PRISONER RIGHTS, THE CONSTITUTION AND THE AMERICAN JUDICIAL SYSTEM

by Sherry Swiney

December 30, 2000

 

All citizens of the United States have certain rights which are imposed by the Constitution of the United States.  When a person is convicted of a crime and sentenced to prison, that person remains a citizen and the only right removed is the right to roam freely in society.  His/her right to free speech and due process are not removed.  His right to fair treatment and the basics for living are not removed.  His right to individuality is not removed. 

 

In an Opinion of the United States Supreme Court Procunier v. Marinez 416 U.S. 396, 428; 94 S. Ct. 1800, 1818 n. 14, 40 L.Ed 2d 224 (1974) we see the following: "When the prison gates slam behind an inmate, he does not lose his human quality; his mind does not become closed to ideas; his intellect does not cease to feed on a free and open interchange of opinions; his yearning for self-respect does not end nor is quest for self-realization concluded.  If anything, the need for identity and self-respect are more compelling in the dehumanizing prison environment…"

 

The role of the penal system is to hold an offender away from society for the duration dictated by the courts.  The role of the penal system is not to torture and punish.  The punishment is the removal from society and loss of freedom.  Imprisonment alone is the punishment.  Additional punishment is forbidden by Law.

 

Prison Administrators are bound by law that there shall be no discrimination on grounds of race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, religious beliefs, moral percepts, birth or other status [meaning also the legal reason for the conviction].  According to the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners http://www.hrw.org/advocacy/prisons/un-smrs.htm Prisoners can expect clean living conditions, healthy food and proper medical care.

 

Except for those limitations that are demonstrably necessitated by the fact of incarceration, all prisoners shall retain the human rights and fundamental freedoms set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and, where the State concerned is a party, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Optional Protocol thereto, as well as such other rights as are set out in other United Nations covenants.  http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/g2bpt.htm

 

Medical abuses and neglect are forbidden such as prisoner, Chad Bennett TDCJ # 790798, at the Wynne Unit in Huntsville Texas and the story is at,  http://maxpages.com/copbrutality  (and then click on "index") .  The fact that a detained or imprisoned person underwent a medical examination, the name of the physician and the results of such an examination shall be duly recorded.  Access to such records shall be ensured.  Modalities therefore shall be in accordance with relevant rules of domestic law. http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/g3bpppdi.htm

 

Moreover, the role of the penal system is to "correct" the behavior of the offender in preparation for the day when his/her duration of imprisonment has ended.  This means that every effort is to be taken by the prisons to help every offender improve their lives.

 

Okay, those are the Rules that are already in place.  If anyone in this Nation knows of any prison that is following any of these rules, please come forward because all reports coming in from across the Nation indicate that none of these rules are being followed.  This means that all prisons in the United States are in violation of these basic rules for the treatment of prisoners.  People are dying from medical neglect, lack of proper food, physical, mental and psychological abuse. 

 

Most prisons in the United States do not presently work to improve the lives of prisoners and when they are released, they have nowhere to go but back to prison unless they have a support system on the outside to help them get back on their feet with jobs, training, education, a place to live, clothes, and other basics needed to re-establish themselves as law-abiding tax-paying citizens.  In addition, our own Society is unforgiving and does not allow a newly released prisoner half a chance to start over again.  The pressures on released prisoners and their families to reduce recidivism are enormous.  What society doesn't realize [yet] is that when a prisoner is released and does not return to prison, crime for that community, that person, that family, has been reduced.  When society turns its back, making it impossible for a soul to begin again, recidivism necessarily increases which means crime is increased.!

 

Is it by design that society refuses to welcome formerly errant citizens who have paid their price, done their time?

And is it by design that the penal system promotes recidivism by dehumanizing, abusing, torturing, or neglecting?  It appears that way.  We must all realize that Prison is big business, and therefore it does not "pay" to empty the prisons.  Empty prisons are bad for the bottom-line revenue of the Prison Business.  To combat this, to change this, to reduce crime, the Prison Business could very well thrive as a Rehabilitation Business.  But in the end, with our errant citizens being rehabilitated, crime would become a thing of the past and that business would become defunct.  Were we an enlightened society that placed good over evil, love over wealth, law over corruption, such a promise of corporate demise would be cheered, toasted, promoted and funded by the American People.

 

Instead, those who stand up for measures such as Equal Justice according to Law, Equal Opportunity according to Humanity, Love and Compassion, are frequently scorned by the very society who cries out for crime reduction measures that dehumanize their own kind, thus defeating their own wishes in the end.  When you are treated with disrespect, when you are abused, when you are neglected, will you then respect in return?  When you make a mistake, when you are forgiven, when you are treated with respect and taught to survive, will you then not be thankful and respectful?

Anyone who separates themselves from safety for a noble cause, is always awarded, and this is Patrick Swiney [Sweeney] and others from the core of their hearts www.patrickcrusade.org.  They care so much about the injustice in this country, that they are willing to put themselves in jeopardy to expose what's happening to them and so many others.  The injustice is revealing to anyone who has the strength of character to look.  Our forefathers had the same heart and this drove them to write the sacred documents, the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights, to ensure that this country would never fall into tyranny.  Today, Patriots sing at the top of their lungs to tell We The People that we have fallen into a government that condones Constitutional Violations with impunity.  When The! People are afraid of their government, as they are today, we have tyranny; when the Government is afraid of The People, as it should be, we have freedom and justice for all. 

Though it may be Corporations such as the Punishment Industry driving the corruption in America, it is People -- blinded by money and/or promises of power -- who are responsible for "how" such corporations treat human beings.  We have met the enemy and it is us.  The men, women and children of this era who have learned this Truth, shall not go away, but shall grow.  We shall continue educating the Public who have become blinded, by design, over the years. 

There will come a day when Politicians who vote for "tough on crime" rhetoric, including death penalty and severe punishment rather than treatment and rehabilitation programs, will be voted out of office or prevented from gaining office in government.  Politicians who do not follow their hearts on what's right and just, but who follow their pocketbooks and dreams of power, shall not be able to rule over The People, but the people shall rule over them as it should be. 

When this happens, constitutional violations in our courts that wrongly imprison people and abusive prison environments shall cease to exist.  Errant citizens who are convicted by unbiased Due Process according to Law, will be removed from society and they will be treated, educated, and prepared for re-entry into society after their duration in prison has ended -- and they shall not return to prison because they will have learned to respect themselves and other human beings; they will have learned to survive without taking from others that which is not theirs to take; and an enlightened society will give them a second chance in Life.

The "cost" to our society is too high right now, and this must change.

This is the new millennium.  Mankind should be evolving as rapidly as its technology is evolving.  But Mankind, as a whole, is still barbaric and cruel.  May our heavenly Father have mercy on us all.  May we learn now what we will all eventually learn tomorrow -- that Human Beings deserve to be treated with respect from birth to grave, that mistakes happen, that judging is wrong when we are not a society who is willing to take responsibility for the faults of others, for we have created a Monster in society by the mere approval of the injustices, cruelty, and blatant constitutional violations that are bestowed upon millions of Americans today.  Each member of American Society has a responsibility to their own freedom and the freedom of their neighbors and grandchildren.  Until Freedom becomes more important than money, power, and safety, we shall remain an enslaved society.  ! The rest of the world is watching us to see what we do.  America's Society is no longer respected.  Will the American People continue drowning themselves and their children in their own fantasy propaganda, preferring slavery over independence and freedom?  History shall be the judge of that.

Senator Robert F. Kennedy, in the Day of Affirmation Address at the University of Capetown, South Africa, 1966 stated: "It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples [to] build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and injustice."  Was Kennedy a hopeless dreamer or are we strong enough to meet the challenge of offering hope as enlightened Human Beings rather than continuing down the path of barbarians as de-evolved homo-sapiens?  The choice may not be an easy one, but it is definitely ours -- and ours alone -- to make.

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