Ohio's Abu Ghraib

US: Before becoming an Ohio State Penitentiary physician, Dr. Ayham Haddad experienced a different side of incarceration as a political prisoner in Syria. After being arrested, tortured, and released, Haddad immigrated to the United States to begin a new life.

Now a general practitioner at Ohio's only supermax, located off state Route 616 in Youngstown, Haddad has a comparative perspective few could imagine. The doctor is amazed to find that certain human rights issues aren't being taken more seriously in the U.S. "In Syria, I was in solitary confinement for four months," Haddad reflected. "But here, prisoners are kept in solitary confinement for years!"

On June 13, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy expressed a similar concern, finding that "conditions at [the Ohio State Penitentiary] are more restrictive than any other form of incarceration in Ohio, including conditions on its death row." Kennedy also noted a holding policy that retained prisoners "for an indefinite period of time, limited only by an inmate's sentence."

Kennedy was referring here to the fact that Ohio supermax prisoners are disqualified from eligibility for parole. After surveying 26 out of 30 states operating supermax prisons, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights found that only Ohio and Maine were making this exception.

In 2002, when the two civil rights groups took the state of Ohio to court, the Ohio State Penitentiary had been operating for 3 years, and 200 of its prisoners had been in solitary confinement for more than three years. In most states, at least some of these prisoners would have qualified for parole.

The story of Kunta Kenyatta is a case in point. While serving a sentence at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, the Cleveland native became eligible for parole in 2002. But after being transferred to the newly opened Ohio State Penitentiary, in 1998, his parole was indefinitely suspended. "If I hadn't sued to get out of there, I would have been there until 2016," said Kenyatta, who served 16 years for a crime committed in his youth.

It is the idea of indefinite detention that troubled Haddad most. "I love America," he told me over a glass of Arak. "But you can punish people and put them in the hole for a month or two. You can't put them in solitary confinement for five years!" The doctor shook his head in disbelief.

Kenyatta was paroled in November 2002 following a successful class action suit that challenged the legitimacy of his transfer. The soft-spoken man whose African name meant "the musician" said the prison administration had sent him to the penitentiary for having been a political disturbance. Kenyatta had dreadlocks, political books such as the works of Malcolm X and Nelson Mandela, and he was helping other prisoners to legally change their names. "They accused me of trying to form an unauthorized group, which to them made me one of the worst of the worst."

Breeding violent fantasies

At the Youngstown supermax, prisoners are locked in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day, in bleak concrete cells measuring 7*_b-11 feet. Each cell has a sink and toilet, a small desk, a concrete stool, a concrete slab with a thin mattress, and a slim rectangular window.

The idea of living in a concrete box without knowing how long you'll remain there is known to create trauma symptoms similar to those experienced by hostages: anxiety, headaches, lethargy, insomnia, nervous breakdowns, perspiring hands, and heart palpitations.

According to Craig Haney, a psychology professor at the University of California, prisoners often begin experiencing these effects after ten days in solitary confinement. Haney concluded that supermax incarceration also greatly undermined a prisoner's prospects for successful reentry into society.

Kenyatta said he'd have lost all psychological balance if not for his pen-pals and books. "It's really stressful, and often times you explode and get mad." He recalled how illiterate inmates were hit the hardest. "They were basically cut off from the world. So some of them started smearing feces in their faces, or taking it out on their cell doors."

Even the most resilient individuals carry the scars of solitary confinement long after being released. Now, two years later, Kenyatta keeps his Canton home meticulously tidy, and has said it would be difficult to imagine living with anyone else.

Ohio's Abu Ghraib?

The lawyer and historian Staughton Lynd said he wasn't surprised to hear reports that prisoners of war [and scapegoats and patsies] in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib were victims of torture and other human rights violations. He could imagine this treatment being an extension of patterns he'd observed at maximum-security prisons in the U.S.

"What this country learns to do to the 2 million people in its prisons, it has extended to other people all over the world," Lynd said. "And of course, it does so easily, because these people are very often of dark skin."

The retired attorney lives in a small bungalow in Niles, from which he and his wife Alice are leading the fight to humanize supermax prisons. Their work is inspired by their advocacy of civil rights. In the 1960s, Staughton Lynd was the director of the Mississippi Freedom Schools and also taught history to black students at Spellman College.

The Lynds worked as labor lawyers when the steel mills shut down in Youngstown. When they closed, the prisons came, and the two lawyers realized that regulating them would be their next struggle.

During a May 21 public tour of the 500-bed facility, the Ohio State Penitentiary's spokesperson, Keith Fletcher, said that one shouldn't forget that a supermax was "not a spa." And although prisoners there were the "worst of the worst," they still received television, medical coverage, and the option of a vegetarian menu. The supermax prison was also air-conditioned with "tempered air." During the tour, Fletcher downplayed solitary confinement's effects.

Noting that the United Nations mandates that all prisoners have access to fresh air, I wondered whether the supermax's "tempered air system" violated this mandate, and attempted to ask the Ohio State Penitentiary warden, Marc Houk, about the issue. However, the spokesperson informed me that Houk was "not entertaining interview requests at this time relative to living conditions."

The design for supermax prisons originally emerged in the 1970s in response to an increase in prison violence nationwide. In the social climate of the Reagan years, legislators began favoring the idea of isolating troublemakers in expensive new high-security facilities as they also cut funding for rehabilitation programs. By 1997, 45 states and the District of Columbia as well as the federal prison system were operating super-maximum prisons.

But in the mid-1990s, the supermaxes became the subject of an increasing number of lawsuits and human rights protests. Prisoners and their attorneys reported a rise in the routine use of stun belts, stun guns and restraint chairs. It was at this time that the battle against Ohio's only supermax prison began.

Humanizing the hole

In January 2001, Charles Austin and 28 other prisoners filed a lawsuit claiming that Ohio had violated their Eighth Amendment rights. The prisoners argued that medical and psychiatric care and recreation were inadequate at the supermax, and physical restraints were too harsh. Prisoners received medical injections through their narrow food slots, for example, and had both hands handcuffed to the wall during medical exams.

In February 2002, the plaintiffs won a significant legal victory when a federal district court ruled that the state must follow strict due-process guidelines before sending prisoners to the supermax. The number of inmates dropped significantly after a court-ordered review of individual cases determined that two-thirds of the prisoners did not meet the criteria for such restrictive confinement. "The supermax was built to hold approximately 450 prisoners," Lynd said. "There are now roughly 250. So, you can say we've very nearly cut the population in half."

The state of Ohio is looking for a way to fill those empty cells. In March, officials announced plans to move Ohio's death row from Mansfield to Youngstown. The $157 daily cost per inmate would drop if the facility were filled, state officials argued. Specific details have not been disclosed.

The ACLU has filed legal action to block the transfer of about 200 death row inmates. The hearing is set for Aug. 18 before U.S. District Judge James Gwin. ACLU lawyers will argue that the wholesale transfer of an entire category of prisoners violates the concept of individualized hearings.

Lynd, who works as counsel for the ACLU on the case, said he believes the relocation of death row prisoners to Youngstown would lead to a deterioration of their mental health, more suicides and an increase in requests to "volunteer" for execution.

"We are fighting Ohio's plan to move death row tooth and nail," Lynd said.

After once meeting with a supermax client who'd been handcuffed with his arms behind his back for 2_ hours, the attorney remembered sharing his gut response to the incident with his wife: "Give me a teaspoon, so I can start tearing this place down."

Daniel Sturm teaches journalism at Youngstown State University in Northeastern Ohio. He is a German journalist who covers underreported social and political topics in Europe and in the United States.

By Daniel Sturm Posted 10 August 05

ZNET

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US: Senator Richard Durbin's sniveling apology Tuesday for his remarks on US torture at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp was entirely predictable, another of the "profiles in cowardice" that the Democratic Party serves up on a regular basis.

The pattern is all too familiar. A prominent Democrat commits the unpardonable sin of stating an unpleasant truth about crimes that are being carried out by the White House and the Pentagon in the name of the "global war on terrorism." [Resource wars in the Middle East.]

He is subjected to a torrent of denunciations from the extreme right-wing elements that control the Republican Party. Accusations of treason and "stabbing our troops in the back" are echoed and amplified by the mass media. The Republicans demand a retraction and apology, and the Democrats demonstratively distance themselves from whomever in their midst made the offending remark.

Attempts at "clarification" are followed by a public recantation and blubbering mea culpas that serve to obscure and discredit the truth of what was originally said. In the end, the impunity of the administration is only strengthened.

This familiar Washington scenario took a particularly disgusting form with the appearance of Durbin--the second-ranking Democratic senator--sobbing for forgiveness in the well of the Senate.

Durbin's apology only encouraged right-wing politicians and media pundits to excoriate the sinner more ferociously. This, in turn, enabled the media to virtually ignore a far more significant news development the following day.

The United Nations' top human rights experts issued a report stating that they had "information, based on reliable sources, of serious allegations of torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of detainees, arbitrary detention, violation of their right to health and their due process rights" at Guantanamo, as well as at US facilities in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

The UN experts further pointed out that Washington's stonewalling for three years of their requests to inspect the facility was tantamount to an admission of guilt.

Even as the UN officials were making these well-founded charges, the Bush White House was announcing that it would not agree to any independent inquiry on Guantanamo. With Durbin having backtracked on his "reprehensible remarks," the administration acted as if its conduct at the Pentagon's Cuban concentration camp had been vindicated.

Why did Durbin feel compelled to apologize? All he had done was read aloud on the Senate floor a declassified FBI memo detailing the treatment of Guantanamo Bay prisoners. The document said that detainees were left for 24 hours "chained hand and foot in a fetal position to the floor, with no chair, food or water," with the result that "they urinated or defecated on themselves."

The memo further described a prisoner left overnight in an "unbearably hot," unventilated room. "The detainee was almost unconscious on the floor, with a pile of hair next to him. He had apparently been literally pulling his hair out throughout the night," the FBI reported.

Durbin then commented: "If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime--Pol Pot or others--that had no concern for human beings."

He immediately came under fire from the right for comparing "our troops" to the Nazis, and was condemned by the Anti-Defamation League for "inappropriate and insensitive" use of "Holocaust imagery"--a charge the organization never seems to make when Israeli leaders compare Palestinians and other Arabs to Nazis.

Durbin began his expiation last week by saying he had "learned from my statement that historical parallels can be misused and misunderstood," and declaring, "Our soldiers around the world and their families at home deserve our respect, admiration and total support."

These mealy-mouthed words only fueled the attacks, so on Tuesday he went further, declaring through his tears that he was "sorry if anything I said in any way casts a negative light on our fine men and women in the military" and extending his "heartfelt apologies" to those who "may believe that my remarks crossed the line."

What better analogy to the torture at Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and elsewhere than the methods employed by the Gestapo? If the Republican right wanted to object, Durbin and the Democrats could have thrown their denunciations back in their faces with one simple demand:

Release the hundreds of photographs and videotapes from Abu Ghraib that have been shown to members of the Senate but remain classified. Let the American people see and hear men being tortured, children being sodomized and women being raped by their US guards and interrogators, and then decide for themselves whether these methods are consistent with a democracy or a fascist dictatorship.

As for the impermissibility of using the "n" word, the Republicans and their right-wing base do so regularly. Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum just last month compared the Democrats' defense of the filibuster to the Nazi regime. "Right-to-life" fanatics regularly equate abortion with the Holocaust, and the Republican right has habitually compared federal agencies such as the Internal Revenue Service and the Environmental Protection Agency to the Gestapo. Similar terminology has been used to incite violence against judges.

Durbin's inability to answer his attackers in kind recalls the old political adage, "If you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen." But the ease with which the Republican right and sections of the media reduced the Senate's Democratic whip to a sniveling wimp is not merely a matter of personal character traits.

Rather, this episode reveals a great deal about the Democratic Party itself, as well as the type of personnel it attracts and molds. While they have long masqueraded as the "party of the people," the Democrats, in fact, rest upon an exceedingly narrow social base, composed primarily of sections of the financial elite and the most comfortable strata of the upper-middle class.

To the extent that leading Democrats choose to oppose the administration, they invariably articulate the concerns of factions within a ruling establishment that is divided over how best to advance the interests of American capitalism.

Thus, the torture at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib is seen not as a moral abomination and an assault on democratic rights, but rather as a blemish on "the image of America around the world." Similarly, Democratic criticism of the Bush administration's handling of the war in Iraq is aimed not at bringing the US intervention to a halt, but at stemming the growing tide of opposition to the war among the American people. The principal Democratic concern is that US strategic goals in the region--principally, control of its oil reserves--are met.

To this end, the Democrats advocate a "saner," less "ideological" foreign policy, and express the fear within more conscious sections of the ruling elite that the Bush administration's approach risks provoking mass popular opposition, both at home and abroad.

Proceeding from this point of departure, the Democrats' opposition is invariably couched in political evasion and moral duplicity, with the party's leadership prepared at the drop of a hat to either capitulate or accept a rotten compromise.

The only time the Democratic leadership shows any backbone is when it can stand together with its Republican counterparts in attacking the working class, promoting the interests of the corporations, and supporting foreign aggression. Whenever it strays from these positions and is called to order by the Republicans, it exhibits abject cowardice.

Such a party attracts a definite caliber of leadership. These are men and women who work not off of political ideals or even insight, but rather are driven by careerist ambition and opportunist fear. They have not been tested or steeled in any significant social struggles or political crises.

Durbin is a typical example, a man who spent his entire life working his way up the ladder of the political machine, serving as legal counsel to state politicians before his elevation first to the House and then the Senate.

What also emerges so clearly from the Durbin episode is the enormous weight exerted by an increasingly uncontrolled military over American political life. Shortly before the Democratic senator rendered his apology, House Majority Leader Tom Delay, a Texas Republican, denounced him for carrying out "a premeditated and monstrous attack against America's military."

There is immense sensitivity within the Democratic Party to such a charge. With its half-a-trillion-dollar budget, its extensive relations with corporate America, and its deployment across the face of the globe, the military has emerged as an extraordinarily powerful independent force.

The Democrats seek not to curb this dangerous growth of militarism, but rather to compete with the Republicans in promoting it. Thus, their principal fire against the administration over Iraq has been directed not at ending the war, but rather at increasing the number of troops and providing them with better arms and equipment.

Anyone looking to such an organization to either stop the war or defend the interests of the working people who make up the vast majority of the population understands nothing about social relations and political realities in the United States.

By Bill Van Auken posted 25 June 05

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Judge orders US to release Guantanamo records
The United States Government must release documents within 30 days relating to the treatment of prisoners held at American overseas detention centres, including Guantanamo Bay and Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, a US federal judge ordered.

Bush team 'knew of abuse' at Guantanamo
Evidence of prisoner abuse and possible war crimes at Guantanamo Bay reached the highest levels of the Bush administration as early as autumn 2002, but Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary, chose to do nothing about it, according to a new investigation.

Hicks, Habib denied a fair go: Amnesty
The secretary-general of Amnesty International has criticised the Federal Government's treatment of the two Australians detained at Guantanamo Bay.

Govt's Hicks concerns an 'election stunt', says Brown
Greens Senator Bob Brown has accused the Federal Government of an election stunt with its questions to the United States authorities about the trial of "Australian Citizen" David Hicks.

Abu Ghraib inquiry slams Aust Government
A US inquiry into the Iraqi prison abuse scandal has been highly critical of Australian, Major George O'Kane, for glossing over early warnings about the treatment of detainees.

Australian Federal Government complicity in war crimes
Complaint to Australian law officers about Australian Federal Government complicity in war crimes.

Hicks family arrives at Kangaroo Caught
Terry Hicks says he feels very emotional about seeing his son for the first time in five years.

Hicks defence team likely to gain more time
The head of the military trials planned for two Australians held at Guantanamo Bay says he believes their defence teams will be given whatever additional time they need to prepare for trial.

Hicks, Habib denied natural justice: Liberal MP
A federal Liberal MP has accused the Government of not doing enough to secure a fair trial for Guantanamo Bay detainees, David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib.

Guantanamo abuse claims prompt new inquiry calls
New claims of abuse at Guantanamo Bay Cuba have prompted fresh calls for an Australian inquiry into the treatment of detainees David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib.

Hicks movie to premiere in Adelaide
A movie about Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks, President versus David Hicks, by award winning filmmaker Curtis Levy will be screened in Adelaide tomorrow.

There is no justification for torture
In the weeks since the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison were revealed, evidence continues to seep out of similar mistreatment of prisoners in other US military detention centers in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay.

Guantanamo prisoners may be moved to US soil
The US authorities may move hundreds of prisoners from their controversial Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba to the United States following new Supreme Court rulings, the Los Angeles Times has reported.

Pentagon names tribunal for Hicks trial
The Pentagon has named the officers who will decide the fate of David Hicks and two other Guantanamo prisoners charged by the United States in the first US military tribunals since World War II.

US terror suspects can challenge detention
The US Supreme Court has ruled that US courts have jurisdiction to hear appeals from foreign detainees held as enemy combatants in the US military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Hicks lawyer praises Guantanamo decision
The lawyer for an Australian man detained at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base has welcomed a US Supreme Court ruling permitting judicial appeals from foreign detainees held as enemy combatants.

Hicks and Habib in the Melting Pot
Australia: The United States has brought three criminal charges against Australian David Hicks, accusing him of conspiracy to commit war crimes, attempted murder and aiding the enemy, the Pentagon has said.

Rumsfeld had approved abuse
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld authorised hoods, the stripping of prisoners and the use of dogs to terrify inmates at Guantanamo Bay almost two years ago, documents released yesterday revealed.

How much is that doggy in the prison? Woof woof!
Did the Iraqi prisoner's get their rations while they were treated like chums?

Failure to condemn prison abuse risks lives: Kenny
The Prime Minister is morally bankrupt stay "alert and alarmed"

Prisoner's identity concealed to prevent Red Cross access
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, acting at the request of the CIA, ordered that a suspected Iraqi insurgent leader be detained off the books to conceal his identity from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the Pentagon has confirmed.

US has secret prisons: rights group
The United States is holding terrorism suspects in more than two dozen detention centres worldwide, about half of which operate in total secrecy, according to a new human rights report.

This won't hurt much
For some time now, I've been trying to find out where my son goes after choir practice. He simply refuses to tell me. He says it's no business of mine where he goes after choir practice and it's a free country.

WAR ON TERROR, WAR ON HUMAN RIGHTS: AMNESTY

Amnesty International: Hicks & Habib

The Canterbury-Bankstown Peace Group & the Justice for Hicks & Habib Campaign welcome the statement by Amnesty International Secretary General Irene Khan, condemning the US Administration for condoning torture and the suppression of 'human rights' in their 'war on terror'.

Raul Bassi, spokesperson for the Canterbury-Bankstown Peace Group, said: " The Australian Government's position to support the war on terror' [resource wars in the Middle East] has meant the targeting of Australians here and abroad." [scapegoats, propaganda, fear-mongering, false-flag operations and patsies.]

As the Australian media focuses on Douglas Wood, the Australian currently held hostage in Iraq, concerned about unfair deprivation of liberty, the plight of three other Australians, David Hicks, Ahmed Aziz Rafiq and Mamdouh Habib, has been largely forgotten.

David Hicks a hostage for more than three years at the US prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Together with more than 500 other inmates, Hicks has had minimal legal representation and his case has not been brought before an impartial court of law.

Ahmed Aziz Rafiq has been imprisoned without charge for over a year by US forces who have refused to detail if or when he will be released.

Mamdouh Habib, released from Guantanamo Bay in January 2005 after being held captive for over three years by the US Administration, continues to be held hostage, this time by the Australian Government.

Mr Bassi added: "Mamdouh's life has been turned into a nightmare. He is under constant surveillance with his home and car bugged and broken into on a number of occasions. Mamdouh has been physically threatened and his family denied all access to social security. Mamdouh's passport has also been withheld for no reason.

"We all know that Mamdouh has not been charged of any crime under Australian, US or international law, so this infringement on his civil and human rights should not be tolerated," Mr Bassi emphasised.

In the case of David Hicks and Ahmed Aziz Rafiq, these two men's lives are still in limbo, with the Australian Government doing nothing to secure their release and repatriation.

The Canterbury Bankstown Peace Group and the Justice for Hicks & Habib Campaign demand an end to the war on human rights, the immediate release of David Hicks and Ahmed Aziz Rafiq, and end to the harassment of Mamdouh Habib and his family.

By Marlene Obeid posted 29 May 05

For more information contact: Raul Bassi on 0403 037 376 or Marlene Obeid on 0401 758 871

United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners. Or Standard guidelines for corrections in Australia.

Related:

UN Dialogue among Civilizations
This roundtable is a contribution to the UN Dialogue among Civilizations project that began in September 2000. At the first round table debate on Dialogue among Civilizations, Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the UN stated that, cultural diversity - in his opinion - is not only the basis for the Dialogue among Civilizations, but also the reality that makes dialogue necessary, since the perception of diversity as a threat is the very seed of war. [The role of religion in creating a culture of peace and moving on from a culture of fear.]

Torture not acceptable on anyone: Community!
Australia: A former chairman of the National Crime Authority has spoken out in favour of torture for John HoWARd and the Neo-Cons no doubt, saying it should be used against terrorists and in domestic criminal situations but not against QC's?

Torture can never be justified
I am forwarding the following statement issued by AMCRAN in regards to a paper: "Not Enough (Official) Torture in the World? The Circumstances in which Torture is Morally Justifiable" written by Professor Mirko Bagaric, Head of Deakin Law School & Julie Clarke, Lecturer, Deakin Law School, in which they justify torture.

Torture okay: propaganda paper
Mean in Black John HoWARd and Pastor Peter Costello with Professor Mirko Bagaric, and fellow Deakin lecturer Julie Clarke, torture okay for them. Question?

Association for the Prevention of Torture
What needs to be done now? All States Parties to the UN Convention against Torture should seriously consider ratifying the OPCAT as soon as possible. National Institutions and others promoting the human rights of people deprived of their liberty need to be informed of their potential role as national preventive mechanisms under the OPCAT.

CIA defends terror suspect transfers?
Suspected terrorists [scapegoats for the Coalition of the Killings's resource wars in the Middle East] in US custody have been transferred to third countries for the past 20 years, CIA director Porter Goss told the US Senate armed services committee.

Pentagon chiefs cleared over prisoner abuse?
US: The Pentagon has cleared itself of any high-level responsibility for the abuse of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay because it was the guard dogs that initiated the torture all along.

USA - FEELING THE HEAT FROM INTERNATIONAL FIRE:
It seems the United States of America (The World Watchdog) is dictating and practising double-standards --- a unique law for America and another set of laws for all other countries.

Guantanamo challenge puts off Hicks trial
Australian [scapegoat] suspect David Hicks's 'military trial'?, has been further delayed due to the postponement of a separate legal challenge to the US's legal process for Guantanamo Bay detainees?

Guantanamo guards blinded prisoner: lawyer
UK/CUBA: British permanent resident detained at the US camp for terrorism suspects [scapegoats] in Guantanamo Bay was blinded in one eye following an assault by guards, his lawyer says.

Amnesty slams Govt position on US trial system
Amnesty International has described as "absurd", the Federal Government's continued support for the United States military commission that will try Australian detainee [scapegoat] David Hicks on terrorism allegations.

US judge orders CIA release Guantanamo records
A US federal judge has ordered the CIA to release records regarding the treatment of prisoners detained in Guantanamo Bay and other facilities in the "war on terror" to a civil rights groups.

Hicks lawyer welcomes Guantanamo ruling
Stephen Kenny, the lawyer representing the family of Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks, has welcomed a US court ruling that military commissions set up to try detainees at Guantanamo Bay are unconstitutional.

Australia: a presumption of guilt......
KAREN PERCY: Two of Australia's leading barristers have seized on the return of Guantanamo Bay detainee, Mamdouh Habib, to launch an unprecedented attack on the Federal Attorney General, Philip Ruddock.

Aust Community criticises Govt for 'crimes'!
Australia: The Law Council of Australia is warning that the Federal Government must learn from its mistakes over Guantanamo Bay? Now that's a mistake!

Australian Govt Guilty of Crimes: Community
Australia: The community says federal fascists who allowed the torture of its citizenry including Mamdouh Habib may be arrested when the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal address the War Crimes Indictment set out by the community.

US judge dismisses? Guantanamo legal challenge
A US federal judge has dismissed the cases of seven Guantanamo Bay prisoners who sought to challenge the lawfulness of their continued detention?

US 'landlord' slams! Guantanamo 'law violations'
Cuba has demanded that the United States cease its "criminal conduct" in abusing prisoners held at the base it illegally occupies on Cuba's south-eastern tip, saying procedures at Guantanamo violate international law.

Concern over ramifications of Hicks FOI failure
There are claims that a decision by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal will give some countries the opportunity to refuse diplomatic aid to detained Australians.

FBI emails reveal Guantanamo abuse
In memos over a two year period FBI agents said they witnessed the use of torture techniques, which included the use of dogs, prisoners being shackled to the floor in foetal positions for up to 24 hours, left without food and water, left to defecate upon themselves.

Hicks alleges Guantanamo abuse: report
Guantanamo Bay prisoner David Hicks has reportedly claimed that prisoners at the US run prison camp have been beaten while blindfolded and handcuffed, terrorised by attack dogs, and forced to take drugs.

US lawyer wants inquiry into Hicks trial process
The lawyer defending Australian terror suspect [scapegoat for resource wars] David Hicks has called for an inquiry into whether the military commission hearing the case meets legal standards.

Australia Sells Its Citizens Short
Australian citizens, Mamdouth Habib and David Hicks have been illegally incarcerated in the Guantanamo Bay facility established by the US military as part of the War on Terror.

Downer won't press US for 'torture' report?
The Australian Government says it has tried and failed so far to get a copy of a report by the International Red Cross which claims psychological and physical coercion of detainees at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba?

UK minister criticises US over Guantanamo!
UK: Washington's policy on the legal status of detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba is unacceptable, a senior British minister said.

FBI emails reveal Guantanamo abuse
In memos over a two year period FBI agents said they witnessed the use of torture techniques, which included the use of dogs, prisoners being shackled to the floor in foetal positions for up to 24 hours, left without food and water, left to defecate upon themselves.

Lawyers hail 'unlawful' ruling in Guantanamo trial
Human rights groups and lawyers for Guantanamo detainees have welcomed a US federal judge's ruling which halted as unlawful the military tribunal trial of a Guantanamo prisoner accused of being Osama bin Laden's bodyguard and driver.

Hicks's lawyers seek panel decision
Lawyers for Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks will make another attempt to dismiss charges against their client in a series of motions hearings starting in Cuba today.

Torture, the British way
Great to be British, isn't it? Time was, we were really uptight, but now we can talk about anything - sex, religion, politics. No matter how personal and complex the subject, we'll discuss it with Richard and Judy, or slap our private Polaroids of it on our websites. Which leaves me puzzled about our silence, even shyness, over this whole torture thing.

US secretly moved prisoners out of Iraq for questioning: report
The CIA has secretly transferred detainees out of Iraq for interrogation after asking the US Justice Department to write a memo justifying the practice, which violates the Geneva Conventions.

Pentagon dumps Guantanamo tribunal officers
The Pentagon has dumped three members of a military tribunal that will hear the trials of Guantanamo prisoners, including Australian David Hicks, but kept the presiding officer despite challenges to his impartiality.

Guantanamo detainees win right for private meetings
In a defeat for the US Government, a federal judge has ruled that three prisoners held at the naval base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba can meet with their attorneys in private. In a defeat.

Lawyers complain about Guantanamo trials
US: Lawyers for 63 detainees at the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba have complained before a US federal court at the slow pace their cases are being handled by authorities.

Judge orders US to release Guantanamo records
The United States Government must release documents within 30 days relating to the treatment of prisoners held at American overseas detention centres, including Guantanamo Bay and Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, a US federal judge ordered.

Bush team 'knew of abuse' at Guantanamo
Evidence of prisoner abuse and possible war crimes at Guantanamo Bay reached the highest levels of the Bush administration as early as autumn 2002, but Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary, chose to do nothing about it, according to a new investigation.

Hicks, Habib denied a fair go: Amnesty
The secretary-general of Amnesty International has criticised the Federal Government's treatment of the two Australians detained at Guantanamo Bay.

Govt's Hicks concerns an 'election stunt', says Brown
Greens Senator Bob Brown has accused the Federal Government of an election stunt with its questions to the United States authorities about the trial of "Australian Citizen" David Hicks.

Abu Ghraib inquiry slams Aust Government
A US inquiry into the Iraqi prison abuse scandal has been highly critical of Australian, Major George O'Kane, for glossing over early warnings about the treatment of detainees.

Australian Federal Government complicity in war crimes
Complaint to Australian law officers about Australian Federal Government complicity in war crimes.

Hicks family arrives at Kangaroo Caught
Terry Hicks says he feels very emotional about seeing his son for the first time in five years.

Hicks defence team likely to gain more time
The head of the military trials planned for two Australians held at Guantanamo Bay says he believes their defence teams will be given whatever additional time they need to prepare for trial.

Hicks, Habib denied natural justice: Liberal MP
A federal Liberal MP has accused the Government of not doing enough to secure a fair trial for Guantanamo Bay detainees, David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib.

Guantanamo abuse claims prompt new inquiry calls
New claims of abuse at Guantanamo Bay Cuba have prompted fresh calls for an Australian inquiry into the treatment of detainees David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib.

Hicks movie to premiere in Adelaide
A movie about Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks, President versus David Hicks, by award winning filmmaker Curtis Levy will be screened in Adelaide tomorrow.

There is no justification for torture
In the weeks since the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison were revealed, evidence continues to seep out of similar mistreatment of prisoners in other US military detention centers in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay.

Guantanamo prisoners may be moved to US soil
The US authorities may move hundreds of prisoners from their controversial Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba to the United States following new Supreme Court rulings, the Los Angeles Times has reported.

Pentagon names tribunal for Hicks trial
The Pentagon has named the officers who will decide the fate of David Hicks and two other Guantanamo prisoners charged by the United States in the first US military tribunals since World War II.

US terror suspects can challenge detention
The US Supreme Court has ruled that US courts have jurisdiction to hear appeals from foreign detainees held as enemy combatants in the US military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Hicks lawyer praises Guantanamo decision
The lawyer for an Australian man detained at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base has welcomed a US Supreme Court ruling permitting judicial appeals from foreign detainees held as enemy combatants.

Hicks and Habib in the Melting Pot
Australia: The United States has brought three criminal charges against Australian David Hicks, accusing him of conspiracy to commit war crimes, attempted murder and aiding the enemy, the Pentagon has said.

Rumsfeld had approved abuse
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld authorised hoods, the stripping of prisoners and the use of dogs to terrify inmates at Guantanamo Bay almost two years ago, documents released yesterday revealed.

How much is that doggy in the prison? Woof woof!
Did the Iraqi prisoner's get their rations while they were treated like chums?

Failure to condemn prison abuse risks lives: Kenny
The Prime Minister is morally bankrupt stay "alert and alarmed"

Prisoner's identity concealed to prevent Red Cross access
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, acting at the request of the CIA, ordered that a suspected Iraqi insurgent leader be detained off the books to conceal his identity from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the Pentagon has confirmed.

US has secret prisons: rights group
The United States is holding terrorism suspects in more than two dozen detention centres worldwide, about half of which operate in total secrecy, according to a new human rights report.

This won't hurt much
For some time now, I've been trying to find out where my son goes after choir practice. He simply refuses to tell me. He says it's no business of mine where he goes after choir practice and it's a free country.

Torture can never be justified

We don't need no standard pain. We don't need no standard minimum rules for the Torture of Prisoners!

I am forwarding the following statement issued by AMCRAN in regards to a paper: "Not Enough (Official) Torture in the World? The Circumstances in which Torture is Morally Justifiable" written by Professor Mirko Bagaric, Head of Deakin Law School & Julie Clarke, Lecturer, Deakin Law School, in which they justify torture.

I have been reading the paper and I find it abhorrent. I am amazed that these individuals are heading a leading university and involved in the preparation/education of law students.

According to Bagaric and Clarke "The pejorative connotation associated with torture should be abolished. A dispassionate analysis of the propriety of torture indicates that it is morally justifiable," and they go on to argue their point as to when torture is "morally permissible."

To them the prohibition of torture is "pragmatically unrealistic," to argue for an individual's "absolute right" is "in fact nonsense." If people found themselves in the position of sanctioning torture or rejecting it they would surely opt, according to the circumstances, for the former.

We don't need no thought control.

It seems that advocates for such immoral act are trying their best to start a discussion on the subject, engendering fear and panic to excuse the barbaric act of torture. The issue is that these are 'sick, psychopathic' arguments, which will not only appeal to vulnerable individuals of our society but also to fascists and psychopaths.

One of the members of the Canterbury-Bankstown Peace group, Mr Mamdouh Habib, was subjected to torture. Mr Habib's ordeal has not ended. He continues to be harassed and psychologically traumatised by the 'authorities' of the Howard Government.

No dark chasms in the classroom.

The CBPG will be organising a forum to bring to the public the plight of Mamdouh, as well as that of David Hicks and Ahmed Aziz Rafiq who continue being hostage of the US administration. [We will keep you informed]

David and Ahmed are being tortured this very minute, like more than 500 others imprisoned at Guantanamo and more than 17,000 imprisoned in various parts of the world by the US torture squad. We need to stop this.

Teacher, leave those kids alone.

Torture is a barbaric act, morally wrong!

Please write to "Professor" Mirko Bagaric & "Lecturer" Julie Clarke of Deakin Law School.

Hey, teacher, leave those kids alone!

For a world without torture (& without academics such a Bagaric & Clarke), Marlene Obeid (Mob.0401 758 871)

All in all it's just another prick under your fingernail.
All in all you're just another prick in the in the Neo-Liberal Party.

Civil rights group says torture can never be justified

SYDNEY, Australia - 17 May 2005 - A Muslim civil rights group is appalled by claims by two Deakin University academics that torture can be justified as an interrogation method.

We don't need no torture education.

The Australian Muslim Civil Rights Advocacy Network (AMCRAN) condemns Professor Mirko Bagaricâs comments to the Age newspaper that some cases would legally justify the torture of an innocent person to death.

"Nothing -- no moral, legal or philosophical argument -- can genuinely justify the use of torture", said Dr Waleed Kadous, co-convenor of AMCRAN. "It is a demarcation between civilization and barbarism that we must never cross."

We don't need no thought control.

"Indeed, the view that a good end might be reached through an evil method mirrors the thinking that lies at the heart of the 'public threats' that torture would supposedly prevent."

"Furthermore, entrusting these kinds of powers to any government can only lead to abuse and misuse", Dr Kadous warned.

No dark chasms in the classroom.

"Historically, governments that have held the power to torture have misused them. Indeed, the use of torture by the Saddam regime has been frequently cited as a principle justification for our presence in Iraq."

The Islamic faith, like all world faiths, joins anyone who has studied the lessons of history, in condemning torture in all its forms.

Teachers, leave those kids alone.

International treaties like the Geneva Convention and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights were not born out of theory, but in the aftermath of the bloodbaths of two massive world wars.

"It is particularly disturbing that a proponent and apologist for torture has been sitting on the Refugee Review Tribunal deciding the fate of people who may themselves be victims of torture," said Dr Kadous.

Hey, teacher, leave those kids alone!

For more information contact:
Sydney: Dr Waleed Kadous Ph: 0403 440 586
Melbourne: Nasya Bahfen Ph: 0422 564 485
Australian Muslim Civil Rights Advocacy Network

All in all you're just another prick under your fingernail. All in all you're just another prick in the Neo-Liberal Party.

United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners. Or Standard guidelines for corrections in Australia.

By Gregory Kable, Marlene Obeid and Pink Floyd posted 23 May 05

Related:

Torture not acceptable on anyone: Community!
Australia: A former chairman of the National Crime Authority has spoken out in favour of torture for John HoWARd and the Neo-Cons no doubt, saying it should be used against terrorists and in domestic criminal situations but not against QC's?

Torture okay: propaganda paper
Mean in Black John HoWARd and Pastor Peter Costello with Professor Mirko Bagaric, and fellow Deakin lecturer Julie Clarke, torture okay for them. Question?

Association for the Prevention of Torture
What needs to be done now? All States Parties to the UN Convention against Torture should seriously consider ratifying the OPCAT as soon as possible. National Institutions and others promoting the human rights of people deprived of their liberty need to be informed of their potential role as national preventive mechanisms under the OPCAT.

Chronology of a Tasmanian Prison System: A Documented Report
Prison Action and Reform is dedicated to progressive reforms in criminal justice and to the humane treatment of inmates in our prison system.

ICOPA XI International Conference on Penal Abolition
We are excited to announce that ICOPA X1, the eleventh International Conference on Penal Abolition will happen in Tasmania, Australia from February 9 - 11,2006. Please pass this onto all networks.

CUBA: A letter to Amnesty USA
I write as an Australian prisoners' rights campaigner who has been watching Amnesty's interventions over the arrests and jailing of several dozen "dissidents" in Cuba over the past two years. I have also visited Cuba on two occasions.

Unlock the Box:
Unlock the Box is a product of many years of struggle to shut down the Security Housing Units in California. During this time, the United Front to Abolish the SHU was created as a forum to coordinate the actions of everyone involved in this campaign.

Baxter,'akin to the time in Nazi Germany'
I went to Baxter this Easter just past, and became more aware that this time is akin to the time in Nazi Germany when the concentration camps were being set up.

Decade after inspector left in disgust, report tells of filth
UK: Dirty, mice-infested cells, high levels of self-harm, and widespread bullying over drugs and medications were just some of the damning findings of a report into conditions at Holloway, Britain's largest women's prison.

Overhaul Department of Justice: Reform Group
WA: The Prison Reform Group of WA is calling for a complete overhaul of the Department of Justice following recent events which have compromised its integrity, placing prison staff, prisoners, their families and the community, at risk. We call for the Minister to publicly apologise for last week's debacle which has seen the public badly let down by the Department of Justice yet again.

Breakthrough in prison revolt
Philippines: The Un-Australian: "NEGOTIATORS last night made a breakthrough in the 12-hour standoff with al-Qa'ida-linked militants?, (suspected and imprisoned people) who staged an escape attempt from a Philippines prison that left six people dead."

Control order flaws exposed
UK: First interview with ex-detainee reveals a regime that leaves him in despair : Ex-detainee exposes flaws in terror control orders.

CIA defends terror suspect transfers?
Suspected terrorists [scapegoats for the Coalition of the Killings's resource wars in the Middle East] in US custody have been transferred to third countries for the past 20 years, CIA director Porter Goss told the US Senate armed services committee.

Noble Cause Torture?
AUSTRALIA: The Labor Party has decided not to support a Senate inquiry into new allegations made by Mamdouh Habib that the Australian Government cooperated with Egyptian intelligence authorities who he insists tortured him.

Detention Centres, Solitary Confinement
On Friday night the NSW Council for Civil Liberties awarded Sydney solicitor John Marsden honorary life membership. Julian Burnside was invited to make the speech in Marsden's honour. In the course of his speech, Burnside referred to the unregulated use of solitary confinement in Australia's immigration detention centres, criticising it as inhumane and also as unlawful.

Youth 'murdered for officers' pleasure'
UK: An Asian teenager was murdered by a white racist after they were placed in the same cell as part of a game to fulfil the "perverted pleasure" of prison officers, a public inquiry heard on Friday.

Deaths in isolation as prison segregation increases
The use of segregation [solitary confinement] of prisoners as punishment has been increasing recently in Australia, the US, and the UK. Segregation can be used for protection or punishment, but in both cases it results in extreme psychological stress. An indication that segregation is being over-used is the appearance of deaths in custody from suicide of those placed in segregation.

Fascist Australian Govt torture exposed
The fascist Federal Government has been exposed for the torture of Australian Mamdouh Habib and the US Government's allegations against him (if they were true) would have been made under duress.

Put in the way of self-harm in a place intended to protect others
UK: Sarah Campbell, 18, spent the last hours of her life in the segregation unit of Styal prison, Cheshire. "The seg", as those places are referred to, used to be known as "the block", short for punishment block. [ Seg is a bullshit word for Punishment, Solitary Confinement, Torture, Mental Illness, Self-Harm, Human Rights Abuse and that is State Terror.]

Where the Norm is Not the Norm: HARM-U
In the absence of public policy, this paper is an attempt to shine a light through the rhetoric and test for coherency in the policy and function of NSW’s only supermax prison, the High Risk Management Unit. Its present use will be compared with the ‘vision’ flogged by the Premier and the Department of Corrective Services (the Department) at its inception in 2001.

Downer won't press US for 'torture' report?
The Australian Government says it has tried and failed so far to get a copy of a report by the International Red Cross which claims psychological and physical coercion of detainees at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba?

UK solitary confinement
UK: Segregation units are prisons within prisons - the places where the most unchecked brutality is meted out to prisoners. In recent years conditions in high security segregation units have deteriorated, and the use of long-term segregation as a control mechanism has increased.

Inquiry must root out prison racists
UK: It is difficult to imagine a more brutal murder than that of Zahid Mubarek. The 19-year-old was clubbed to death by his cellmate at Feltham Young Offender Institution in the early hours of 21 March 2000. He was due to be released just a few hours later.

Justice Denied In NSW Corrective Services
There used to be a (VJ) or Visiting Justice who would go into the prison and judge any claim or accusation that was made by any prisoner or prison guard. If it were found that a prisoner had offended then punishment was metered out.

Torture, the British way
Great to be British, isn't it? Time was, we were really uptight, but now we can talk about anything - sex, religion, politics. No matter how personal and complex the subject, we'll discuss it with Richard and Judy, or slap our private Polaroids of it on our websites. Which leaves me puzzled about our silence, even shyness, over this whole torture thing.

Prison suicides soar as jails hire 'babysitters'
UK: Prison officers are being taken off suicide watch and replaced by unqualified 'babysitters' because the system is overwhelmed by an epidemic of self-harm.

Concern as UK prison suicides hit record level
UK: More prisoners took their own lives in English jails in August than in any other month since records began, prison reformers said today.

Abu Ghraib inquiry slams Aust Government
A US inquiry into the Iraqi prison abuse scandal has been highly critical of Australian, Major George O'Kane, for glossing over early warnings about the treatment of detainees.

Guantanamo abuse claims prompt new inquiry calls
New claims of abuse at Guantanamo Bay Cuba have prompted fresh calls for an Australian inquiry into the treatment of detainees David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib.

Justice Action: NSW Corrective Services undermine prisoner contact For nearly 20 years, Justice Action has been corresponding regularly with individual prisoners without seeking approval from the Commissioner of Corrective Services for each individual letter sent to them.

Mamdouh Habib: Taunted and Tortured!
Habib came to ASIO's notice when he fell out with the ADF obviously someone had it in for Mamdouh and the ADF tipped off ASIO and the AFP to taunt him. By the sounds of it he was declared a wog. That's Aussie slang for get the bastard he's not one of ours and we can discriminate against him he is an easy target. Aussie race hate!

Habib to face US military trial
The United States Government has given the go-ahead for the Australian Guantanamo Bay inmate, Mamdouh Habib, to go to trial for being innocent. Mr Habib could now be granted access to a military and civilian legal team.

US tortured Habib in Egypt: report
Australian terror suspect Mamdoub Habib was allegedly tortured in Egypt before being sent to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, according to the Pakistani Government.

There is no justification for torture
In the weeks since the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison were revealed, evidence continues to seep out of similar mistreatment of prisoners in other US military detention centers in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay.

End of years of despair as Holloway closes its doors
But now Holloway prison in north London - where Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be executed in Britain, was hanged in 1955 - has been earmarked for closure, along with several other women's prisons, which have been hit by a spate of suicides.

Abu Ghraib, USA
When I first saw the photo, taken at the Abu Ghraib prison, of a hooded and robed figure strung with electrical wiring, I thought of the Sacramento, California, city jail.

On Solitary Confinement
There has been much written about solitary confinement by some of the world's leading psychiatrists, but very little written by victims of solitary themselves. I believe that the 32 years I have spent in solitary qualifies me for the task.

Rumsfeld had approved abuse
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld authorised hoods, the stripping of prisoners and the use of dogs to terrify inmates at Guantanamo Bay almost two years ago, documents released yesterday revealed.

Failure to condemn prison abuse risks lives: Kenny
The Prime Minister is morally bankrupt stay "alert and alarmed"

Prisoner's identity concealed to prevent Red Cross access
US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, acting at the request of the CIA, ordered that a suspected Iraqi insurgent leader be detained off the books to conceal his identity from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the Pentagon has confirmed.

US has secret prisons: rights group
The United States is holding terrorism suspects in more than two dozen detention centres worldwide, about half of which operate in total secrecy, according to a new human rights report.

Prisoner Abuse Not Just in Iraq
The shocking revelations of abuse of prisoners by US prison guards in Iraq have been denounced by politicians around the world, including our own Prime Minister.

How detox and self-help brought suicide jail back from the brink
UK: Six suicides in 12 months made Styal jail notorious and the Prisons Ombudsman criticised the prison and its staff for serious failures. But things are changing.

Belmarsh detainees consider suicide, says freed man
UK: The first of the Muslim detainees released from Belmarsh high security prison after being held on suspicion of terrorism has told the Guardian his fellow prisoners are suffering such severe mental problems that they constantly consider suicide.

Maoist Internationalist Movement
March 6 -- Protesters took to the streets in cities across the state of California to demand California prisons shut down the Security Housing Units (SHU). Like other control unit prisons across the country, the SHU are prisons within a prison. They are solitary confinement cells where prisoners are locked up 23 hours a day for years at a time. The one hour a day these prisoner sometimes get outside of their cell is spent alone in an exercise pen not much larger than their cell, with no direct sunlight.

The Nagle Report 25 years on
In 1976 the New South Wales Government invited Mr Justice Nagle to head the Royal Commission into NSW Prisons. The Royal CommissionÕs Report was tabled in Parliament in March 1978.

REPORT CARD ON NSW PRISONS
Former Royal Commissioner Justice John Nagle and Professor Tony Vinson are the keynote speakers at a seminar this week marking 25 years since the landmark Nagle Report into NSW prisons.

From Terrell Unit in Texas to Abu Ghraib Doesn't It Ring a (Prison) Bell If the president wasn't so forthright about his disinterest in the world, it would have been hard to believe him Wednesday when he said the abuse in Abu Ghraib prison "doesn't represent the America I know."

High court keeps alive case of inmates held in solitary
NEW ORLEANS: The nation's highest court refused Monday to kill a lawsuit brought by two prisoners and an ex-inmate at the Louisiana State Penitentiary who spent decades in solitary confinement.

High Risk Management Unit (HRMU) INSPECTION
The Special Care Unit (SCU) at Long Bay Correctional Centre was inspired by Barlinnie. The SCU was opened in 1981 to replace the Observation Unit, which was strongly criticised by the Nagle Report. The SCU was closed in 1997 because of lack of record-keeping which could give a measure of effectiveness. The SCU was replaced by the Four-Stage Violence Prevention Program, which is housed within the Metropolitan Special Programs Centre (MSPC).

Watchdogs slaughtered in NSW
On Tuesday the Carr Government reduced transparency and accountability yet again and New South Wales is in danger of becoming entrenched with cronyism and intimidations with the Carr Labor Government that continues to slaughter the watchdogs.

Escape proof but not so the prisoners mind
Fewer prisoners escape from prison these days because they're "cemented in" by materials that do not break and by legislation that can keep prisoners in jail until they die.

Suicides and unrest have soared, admits Home Office
UK:The already overcrowded prison population is set to go on rising and will top 80,000 within the next three years, a senior Home Office civil servant warned yesterday.