{"article":{"id":256514,"heading":" Amnesty International Denounces Torture in California Prisons --Interview w\/ Tessa Murphy","author":"Angola 3 News","created":"2012-10-20 00:25:46","modified":"2013-11-11 01:11:22","last_modified":"Mon, 11 Nov 2013 08:11:22","article":"Amnesty International Denounces Torture in California\r\nPrisons<\/b>\r\n
\r\n--An interview with Tessa Murphy<\/b><\/div>\r\n
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\r\nBy Angola 3 News<\/i><\/div>\r\n
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\r\n“California Department of Corrections\/PBSP-SHU policies and\r\npractices, have violated our human rights and subjected us to torture – for the\r\npurpose of coercing inmates into becoming informants against other inmates,\r\netc., for the state,” writes one prisoner held in solitary at California’s\r\ninfamous supermax Pelican Bay State Prison. This excerpt of his letter to the\r\ninternationally renowned human rights organization, Amnesty International, is\r\nfeatured in Amnesty’s new report on the use of prolonged solitary confinement\r\ninside California’s ‘Security Housing Units’ (SHUs), entitled The Edge of Endurance: Conditions in California’s Security Housing Units<\/i>.<\/span> <\/div>\r\n
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\r\nThe Amnesty report states that “no other US state is\r\nbelieved to have held so many prisoners for such long periods in indefinite\r\nisolation.” At least 3,000 California prisoners are being held today in an\r\nextreme form of solitary confinement known as “super maximum” custody.\r\nFurthermore, the CDCR reported in 2011 that over 500 prisoners had spent over\r\nten years in the Pelican Bay SHU, with 78 having spent over 20 years there. Explaining\r\nthe recent emergence of SHUs, Amnesty writes that “California was at the\r\nforefront of moves to toughen penalties, and its prison population escalated\r\nduring the 1980s and 1990s following the introduction of some of the nation’s\r\nharshest sentencing laws. Once a leader in the philosophy of rehabilitation,\r\nCalifornia also passed legislation which expressly described punishment rather\r\nthan rehabilitation as the central aim of imprisonment. Pelican Bay SHU, which\r\nopened in 1989, was one of the first super-maximum security facilities\r\nspecifically designed to be ‘non- programming,’ that is, constructed with no\r\ncommunal space for recreation, education or any other group activity.”<\/div>\r\n
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In the Summer of 2011, prisoners held inside the Pelican Bay\r\nSHU initiated a multi-racial hunger strike that began on July 1 and spread\r\nthroughout California’s prisons. While the Pelican Bay strikers declared victory on July 20, other prisoners around the states continued for\r\nup to several weeks longer. The California Department of Corrections and\r\nRehabilitation (CDCR) reported that at least 6,600 prisoners in at least one\r\nthird of California’s 33 prisons participated in the hunger strike. Ending the\r\nuse of prolonged solitary confinement was one of the strike’s five core demands. <\/span><\/div>\r\n
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\r\n“Following concern among prisoners about what they perceived\r\nas a lack of progress in implementing changes, the hunger strike resumed briefly in\r\nlate September 2011, but was called off after meetings between prisoner representatives\r\nand CDCR and further assurances that CDCR would institute changes. While no\r\ndisciplinary action had been taken against the first hunger strikers, the\r\nsecond hunger strike was treated by CDCR as a major rule violation and some\r\nprisoners were punished by having their property and canteen privileges\r\nconfiscated. Fifteen of the strike leaders were reportedly moved to harsh\r\nconditions in administrative segregation cells for a short period,” writes\r\nAmnesty International in their new report.<\/div>\r\n
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\r\nThe CDCR has responded to the striking prisoners’ demands\r\nwith their own proposals. Amnesty critiques the CDCR’s proposed reforms,\r\narguing that “the reforms do not go far enough. There are continuing concerns\r\nabout both the fairness of the procedures for assigning prisoners to what could\r\nstill be indefinite SHU terms, and about the length of time in which prisoners\r\nwill remain in solitary confinement…. While measures to reduce the number of\r\nprisoners held in security housing units are a positive step, in Amnesty\r\nInternational’s view the proposals should ensure that only prisoners who\r\npresent a clear and present threat, who cannot be safely housed in a less\r\nsecure setting are assigned to the SHU. Given the serious consequences of SHU\r\nconfinement, the authorities should ensure that STG [Security Threat Group]\r\nvalidations are based on a thorough and impartial investigation, and only with\r\nconcrete evidence of gang-related activity posing such a clear and present\r\nthreat; that prisoners have a fair opportunity to contest the evidence; and\r\nthat such decisions are subject to regular, meaningful review.” <\/div>\r\n
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\r\nWhen these concerns were raised “during Amnesty\r\nInternational’s meetings with CDCR staff in November 2011, the department\r\nstressed that there were inmates in the SHU with serious gang connections, but\r\nacknowledged that they ‘over-validated’ and that there were prisoners in the\r\nSHU who did not warrant such a restrictive level of housing. CDCR also\r\nacknowledged that there were people assigned to the SHU as gang associates who\r\nhad no direct role in gang activity. CDCR stated that the reforms under\r\nconsideration were aimed at making the system fairer as well as targeting\r\nresources more effectively, taking into account the high cost of SHU\r\nconfinement and the need to manage a tight budget. Amnesty International was\r\ntold that the process would ultimately reduce the SHU population to ensure that\r\nonly prisoners who could not be safely housed in a less secure setting would be\r\nassigned to the SHU.”<\/div>\r\n
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\r\nThe bottom line of this important new report: “Amnesty\r\nInternational considers that the conditions of isolation and other deprivations\r\nimposed on prisoners in California’s SHU units breach international standards\r\non humane treatment, and that prolonged or indefinite isolation, and the severe\r\nsocial and environmental deprivation existing in Pelican Bay SHU in particular,\r\nconstitutes cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in violation of\r\ninternational law.”<\/div>\r\n
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\r\nUnfortunately, getting the US to respect international law\r\nis not as clear-cut as the act of documenting human rights violations. Notably,\r\nThe Edge of Endurance<\/i> explains: “The USA\r\nhas sought to limit the application of international human rights law in its\r\nconduct by entering reservations to article 7 of the ICCPR [International\r\nCovenant on Civil and Political Rights] and article 16 of the Convention\r\nagainst Torture as a condition of ratifying the treaties. The reservations\r\nstate that the US considers itself bound by the articles only to the extent\r\nthat ‘cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment’ means the ‘cruel and\r\nunusual treatment or punishment’ prohibited under the US Constitution. Amnesty\r\nInternational has repeatedly called on the USA to withdraw its reservations as\r\ndefeating the object and purpose of the treaties in question and therefore\r\nincompatible with international law.”<\/div>\r\n
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\r\nLast week, on October 10, following a public call to end racial hostilities among California prisoners, another hunger strike was initiated at Pelican Bay, with 500 prisoners statewide participating, according to the CDCR.<\/div>\r\n
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Tessa Murphy is the campaigner for\r\nthe USA team at the International Secretariat of Amnesty International. She has\r\nprovided the research for and worked on Amnesty's reports on supermax prisons\r\nand solitary confinement through her visits to a number of prisons, including\r\nthe recent visit to California SHUs as part of the team that published the\r\nreport cited above, entitled The Edge of\r\nEndurance<\/i>. She also authored Amnesty's special report on the Angola 3,\r\nentitled USA: 100 years in solitary: ‘The Angola 3’ and their fight for justice.<\/i><\/span>\r\n<\/span><\/div>\r\n
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\r\nA3N:<\/u><\/b> <\/span>In\r\nour introduction to this interview, we cite several key aspects of the recent\r\nAmnesty International report about SHUs in California. As someone who visited\r\nthese prisons as part of the Amnesty delegation, what did you learn about them\r\nfirst hand that perhaps can’t be conveyed in a written report? What did the SHUs\r\nfeel like?<\/i><\/div>\r\n
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\r\nTM:<\/u><\/b> <\/span>It is hard to convey the sense of\r\ndesolation in the SHU's. From the moment you step foot in the SHU, the senses\r\nare assailed by artificial lights, stale air and muted silence. <\/div>\r\n
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\r\nOff long drab corridors, prisoners are isolated from each\r\nother in pods of eight cells; these pods are self-contained with a shower and\r\nrecreation yard, so that, with few exceptions, they rarely leave the pod. <\/div>\r\n
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\r\nThis bleak environment of tiny windowless cells where little\r\nnatural light infiltrates, few personal possessions, no programming to offset\r\nthe boredom, out of cell time in ‘outdoor’ yard with a view of a patch of sky,\r\nminimum human contact, and a view out of the cell of a dirty white wall is the\r\ntotality of the prisoners' world. <\/div>\r\n
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\r\nA3N:<\/u><\/b> <\/span>Accounts\r\nof the prisoners themselves are featured throughout your report. When it came\r\nto deciding which topics to focus on in your report, to what extent were you\r\ninfluenced by the striking Pelican Bay prisoners?<\/i> <\/span><\/div>\r\n
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\r\nTM:<\/u><\/b> <\/span>AI's report on California is part of a\r\nbody of work on conditions in prison isolation units in the USA; including\r\nArizona, and Texas as being of particular concern. When we began our research into\r\nconditions in California’s SHUs, a number of issues became apparent very\r\nquickly; First that there were a large number of inmates who had been held in\r\nthe SHU for very long periods of time, secondly, that the majority of inmates\r\nin the SHU were being placed there for alleged gang affiliation\/membership,\r\nthirdly, that there was no step-down system to allow these individuals to\r\ntransition out of the SHU, and fourthly that physical conditions, particularly\r\nin Pelican Bay, were very harsh. Based on this initial research, the organization\r\nrequested access to California SHU units before the prisoners initiated the\r\nhunger strikes.<\/div>\r\n
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\r\nWhen the strike began, we were contacted by members of the\r\nmediation group who made us aware of the prisoners’ demands. During the course\r\nof researching the report, we were in close contact with the mediation team, as\r\nwell as families and friends of inmates held in the SHUs, as well as with\r\nlawyers, as well as state employees, including legislators as well as grass\r\nroots groups. Of course, we also sought information from CDCR.<\/div>\r\n
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\r\nA3N:<\/u><\/b> <\/span>The\r\nAmnesty report states that “the growth of super-maximum security facilities has\r\nbeen linked to the huge rise in the numbers of people incarcerated in the USA\r\nfrom the late 1970s onwards, together with a shift away from rehabilitation as\r\na goal of imprisonment to more emphasis on punishment and control.”<\/i> Can you say more about how mass\r\nincarceration and prolonged solitary confinement relate to each other? Why did\r\nthey rise together?<\/i><\/div>\r\n
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\r\nTM:<\/u><\/b> <\/span>The prison population in the USA has\r\nquadrupled since 1980; this has come about due not to rising crime but to\r\nharsher sentencing policies that emanated out of a \"get tough on\r\ncrime\" attitude pervasive in the 90's, such as three-strikes law, truth in\r\nsentencing laws, as well as mandatory minimums. <\/div>\r\n
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\r\nSupermaximum prisons were borne out of this need by elected\r\nofficials need to be seen to be tough on crime, as well as to respond to the\r\nneeds of an increasingly overcrowded prison system. The first such prison to be\r\nbuilt, designed with social and environment deprivation inbuilt was SMU 1 in\r\nEyman State prison in Arizona, this was the prototype for Pelican Bay Prison,\r\nbuilt in 1989. Many states followed in building their own supermax prison, and\r\nmany retrofitted current prisons to supermax criteria of holding prisoners in\r\nisolation with minimum social interaction for prolonged periods.<\/div>\r\n
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\r\nStates rationalized the building of these prisons with the\r\nargument that only by the large scale isolation of the \"worst of the\r\nworst\" prisoners, could violence be controlled throughout the prison\r\nsystem. However, studies have shown that predatory violent prisoners are but a\r\nsmall proportion of those held in isolation, which is replete with individuals\r\nwith mental illness, persistent rule breakers and those alleged to be in a\r\ngang.<\/div>\r\n
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\r\nA3N:<\/u><\/b> <\/span>With\r\nover 2.4 million prisoners today, the US now has the most total prisoners and\r\nthe highest incarceration rate in the world. Much of the world has rightly\r\ncondemned the US for the well-documented torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and\r\nGuantanamo, but what do you think the state of human rights inside prisons\r\nwithin US borders says about the US?<\/i><\/div>\r\n
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\r\nTM:<\/u><\/b> <\/span>The US does have the highest incarceration\r\nrate of any country in the world. It also is the only country that uses\r\nprolonged isolation as a routine prison management tool in prisons built for\r\nthis purpose. This reliance on long term isolation has profound consequences;\r\nfirst, it costs significantly more to house a prisoner in isolation than it\r\ndoes to house them in general population; secondly, the focus on punishment,\r\nrather than rehabilitation, that forms the backbone of this prison tool, has\r\nseverely negative consequences on the prisoner—from mental and physical health,\r\nto their success in positively reintegrating back into society. So the costs on\r\nsociety are huge in both financial and other terms.<\/div>\r\n
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\r\nThe conditions and policies of supermax prisons that affect\r\nover 30,000 prisoners across the country, falls short of international laws and\r\ntreaties governing the humane treatment of prisoners, to which the US is a\r\nparty. This casts a large shadow over any claim by the US administration that\r\nit is a champion of human rights.<\/div>\r\n
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\r\nA3N:<\/u><\/b> <\/span>In two previous interviews (1,2)<\/span> we covered the case before the European\r\nCourt of Human Rights, of Babar Ahmad and Others v The United Kingdom. Recently\r\nthe Court ruled against the co-appellants, who are fighting extradition to the\r\nUS on grounds that the US tortures prisoners, which writer Chris Hedges has argued, “removes one of the last external checks on our emerging gulag\r\nstate.”<\/span> <\/span>What do you think is the significance of\r\nthis Court ruling for the US, Europe, and beyond?<\/div>\r\n
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\r\nTM:<\/u><\/b> <\/span>Although the ruling denied the appeal, it\r\nconceded that there were circumstances in which prolonged incarceration in ADX\r\ncould amount to a breach of Article 3. It accepted that there were sufficient\r\nsafeguards in these particular cases on the basis of information provided the\r\nUS government while largely disregarding the submissions provided by the\r\nlawyers for the applicants. We will be following the actual conditions under\r\nwhich these prisoners are held post-extradition. <\/span>See this link to the statement AI issued last week.\r\n<\/div>\r\n
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\r\nIn terms of the ruling having broader consequences for other\r\ncases, each new case that comes before the court will need to be examined on\r\nits specific facts and evidence. When it comes to obligation of non refoulement\r\n(no transfer to risk of human rights violations of different kinds) a large\r\npart of the analysis in each case is highly specific to the evidence in the particular\r\ncase.<\/div>\r\n
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\r\nA3N:<\/u><\/b> <\/span>Shifting\r\nto another campaign you’ve worked on, why is Amnesty International calling for\r\nthe release of Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace of the Angola 3 from solitary\r\nconfinement?<\/i><\/div>\r\n
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\r\nTM:<\/u><\/b> <\/span>Amnesty has been working on the case of the\r\nA3 for over a decade; however it became a priority case in recent years when\r\nthe focus of our work shifted to the issue of long term isolation in US\r\nprisons. Our support for the case rests on a number of issues: first that they\r\nhave been held for such a long period in conditions of deprivation; that the\r\nprocess for reviewing their placement in these conditions is no more than a\r\nrubber stamping exercise by prison authorities; that serious questions exist\r\nabout the legitimacy of the legal process - including the evidence used to\r\nconvict them, the lack of DNA evidence to link them to the crime; and that\r\ntheir political beliefs may in part be responsible for their continued\r\nplacement in solitary, and even for the charges originally brought against\r\nthem.<\/div>\r\n
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\r\nBoth men are in their late sixties, the decades of\r\nincarceration has debilitated them physically, they have no disciplinary\r\nviolations, they have never demonstrated that they are a threat to the safety\r\nof the prison – or to others, or themselves (and this was confirmed by prison\r\nmental health staff). Do they conform to the definition of the “worst of the\r\nworst” predatory inmates for whom prolonged detention in solitary confinement\r\nis the only administrative option? No, far from it, and yet there they remain\r\nafter 40 years.<\/div>\r\n
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\r\nA3N:<\/u><\/b> <\/span>How\r\ndid Amnesty’s choose the title for the video-interview with Robert King, <\/i>Slavery Still Reigns in US Prisons?<\/i><\/span> <\/i><\/div>\r\n
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\r\nTM:<\/u><\/b> <\/span>The title comes from a quote by Robert\r\nthat despite the abolition of slavery in the USA, the 13th Amendment legalizes\r\nslavery in US prisons.<\/div>\r\n
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\r\nA3N:<\/u><\/b> <\/span>Were\r\nyou surprised that Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal refused to meet with the\r\nAmnesty International delegation that hand-delivered a 67,000 signature\r\npetition to his office on April 17, 2012?<\/i> \r\n<\/div>\r\n
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\r\nTM:<\/u><\/b> <\/span>No, we weren’t surprised that he didn’t\r\nmeet with the delegation as he hasn’t engaged at all with AI on this case. In\r\nJuly 2011, we wrote to him asking that we meet to discuss the case at the\r\nsoonest possible opportunity. He chose not to respond. <\/div>\r\n
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\r\nA3N:<\/u><\/b> <\/span>AI\r\nresponded to Gov. Jindal by launching a newer petition targeting James M.\r\nLeBlanc, Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and\r\nCorrections. What was your strategic thinking behind targeting the Dept of\r\ncorrections?\r\n<\/i><\/div>\r\n
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\r\nTM:<\/u><\/b> <\/span>Over the years, a number of statements\r\nhave been made by authorities involved in this case that are not supported by\r\nevidence. This includes statements by Attorney General James Caldwell that\r\nAlbert Woodfox is “the most dangerous man on the planet” as well as being a\r\nviolent rapist. Albert’s prison conduct does not support Caldwell’s first statement,\r\nand Albert has never been charged with – let alone convicted of rape. And yet,\r\nCaldwell is not held to account for such assertions.<\/div>\r\n
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\r\nWe decided to target James le Blanc because he issued a\r\nstatement on the anniversary of Albert and Herman’s 40th year of incarceration,\r\nthat they were being held separately from other prisoners to protect prison\r\nemployees, other inmates and visitors. Yet neither man has had any serious\r\nprison infraction for decades, and the prison’s own mental health records\r\nindicate that neither man pose a threat to themselves or to others. So, we\r\ndecided to hold Secretary Le Blanc to account, and ask him for the evidence\r\nbehind this claim.<\/div>\r\n
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\r\n--To begin rectifying\r\nthese human rights abuses, Amnesty is urging <\/span>California authorities to:<\/b><\/div>\r\n
  • Limit the use of isolation\r\n units so that is it imposed only as a last resort in the case of prisoners\r\n whose behaviour constitutes a severe and ongoing threat to the safety of\r\n others.<\/li>\r\n
  • Improve conditions for all\r\n prisoners held in isolation units, including better exercise provision and\r\n an opportunity for more human contact for prisoners, even at the most\r\n restrictive custody levels.<\/li>\r\n
  • Allow prisoners in isolation\r\n units to make regular phone calls to their families. <\/li>\r\n
  • Reduce the length of the Step\r\n Down Program and providing meaningful access to programs where prisoners\r\n have an opportunity for some group contact and interaction with others at\r\n an earlier stage.<\/li>\r\n
  • Immediate removal from\r\n isolation of prisoners who have already spent years in those units.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>
    \r\n--Angola\r\n3 News is an official project of the International Coalition to Free the Angola\r\n3. Our website is www.angola3news.com, where we provide the latest news about\r\nthe Angola 3. Additionally we are also creating our own media projects, which\r\nspotlight the issues central to the story of the Angola 3, like racism,\r\nrepression, prisons, human rights, solitary confinement as torture, and more.\r\nOur articles and videos have been published by Alternet, Truthout, Black\r\nCommentator, SF Bay View Newspaper, Counterpunch, Monthly Review, Z Magazine,\r\nIndymedia, and many others.<\/i><\/b>
    <\/div>\n","contact":"","link":"www.angola3news.com","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","summary":"2 weeks after the release of Amnesty Intl\u2019s new report on the use of prolonged solitary confinement inside California\u2019s \u2018Security Housing Units\u2019 (SHUs), entitled "The Edge of Endurance," prisoners initiated another hunger strike, with 500 participants statewide. In this new interview, Tessa Murphy speaks about her visit to California SHUs and Amnesty's report based on the visit.","numcomment":0,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/2012\/10\/ca_isolation-infographic_en.jpg","filesize":"756.0 kibibytes","article_url":"\/news\/2012\/10\/256514.php","image":{"original":"\/uploads\/2012\/10\/ca_isolation-infographic_en.jpg","small":"\/uploads\/2012\/10\/ca_isolation-infographic_en.jpgthumb.jpg","medium":"\/uploads\/2012\/10\/ca_isolation-infographic_en.jpgmid.jpg"}},"attachments":[],"comments":[]}