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Prisoner abuse is the mistreatment of persons while they are under arrest or incarcerated. Prisoner abuse can include physical abuse, psychological abuse, sexual abuse, torture, or other acts such as refusal of essential medication, and it can be perpetuated by either fellow inmates or prison faculty. [1]
Abuse of prisoners can include physical abuse, as well as psychological forms of harm including verbal abuse, sleep deprivation, white noise, pointless/absurd or humiliating instructions, recurrent exhaustive inspections and shakedowns, arbitrary strip searches, and denuding actions. [2]
Prisoners are sometimes intentionally housed with inmates known to have raped other prisoners, or protection from known rapists may be purposely withheld from the prisoners. These practices create a very high incidence of rape in US prisons, which was the topic of the 2001 report No Escape from Human Rights Watch. [3] [4]
The experience of forced strip searches can be experienced as a traumatic event similarly to that of rape, especially when combined with habitual body cavity searches. The prevalence of CCTV in modern correctional facilities and the generally indiscreet nature of strip searches, often with a number of prison guards observing, usually adds to the experienced humiliation. Strip searches are often arbitrarily used under various pretences, when the actual ambition is to assert control and predominance as well as to intimidate the subjected prison inmates. [5]
Torture of prisoners includes any act, whether physical or psychological, which is deliberately done to inflict sensations of pain upon a person under the actor's custody or physical control. This form of prisoner abuse is usually exerted to extract information, but also as means of intimidation, attrition or punishment.
"Enhanced interrogation" is a euphemism for U.S. torture methods implemented in the war on terror purportedly needed to extract information from detainees. Examples include use of stress positions, sleep deprivation, starvation, thirst, and sexual humiliation. [6]
During the early stages of the Iraq War, members of the United States Army and the Central Intelligence Agency were accused of a series of human rights violations and war crimes against detainees in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. These abuses included physical abuse, sexual humiliation, physical and psychological torture, and rape, as well as the killing of Manadel al-Jamadi and the desecration of his body. [10] [11] [12] [13] The abuses came to public attention with the publication of photographs by CBS News in April 2004, causing shock and outrage and receiving widespread condemnation within the United States and internationally. [14]
The George W. Bush administration stated that the abuses at Abu Ghraib were isolated incidents and not indicative of U.S. policy. [15] [16] : 328 This was disputed by humanitarian organizations including the Red Cross, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch, who claimed the abuses were part of a pattern of torture and brutal treatment at American overseas detention centers, including those in Iraq, in Afghanistan, and at Guantanamo Bay (GTMO). [16] : 328 After 36 prisoners were killed at Abu Ghraib in insurgent mortar attacks, the United States was further criticized for maintaining the facility in a combat zone. [17] The International Committee of the Red Cross reported that most detainees at Abu Ghraib were civilians with no links to armed groups. [18]
Documents known as the Torture Memos came to light a few years later. These documents, prepared by the United States Department of Justice in the months leading up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, authorized certain "enhanced interrogation techniques" (generally considered to involve torture) of foreign detainees. The memoranda also argued that international humanitarian laws, such as the Geneva Conventions, did not apply to American interrogators overseas. Several subsequent U.S. Supreme Court decisions, including Hamdan v. Rumsfeld (2006), overturned Bush administration policy, ruling that the Geneva Conventions do apply.
In response to the events at Abu Ghraib, the United States Department of Defense removed 17 soldiers and officers from duty. Eleven soldiers were charged with dereliction of duty, maltreatment, aggravated assault and battery. Between May 2004 and April 2006, these soldiers were court-martialed, convicted, sentenced to military prison, and dishonorably discharged from service. Two soldiers, found to have perpetrated many of the worst offenses at the prison, Specialist Charles Graner and PFC Lynndie England, were subject to more severe charges and received harsher sentences. Graner was convicted of assault, battery, conspiracy, maltreatment of detainees, committing indecent acts and dereliction of duty; he was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment and loss of rank, pay, and benefits. [19] England was convicted of conspiracy, maltreating detainees, and committing an indecent act and sentenced to three years in prison. [20] Brigadier General Janis Karpinski, the commanding officer of all detention facilities in Iraq, was reprimanded and demoted to the rank of colonel. Several more military personnel accused of perpetrating or authorizing the measures, including many of higher rank, were not prosecuted. In 2004, President George W. Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld apologized for the Abu Ghraib abuses.According to international laws, a State is liable to ensure prisoners' right to receive health care. Prison authorities are fully responsible to provide proper medical treatment to the detainees and ensure their well-being. [21]
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the overcrowded Jaw prison of Bahrain witnessed a major COVID-19 outbreak. Several prisoners were confirmed to be infected with the virus, while the authorities failed to facilitate them with proper preventive medical supplies, including face masks or hand sanitizers, and conducting regular screening tests. The authorities fell short of ensuring prisoners' rights to health and following the rules of treating prisoners. One of the main concerns had been the extensive population of the prison, which made social distancing impossible. [22] On 9 June 2021, an inmate of Jaw prison, Husain Barakat, died due to COVID-19 complications. [23] Even after the pandemic, Bahrain's Jaw prison remained controversial, where prisoners' rights of health continued to be violated. In June 2022, Amnesty International reported that Bahraini authorities failed to respond to the inmates suffering with tuberculosis. Prison authorities constantly disregarded the prisoners with symptoms and did not allow them to get tested for the airborne disease. Some of the prisoners were called back to the prison after they were confirmed of being infected in the hospital. One of the prisoners, Ahmed Jaber, was not sent to the hospital until he was semi-paralysed after being sick for 11 months. [24]
NBC News later quoted U.S. military officials as saying that the unreleased photographs showed American soldiers 'severely beating an Iraqi prisoner nearly to death, having sex with a female Iraqi prisoner, and "acting inappropriately with a dead body." The officials said there also was a videotape, apparently recorded by U.S. personnel, showing Iraqi guards raping young boys.'
The paper quoted Taguba as saying, 'These pictures show torture, abuse, rape and every indecency.' ... The actual quote in the Telegraph was accurate, Taguba said – but he was referring to the hundreds of images he reviewed as an investigator of the abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq
Taguba said that he saw "a video of a male American soldier in uniform sodomizing a female detainee"
The Armed Forces Institute of Pathology later ruled al-Jamadi's death a homicide, caused by 'blunt force injuries to the torso complicated by compromised respiration.'
After the pictures were published the Bush administration was quick to condemn the abuse and accuse the low ranking soldiers who featured in the pictures. Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld described the abuse at Abu Ghraib as an isolated case and President Bush talked about: 'disgraceful conduct by a few American troops who dishonoured our country and disregarded our values.' The abuse however did not constitute isolated cases but represented further proof of a widespread pattern.
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