/09/systemic-racism-pervades-us-police-and-justice-systems-un-mechanism-racial
Do other major countries use jails the way we do? 💀
Unfortunately a lot of americans like it just the way it is. Nothing's going to get better without a lot of time, or a lot of conservatives ending up in the ground
Hey now, how am I sposed to get my vengence boner stroked if there isn't someone's mugshot in the news for me to sneer at?
Yeah no shit lol
Hi, how is everyone doing today ?
I had a great fucking day today :3
Americans have no dignity, and they place no value on human life.. it's not a surprise..
“Americans bad…very bad…Bad boys. All of ‘em…just all of them are the same…surprisingly this totally doesn’t reflect my own beliefs in any way….”
you're a child, just like all Americans.. you want an excuse for your lack of dignity.. your absolute inability to even conceive of it..
It takes a special lack of awareness to make these kinds of sweeping prejudiced statements against a group of people on a post about racism.
your attempts to avoid the reality and excuse yourself are predictable, and limited to the realm of social media.. you are social media beings.. dignity is something you must aspire to, and then express.. you can't demand it out of fairness..
I’m not commenting to support your approach to this, but your comment about dignity hit home for me. I’m an American who recently traveled to Scandinavia for the first time. There is something wholly different about the feel of the culture over there, even in mundane everyday details. I was seeing levels of dignity and respect (for self as well as others) that I am NOT used to here.
Over here I’m used to pride, competition, and indifference to the plight of others.
Over there I observed dignity, cooperation, and well, dignity.
Does your paintbrush extend to the incarcerated black Americans who are victims of the policies observed by the UN, or do you mean a specific subset of Americans when you say these things?
yeah well, ask those guys how American they feel, and then come back at me
I can't ask all of them, so I asked one, and he said that he's no less American because he's in jail.
So back to my question?
Ah yes, the 'rapists are bad so let me be racist' argument. Spectacular take.
it's not possible to be racist toward Americans, your argument makes no sense.. you're trying to hide behind social media consensus or something, it's pathetic..
Social media consensus? What in the hell are you talking about. Racism is racism, pretending it's not is stupid. Grow up.
do your best
Oh good, a pompous, nonsensical, deeply condescending, deliberately inflammatory, provincial and unhelpful comment! That's just what we need, said no one, ever.
dignity and indignation aren't necessarily the same thing.. you are demonstrating how that is the case..