United States Vs. Afghanistan - Research Paper Example

United States Vs. Afghanistan Introduction It is commonly believed that prisoners in US have rights. These rights were awarded to them by the criminal justice system of the US, but these rights are not provided without efforts made by those stakeholders who are being affected by prisons of US. The policy makers of Bill of Rights state that prisoners have been given rights without any demands and protests, reality is that people had to suffer a great deal to obtain these rights. Even when rights were given after several years of protests, attempts were made to abolish them through new rules and regulations. For example, after 9/11 President of the United States of America, George W. Bush violated prisoner’s right of privacy in US prisons (Sidlow, 2010, p.96). This shows that rights are not awarded for a long lasting period of time and these rights are written off as soon as those protesting for these rights become silent. On one end is the sophisticated democracy of US that is treating prisoners in a wrongful manner and on the other end are the prisoners located in Afghani prisons. These prisons have been largely neglected not only by the government of Afghanistan, even by the international community. The shape of the prisons of Afghanistan has never painted a positive picture, the system of prisons located in Afghanistan continue to treat prisoners in a negative manner even when international parties such as the US and allies are taking part in the prison system of Afghani nation. During the period of 2003 the prisons of Afghanistan were shifted from the management of Interior Ministry to defense Ministry (Stromseth, 2006, p.225). Certain changes have been brought to the prison system of Afghanistan through efforts made by the United Nations. These changes have brought lower degree of positive changes to the prisons of Afghanistan but those prisons located outside the capital of Afghanistan continue to experience unhealthy conditions and lack of rights for the prisoners. This writing will examine the rights of the inmates of US prisons and rights of the prisoners of Afghani prisons. The first part of the writing will focus on the rights awarded to the prisoners of US and second part will focus on the rights of the prisoners of Afghanistan. Rights of Prisoners of United Stated During prison period, American prisoners are not allowed to vote, they are not registered as members who can participate in the voting section of elections and neither there are any voting facilities within the prisons. This means that more than 1 million US citizens who have the right are not allowed to vote during US elections even though their age complies with age required to vote. Voting is a right that is awarded to all citizens of US except the citizens who are serving time in prisons. In 12 states of US certain rules and regulations have been created due to which US prisoners are not even recognized as complete citizens of US (Cnaan, 2004, p.9). Prisoners who have completed their time in prisons have no right to vote within the states of Florida, Virginia and Kentucky. Nine more states participate in such measures but for a limited period of time. Ex-prisoners within various states of US are not even allowed to work in public offices and certain states allow them to gain employment in public sector after they have spend certain amount of time in the society since the time of their release. In US when a criminal is arrested he is detained in local jails before the final jail is selected for him. Once sentence period is announced, certain numbers of prisoners are shifted to their assigned jails and certain prisoners spend more time in local jails before being finally shifted to their assigned jails. Local jails where prisoners are first detained are located within the areas of arrest and this allows visitors of prisoners to meet them in jail. These visitors are allowed to meet their relatives for a very small period of time and that too under strict supervision. Those prisoners who are assigned jail period of more than two years are jailed in federal as well as state operated prisons. In such cases first a prisoner is transferred to a unit where they are processed and after a certain period of time they are shifted to the permanent prisons. Prisons that operated by the federal and state government are located in far away regions (no mans land) where the level of population is quite low and these areas are underdeveloped and do not have proper transportation and infrastructure. Certain state controlled prisons are very huge and these prisons take in prisoners from other states, these prisons are located far away from the residency area of the prisoner due to which their friends and family members find it hard to visit them as visit becomes very costly and time consuming. The only method through which prisoners located in far away prisons can contact their loved ones is through phone calls. But these phone calls are even supervised and provided for a limited period of time. The DOJ of US reported during the period of 2000, that half of the prison population has not made contact with their children from the day they have entered permanent prison facilities (Cnaan, 2004, p.7). Programs have been launched to curb the situations but these programs have been limited due to the restrictions applied by the officials of the prison centers. Prison system of US has disturbed the marital affairs of citizens of US as couples are not allowed to meet and even if they are allowed to meet there are restrictions applied. Prisoners who make friends with other inmates and even involve in same sex relationship with other inmates are not allowed to meet each other because of the rule of legal family members. A very huge problem is that by the time prisoners get out of jail, their family members especially children do not have a warm relationship with them and even the community does not welcome them and they end up being strangers in areas where they were born. Several states have adopted a very rigid attitude towards employment of prisoners and ex-prisoners, ex-prisoners are not allowed to gain employment in law enforcement agencies and criminal justice system and health care system. Certain states have even deprived ex-prisoners from dealing with monetary capital and due to this they can not find employment as bank tellers and cashiers in retailing outlets. Due to ban on carrying weapons for ex-prisoners, they fail to gain employment with security service providers. Six states of US even have indulged in the act of not allowing ex-prisoners from obtaining positions in government sector. Similar situations are experienced by ex-prisoners as they are not hired by the top two employers of the state and studies have even shown that the time spend in prisons determines the earnings of ex-prisoners (Kling, 1999, p.8). This means that those prisoners who have spend longer period of time in prison are not earning well. During prison period, prisoners are involved in labor work but these positions pay very less in society and the probability that ex-prisoners will be able to lead a pious and a life without crime has decreased. Private and government institutes require individuals to inform them about their previous criminal records, even in educational sector this practice takes place as prisoners are asked to inform about their conviction history through admission applications. This has become an obstacle for the prisoner to gain higher education as educational institutes are allowed to reject admissions to previous convicts on the basis of risk for other students and faculty members of the educational institutes. The criminal justice system has barred ex-prisoners from four kinds of educational rights, freedom of choice of who will teach, what the instructors should teach, how instructors can choose to teach and who have the right to gain education. For example in the case of Carbonaro v. Reeher, the court accepted that universities can put down admission application on the basis of previous convictions (Fenske, 1983, 493). During the period of 2007, educational institutes in Virginia were required to provide information about their students to police officials so they can compare that list from the list of offenders (Redden, 2007). Rights of Prisoners of Afghanistan When Monarchy came to an end in Afghanistan, the government tried to change the prison system of Afghanistan they made efforts to create and establish educational outlets for juvenile offenders. After the end of monarchy period, prisoners were used to produce clothing items for military personnel. By the late 1980s, prisoners within Afghanistan were promoted to gain skills required for arts and crafts and trading skills. Those prisoners who participated in various jobs such as pottery and weaving were allowed to keep their earned income with themselves for later period. When Soviets entered Afghanistan they executed various prisoners at the Pul-i-Charkhi Prison, execution of prisoners took place on daily basis (Clements, 2003, p.205). Before Taliban rule came into existence jails were established throughout cities and towns of Afghanistan and those areas of Afghanistan where population count was too huge, prisons were created within those regions. Protocols were in place and friends and family members of prisoners were allowed to meet prisoners in these jails and they used to provide food for their relatives and in certain cases criminals were kept in lockup rooms before their permanent sentencing were decided. During the period, government officials were even given the responsibility of routinely monitoring prisons. During the period of 1992, activists who were anti communist in nature removed Najibullah from government who was being supported by the Soviets (Priestland, 209, p.548). Due to this several political figures were freed from jail and the prison of Pul-i-Charkhi became completely empty until Taliban led government took over during the era of 1995. Once again the prisons were emptied when Taliban surrendered during the period of 2001. Several reforms and ideas of reforming the criminal justice system of Afghanistan were proposed and being made but these reforms failed to curb abuses of human rights because of the non-availability of resources. During the period of 2011, a human rights survey was conducted which concluded that individuals were being arrested in large numbers just on the basis of suspicion and the prisons throughout Afghanistan experienced deteriorating conditions (Eviatar, 2011). During the period of Hamid Karzai, Kabul prisons that were closed have once again opened up and officials have informed that the suspects and inmates will be provided with human rights and their rights will be honored. During the period of 2003 the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes tried to bring changes to the prison system of Afghanistan by investing $6 million funds (UN, 2006, P.326). Out of this figure a total of $200,000 was spent on repair and maintenance work of kitchens and sanitary system of the prisons. The program was previously under the control of the Ministry of Interior but now the program is operated by the ministry of Justice (Bhatia, 2008, p.17). During the period of 2005 certain rules and regulations were passed to alter the worsening conditions of the prisons of Afghanistan. Evidence suggests that in a total of 20 provinces of Afghanistan, prisoners are allocated to buildings that are rented out for imprisonment of individuals and these prisons become very crowded and living conditions become worse. These facilities are not very well built; these facilities have floors that are made out of mud and proper nourishment and health care is not provided. During the period of 2005, the total population of inmates of 34 jails located throughout Afghanistan was 6000 prisoners and this total does not consist of those who are in jails that are governed by military regimes and warlords. Conclusion On one end is the prison system of US where prisoners have few of the basic rights such as access o adequate quality of food and justice. These prisoners are given basic rights and rights to defend themselves. On the other end are prisons of Afghanistan where people are detained on the basis of success and they spend huge amount of time without basic rights and necessities such as proper nutrition and friends and family members. References Bhatia, M. V., & Sedra, M. (2008). Afghanistan, arms and conflict: armed groups, disarmament and security in a post-war society. London: Routledge ;. Clements, F. (2003). Conflict in Afghanistan: a historical encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, Calif.: ABC-CLIO. Cnaan, R. A., Sinha, J. W., & Annie E. Casey Foundation. (2004). Back into the fold: Helping ex-prisoners reconnect through faith. Baltimore, MD: Annie E. Casey Foundation. Eviatar, D., & Human Rights First (Organization). (2011). Detained and denied in Afghanistan: How to make U.S. detention comply with the law. New York, NY: Human Rights First. Fenske, R. H., & Huff, R. P. (1983). Handbook of student financial aid. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Kling, J. R. (1999). The effect of prison sentence length on the subsequent employment and earnings of criminal defendants. Princeton, N.J: Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University. Priestland, D. (2009). The red flag: a history of communism. New York: Grove Press. Redden, E. (2007, February 14). Criminals and Colleges in the Capital | Inside Higher Ed. Inside Higher Ed | Higher Education News, Career Advice, Events and Jobs. Retrieved November 22, 2012, from http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/02/14/dc Sidlow, E., & Henschen, B. (2010). Govt ([2010 ed.], student ed.). Boston: Wadsworth Pub. 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