USA

“Everyone says America is the place for human rights. I thought maybe I had arrived in the wrong country." Hawa Abdi Jama, a Somali refugee who was incarcerated in harsh conditions for 14 months before being granted asylum in the US.

In the Shadow of Liberty: Abuse in Prisons and Jails

Overview Police Brutality Human Rights Violations on the US-Mexico Border Abuse of Prisoners Women in Detention Arbitary detention of asylum-seekers Super-maximum security Death Penalty Racism and the death penalty International Context FAQ

“A pattern of needless and officially sanctioned brutality.” This is how a US judge described the treatment of prisoners in one California jail in 1995, where prisoners were cruelly shackled and beaten, where guards were rarely disciplined, and where internal reports were falsified.

An isolated problem? Not at all.

In a Georgia prison, the head of the correctional department reportedly supervised the beatings of handcuffed prisoners. In Texas, some prisoners have been held in windowless cells for 23 hours a day. In California, guards are alleged to have staged and bet on “gladiator” fights between prisoners. An Amnesty International research team was told that inmates in a prison in Pennsylvania, most of them black, were being routinely beaten and subjected to racist taunts by guards. Across the country, prisoners have been held in restraint chairs and tables for days on end. Pregnant women have been shackled even during labour. Incapacitating electroshock weapons have been used against restrained and sleeping prisoners.

There are 1.7 million people incarcerated in the US, including people awaiting trial and asylum seekers fleeing persecution in another country. Between 1980 and 1996, the number of people in US prisons and jails tripled. In this same period, the number of women prisoners quadrupled.

All prisoners are vulnerable to human rights abuse. For many, such abuse is a daily reality. And they have few defenses when corrections officers are allowed to retaliate against prisoners who attempt to bring human rights abuses to light.

In 1997, the Department of Justice sued the states of Michigan and Arizona for failing to protect women in jails and prisons from sexual misconduct by state employees, including sexual assault and “prurient viewing during dressing, showering and use of toilet facilities. In a recent visit to Michigan, Amnesty International received reports that prison staff have also threatened and carried out acts of retaliation against women prisoners who have complained about sexual abuse and other violations of their human rights.

This is all the more reason why human rights defenders must be vigilant in opposing “needless and officially sanctioned brutality” in US prisons and jails.

Case Study: Women prisoners in the US

Case study: Arbitrary detention of asylum-seekers

Case study: super-maximum security