Torture in the American Criminal Justice System - Report Example

Torture Running head: Torture in the American Criminal Justice System and The Criminal Justice System Itself TORTURE IN THE AMERICAN CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM In APA Style Torture 2 Abstract This paper tackles torture in the American correctional system and traces its origins as well as details steps to eradicate it. As a related subject matter, this paper also dwells on the American criminal justice system itself, the modes employed by the government to stop criminality, the punishments and sanctions it uses and then it zeroes in on execution by the electric chair and make comments of disagreement against this mode. Main Body One of the most hated words in any human rights activist’s vocabulary that is guaranteed to send allergic reactions to his body and elevate his blood pressure is the word “torture”. “Torture” conjures images of Jesus Christ mercilessly whipped and lashed with a crown of thorns deeply imbedded in his cranial muscles, forced to carry a heavy cross up a hill which is then used to crucify him. To add injury to all the injuries, his hands and feet are nailed to the cross and an elongated lance thrown to puncture his sides. “Torture” is such a terrifying word that properly belongs to the dark ages. But sad to say, it has lingered in modern times in even cultured, civilized societies such as that of the United States. Where there is a need to dominate, to tame, to intimidate, to silence, to humiliate, to punish, to elicit confessions, to coerce, to extract information, there torture shall be. Torture is defined as “the deliberate, systematic, or wanton infliction of physical or mental suffering by one or more persons acting alone or on the orders of any authority, to force another person to yield information, to make a confession, or for any other reason”(Ojeda, 2005). Through the years, torture has undergone metamorphosis. Fatal torture during the dark ages consisted of beheading, drawing and quartering as well as feeding to the lions. During the Torture 3 middle ages, the favorite modes became burning at stake, flagellation, amputation of the limbs and the surefire guillotine (in France), garotte (in Spain), and the bowstring (in Iran and Turkey). The modern era introduced brainwashing techniques and psychological methods of breaking the will. The focus has shifted to the destruction of the basis of personal identity of the prisoner. America , specifically the CIA, is credited for the discovery of this method combining “sensory deprivation and self-inflicted pain to create a revolutionary psychological approach through simple techniques involving isolation, hooding, hours of standing, extremes of hot and cold and manipulation of time” (McCoy, 2006). To this list Danner, reporting torture by Americans in Abu Ghraib, Iraq, added the use of military dogs which were encircled around naked Iraqi detainees, the attachment of electronic wires in the detainees’ fingers, toes and penis as well as sodomy with the use of chemical light and a broom stick. (Danner, 2007, p.14). Indeed, American intelligence agencies, especially after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center had come up with a harrowing and systematic mode of torture that constitutes an all-out assault on the detainee’s senses. These unconventional methods were rooted during the Cold War era, found its way again in the Vietnam War and now makes its reappearance in the Iraq War, as vividly seen in the photographs of Abu Ghraib prison. This method is also resurrected in detention centers interrogating suspects of the World Trade Center bombing. This is even more inhuman than the Russian gulag, wherein torture consisted of hard labor and exposure to the freezing weather of Siberia. This, undoubtedly, is in contravention of Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states that, “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” That torture today is pervasive throughout the whole world, is proven by an Amnesty Torture 4 International Report which concluded that there is systematic torture in 93 of the 204 countries probed by the organization and in 25% of western European and north American countries investigated. Some of these countries are Bosnia-Herzegovina, Rwanda, Iraq, Tibet, Sudan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, East Timor and lest we forget, Guantanamo, Cuba, the site of American prisons. “Reports of torture were more common from regions affected by political unrest including coup attempts, civil war, separatist or guerilla groups, armed tribal conflicts, rebellions and conflicts with various social and political opposition” (Gerrity, 2001, p.56). But the above is not necessarily true because in USA, where there is no political unrest, torture had also been documented. The photographs of torture in Abu Ghraib is one. But always the CIA had been accused of employing torture to extract information from those arrested in conjunction with alleged security offences. After the 9/11 bombings, the Bush administration had been reviled for favoring these practices as though these are its weapons of last resort. It was documented that in the 3 years following 9/11, intelligence led to the arrest of 5,000 terrorist suspects but evidence was found to charge only 3 and to convict just 1.(McCoy, 2006). Because torture is an extreme form of human violence and thus runs contrary to the tenets of civilized and humane society, Amnesty International led the world in launching an all-out worldwide campaign against it with the aim of completely eradicating it. Their efforts paid off as UN in 1989 came out with the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, Degrading Treatment or Punishment. International tribunals like the International Criminal Court , also insisted they have the power to adjudicate cases of torture and human rights abuses even in countries which are notorious for their indifference or worse, are themselves active agents of torture. What is required is a legal complaint and proof beyond reasonable doubt. Torture 5 However, “where prima facie evidence is presented in support of a claim of violation, the burden of proof may shift to the state to show that it investigated and that the acts did not happen or that an effective remedy was provided” (Iacopino, 2002). It is worthwhile to mention that despite a predilection to use torture, the USA has well-entrenched laws that prohibit torture. The 8th Amendment orders that “cruel and unusual punishment shall not be inflicted.” The Supreme Court meanwhile, in the case Salem v Helm (1983, p.284) ruled that “cruel and unusual punishments such as barbaric punishments and punishments that are disproportionate to the crime committed shall not be allowed.” Because of the aforesaid laws as well as in deference to the UN Convention Against Torture, the American Correctional System itself had undergone drastic overhaul over the years. The Positivist Theory looks at a criminal as a sick man who needs to be cured and who is a victim of heredity and environment and thus to reform him, he must be treated and the prison must serve as his criminological hospital. With this in view, his ‘treatment’ must exclude torture. Basic to the American correctional system is the jail or remand prison. It is defined as a “correctional institution used to detain prisoners who are in the lawful custody of the government. This includes either accused persons waiting trial or those who have been convicted of a crime and are serving a sentence of less than one year” (The Office of the Executive Secretary of the Supreme Court of Virginia, 2003, p.12). Other than as a means of controlling criminal behavior, detention is for corrective purpose i.e. to change the offender according to society’s needs. However, not all serving criminal sentences are detained in jails. Those under probation, albeit, convicted of a crime, are living in communities away from prisons but remaining under supervision of a probation officer Torture 6 and forced to abide to certain conditions set forth by the court. The concept of American prison was borrowed from the English gaol which was established in the 11th century. The first known jails were sighted in Pennsylvania and New York. Since then the jail system made progress from the reformatory corrective system to the warehousing model and then topped by the emergence of the medical model. The justice model is the present model encompassing the dual “goals of fair punishment and community protection” (Clear & Cole, 1994). The Bill of Rights, the 8th Amendment, and the SC decisions of Salem v Helm and Weems v US which prohibited cruel and unusual punishments forced the US government to search for a more humane manner of executing convicted criminals. By “June 4, 1888, the New York legislature passed Chapter 489 of Laws of New York of 1888, establishing electrocution as the state’s method of execution. This was based on the discovery of Dr. Albert Southwick that touching by a drunkard of the terminals of electric generator in New York, caused a painless and quick death to the sot. This landmark legislation faced bitter opposition as there were claims that it was a cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the 8th Amendment. In the case In re Kemmler, the Supreme Court ruled that it is indeed unusual but it is not cruel .The court ruled that “punishment by death isn’t cruel as long as it isn’t something more than the mere extinguishment of life. First, death has to be both instantaneous and painless. Second, it can’t involve unnecessary mutilation of the body” (1890, pp.446-447). Thus, in August 6, 1890, Kemmler was executed in the electric chair, the first person to be executed in such a manner. Execution by electrocution, however, today, had died a natural death. First, most countries like France, Italy, Russia etc. had abolished capital punishment. Second, it was discovered that injecting intravenously with short acting barbiturates that produce rapid Torture 7 unconsciousness was more humane, cheaper and rob the prisoner of the hero status that is often attached to hanging. This is termed as lethal injection and quickly replaced death by the electric chair as the mode of executing convicted criminals in USA. Despite these forms of execution, it should be noticed that criminality in the USA has been on the upswing. USA has built the most modern prisons in the world but it is unable to curtail violence. Thus, there are reasons to doubt the efficacy of the used modes. Could it be that abolition of the capital punishment is the right step to the right direction and that bulk of expenses instead be shifted to education of the populace that gives stress to fear of God and fear of the laws as well as the removal of violence in the media i.e. publications, TV, films, internet. Personally, what is basic is the inculcation of the minds of the populace to the right moral values and norms. Even torture, the way CIA does it, is not effective because the torture victims “will start telling the torturers what they want to hear, rather than the truth” (Harbury, 2005). For once, morals and values as well as dedication to a supreme being should take precedence over modernity. Torture 8 REFERENCES Clear, Todd & Cole, George (1994). American corrections. Pacific Grove, California: Brooks Publishing. Danner, Mark (2007). Torture and truth. www.amazon.com/Torture-Truth-America-Ghraib- Terror/dp. Gerrity, Ellen & Keane, Terence & Toma, Farris (2001). The mental health consequences of Torture. New York: Plenum Publishers. Harbury, Jennifer (2005). Truth, torture and the American way: the history and consequences of US involvement in torture. New York: Beacon Press. History of the American correctional system. www.fsu.edu/-crimdo/corrsyl.html. The history of electric chair. www.ccadp.org/electricchair.htm. Iacopino, Vincent (2002). Medical documentation of torture. London: Cambridge University Press. McCoy, Alfred (2006). A question of torture: CIA interrogation from the cold war to the war of Terror. New York: Metropolitan Books. Ojeda, Almesindo (2007). What is psychological torture? Center For the Study of Human Rights In America. http://human rights.ucdavis.edu/documents/library/documentsandreport/ ojeda.pdf. Read More