Abuse in the System
Warm blood drips onto unforgiving concrete. A prison guard shoves a man headlong into a wall. Another punches an incarcerated person repeatedly after he hits the floor. These disturbing scenes, along with many others, reveal the inhumane conditions fostered in Los Angeles jails and the grim reality of incarceration across the United States. Taken from the jails’ security cameras, videos depicting these abuses were released on Nov. 9 as part of an ongoing lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) against LA County. This class action lawsuit, Rosas v. Luna, centers around the routine use of excessive and unlawful violence against incarcerated persons and the pattern of brutality enforced by incarceration officers.
The callous violence depicted in these videos, while deeply unsettling, is not a unique phenomenon. U.S. prisons have long been a source of concern when it comes to human rights, with abuses including but not limited to unpaid forced labor, women being shackled during childbirth and unnecessary use of violence being reported by the United Nations (Reuters). Mental health is another area in which the incarceration system drastically wrongs its inhabitants. Concerningly, only about 3 in 5 mentally ill people in these systems have access to the mental health treatment they need, and half of them do not have access to the medications they were taking prior to being incarcerated (National Alliance on Mental Illness). Moreover, half of all mentally ill incarcerated people do not have access to the medications they were taking prior to being incarcerated (NAMI).
“Inmates with mental illnesses [have] a lot of trouble getting treatment [within the prison system],” World History and Advanced Placement World History teacher Scotte Massey said. “The care that these inmates are given is definitely subpar, [considering how] they are [shackled] to tables and not [treated] professionally. Inmates with mental illness especially have special needs.”
These human rights abuses are only exacerbated when it comes to the treatment of people of color, especially Black people. For one, Black people are nearly five times more likely than white people to be incarcerated (Cable News Network). Additionally, they receive harsher sentences than their white counterparts who commit similar crimes, as revealed by a study by the United States Sentencing Commission. When serving time, Black people are nearly twice as likely as their white peers to have negative experiences, including being restrained and put into segregation (The Guardian). These statistics are even more concerning when considering that many states deny ex-convicts the right to vote, leading some to go so far as to label the incarceration system “the new Jim Crow”— a set of laws in the Southern U.S. which enforced segregation, delegated Black people as “second class” citizens and suppressed their voting rights. Furthermore, forced unpaid labor in prisons, especially in southern states such as Georgia, paints a picture eerily similar to plantation slavery. It is clear that this is not only a cruel system, but one that upholds the very foundations of institutional racism in the U.S.
“[Violence against prisoners] is something inherent to prison systems, [especially with] how dehumanized prisoners are,” senior Chris Yeh said. “Prisons should really focus on rehabilitation over punishment. Right now, our prison system is focused on keeping [incarcerated people] in—there is no incentive to make [incarcerated people] productive members of society again.”
Rehabilitation is a major talking point with regards to the current prison system, especially with bloated populations of incarcerated people. About 1 in 142 U.S. residents are in prisons or jails, a much higher percentage of the population than any other developed country (American Psychology Association). Incarceration systems should be focused on rehabilitating as many of these people as possible, and making sure that everyone, including incarcerated people, stays safe. However, the lack of robust rehabilitation programs casts doubt as to just how much safety is prioritized. When compared with other countries, the practices of the U.S. incarceration system become even more suspect. Norway, in particular, has been lauded for its humane and effective prison systems. Noticeably lacking both capital punishment and life imprisonment, the Norwegian Correctional Service makes a point to push for reintegration whenever possible (New York Times). In fact, special care is given to secure housing and job opportunities for Norwegian incarcerated persons, making Norway’s incarceration rates one of the lowest in the world (Coastal Carolina University).
“I would absolutely reform the incarceration system [to have more of an emphasis on rehabilitation],” junior Theseus Beeson said. “We should have more therapists and psychologists working in [incarceration systems], as opposed to people who are [focused on] violence.”
The ACLU has also proposed its own basic outline for an improved prison system across the country, calling for a drastic decline in the prison population. It lays out a plan to accomplish this, suggesting that capable incarcerated people should be allowed to reintegrate into society, while the U.S. invests in alternative solutions to incarceration. Individual opinions on reform may differ, but the foundational truth remains: the current system is in dire need of change. All human beings are deserving of safety, dignity and liberty. The current incarceration system denies all of these, instead feeding into a vicious cycle of violence and discrimination. For a country that loves to declare its protection of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” the U.S. regularly denies a significant number of its citizens the most basic of these rights. Until this system of cruelty is dismantled, the U.S. will not truly be the land of the free.
