The infamous "tent city" jail where Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio has housed inmates since 1993. (photo: AP)
But racist Trump A.G. Sessions makes circus out of federal prison system
06 April 17
heriff
Paul Penzone of Maricopa County, Arizona, a Democrat who defeated the
notorious birther and race baiter Joe Arpaio in last November’s
election, said on Tuesday
that he was closing Arpaio’s infamous “Tent City” prison, where
prisoners live in the desert’s searing heat, are fed only twice a day,
and are forced to wear pink underwear solely for humiliation. Penzone
told the media, “Starting today, the circus ends, and the tents come
down.” Arpaio, meanwhile, is under federal indictment for three counts of contempt of court for failing to end racial profiling in the county.
Penzone’s actions are a breath of fresh air in the
American penal system. But this is the exception, rather than the rule.
With Jeff Sessions at the helm of the Justice Department, conditions in
federal and state prisons already are deteriorating.
Sessions will
likely do nothing to improve the federal system, and he’ll do nothing to
pressure governors or state attorneys general to improve state prisons.
And to make matters worse, Sessions has implemented a policy of backing
off of investigations into police and prison misconduct.
Just last week, a Florida state prosecutor declined to file any charges
against guards at Dade Correctional Institution after they dragged
prisoner Darren Rainey into a shower that they had modified to punish
prisoners, where they scalded him for two hours. Eyewitnesses said that
Rainey had been “boiled like a lobster.” Official photos showed that
there was “extreme” damage to Rainey’s skin, he was burned over his
entire body, and significant sections of his skin were missing
altogether, revealing muscle, fat, and blood vessels. This, apparently,
does not constitute a crime in the state of Florida.
Medical officials at the Idaho State Correctional Institution so
ignored and maltreated chronically ill, disabled, and elderly prisoners
there that many had to have limbs amputated, some were infected
with—and not treated for—flesh-eating bacteria, and others died of
neglect, sepsis, and other preventable maladies. Prisoners currently
have a federal suit pending against the Idaho Department of Corrections.
Sessions is siding with the prison.
The Idaho State Correctional Institution’s medical
unit is run by the private prison company Corizon, the same prison
healthcare company being sued by the family of Denise Forte in Gwinnett
County, Georgia, and which does millions of dollars of work for
Sessions’ federal Bureau of Prisons. The 53-year-old Forte was arrested
on drug charges and taken to the Gwinnett County Jail, run by Corizon.
She had chronic lung disease, and was told during her intake, “You’re on
the list to be seen by a doctor this week.” Her medical records at the
prison indicated that her condition was “serious.”
In fact, though,
Forte was never seen by a doctor even as her symptoms worsened as soon
as she arrived at the jail. Within days, she was dead.
This is an ongoing theme with Corizon. There are
dozens of malpractice lawsuits pending against the company all across
the country.
That doesn’t seem to phase Sessions, though. In February, he rescinded an Obama administration order
directing the Bureau of Prisons to begin phasing out private prisons,
despite the fact that private prisons have more safety and security
problems and worse healthcare than prisons run by the government. The
likes of Corizon will have more work, not less. How can we even being to
tally the human misery?
John Kiriakou is a former CIA counterterrorism
officer and a former senior investigator with the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee. John became the sixth whistleblower indicted by the
Obama administration under the Espionage Act - a law designed to punish
spies. He served 23 months in prison as a result of his attempts to
oppose the Bush administration's torture program.
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