Monday, September 26, 2005

Human Rights in Southern US gaols

The human rights of prisoners in the South of the USA have been highlighted in the media during the last week, with the revelations of New Orleans prisoners having been abandoned, locked in their cells in chest deep water for four days, without food, water and sanitation in fetid water, and air unable to circulate due to no electricity.

Human Rights Watch said, "prisoners were abandoned in their cells without food or
water for days as floodwaters rose toward the ceiling."


The fate of 517 inmates is still unknown as they are missing from the lists of prison evacuees.

Many of those held were gaoled for minor offences such as criminal trespass, public drunkenness or disorderly conduct and had not even been brought before a judge and charged, much less been convicted.

At the same time in Texas, a trial is taking place in which a gay African-American former prisoner tries to assert his rights have been violated by prison guards under the Eighth Amendment[cruel and unusual punishment] with a jury of eleven white people and one black person, which would not appear to be an equitable balance.

Rodderick Johnson claims after being incarcerated he was forced into sexual slavery and witnesses support allegations that during his 18 month sentence he faced being beaten and murdered if he refused sexual servitude for a major prison gang, and it is claimed prison guards failed to protect him because he was gay.

The defence for the prison guards, hasn't denied rape is a problem in the prison but said letters Mr Johnson had written to his alleged sexual abusers are of an affectionate nature.

Guard, Jimmy Bowman, similarly decried Johnson's allegations of sexual servitude claiming the inmate had not demonstrated any effort to resist the offences, "sometimes an inmate has to defend himself," Mr. Bowman said, "We don't expect him not to do anything."

However it would appear the guards statements fail to demonstrate any workable knowledge of victim-abuser relationships, particularly in view of his inability while in custody, to remove himself from the abusive environment.

"Mr. Johnson, 37, is a black gay man with a gentle manner. He is represented by the National Prison Project of the American Civil Liberties Union. Many people in this medium-size city near the Oklahoma border still have raw feelings about the civil liberties union, which won a federal lawsuit in 2000 that forced the local library to put two picture books for children about gay men and lesbians, "Heather Has Two Mommies" and "Daddy's Roommate," back in the children's section." [New York Times, Liptak, Sept 25,05