Systematic
Abuse and Torture
in US Prisons
- abroad and at home
Traces
lead from Abu-Ghraib back to the death row of SCI Greene,
Pennsylvania, USA
By
Annette
Schiffmann
TFF associate
German Network to Free
Mumia Abu-Jamal
Heidelberg, Germany, May 11,
2004
"Their treatment does not
reflect the nature of the American people. That's not the
way we do things in America," President George W. Bush
commented on May 8 concerning the soldiers who are
accused of torturing inmates of the prison Abu-Ghraib in
Iraq.
In the course of the last days it
has become obvious that the USA doesn't constrain itself
to deploying military troops to the so-called crisis
regions of the world. It also sends staff of private
security corporations as well as state and federal
security guards.
Sargent Charles A. Graner, one of
the main defendants in the Abu-Ghraib torture scandal, is
one of the 16,000 employees of the Pennsylvania National
Security Guards, who are serving as guards in the 26
prisons of the State of Pennsylvania. 4,000 of them have
been deployed to Bosnia, Kosovo, and Afghanistan during
the last years. Graner was sent to Iraq together with 400
colleagues one year ago, but his regular workplace is the
death row wing of the Maximum Security Prison SCI Greene
near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This is the very prison
which houses, in addition to a large fraction of
Pennsylvania's death row population, one of the most
famous death row prisoners of the world. The African
American journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal, convicted for
allegedly killing a cop back in the year 1981, has by now
spent almost ten years there.
Greene, newly built 10 years ago as
the "shining jewel in the crown of correctional
institutions" has been notorious for the extreme abuse of
its prisoners nearly from the start. In 1998, there was a
first major hearing concerning 42 prison guards; two of
them were dismissed as a consequence, while 22 were
reprimanded or were suspended - from 2 to 10 days (!) -
because they had been found guilty for kicking, beating,
humiliating or otherwise abusing inmates.
Charles A. Graner, 35, was one of
them - a fact the prison authorities of Greene repeatedly
denied during the last days "on grounds of privacy laws."
But according to court documents on record in the U.S.
District Court in Pittsburgh, Graner was one among a
group of defendants sued by inmates for civil rights
violations involving accusations of prison abuse not only
once, but twice.
In one case, Graner and another
guard at SCI Greene were accused of forcing an inmate to
eat a razor blade. Another inmate claimed Graner roughed
him up during a search for contraband.
Both lawsuits were dismissed by
federal judges, one because the inmate involved had
already been released from prison in June 2000, when the
trial finally took place, and couldn't be located for the
trial. The other case was terminated on other legal
grounds.
At the hearing in April 1998, which
was preceded by more than 12 months of legal complaints
of prison lawyers, inmates of the prison, and the
Pennsylvania Abolitionist, 36 incidents were litigated.
All of them had to do with extreme and systematic abuse,
so-called "special treatment" from the prison "top," and
systematic racist humiliations of the non-white
prisoners, who represent 76% of the total, by the nearly
almost white guards. Many of the abuses had been recorded
by the security cameras of the prison.
In a press release after the
hearing, Randy Gauger, Chair of the Quaker Prison Society
in Pennsylvania, expressed how absolutely disturbed he
and his organization were about the sentences that
resulted of the deliberations. "It is possible that the
guards were ordered to use force, and now the captains
will try to use the guards as scapegoats by saying they
initiated it themselves." Gauger made it very clear that
he viewed the problem as a structural one.
The prison authorities had had
ongoing knowledge about the videotapes taken by the
security cameras and had not undertaken any measures.
Corrections Commissioner Martin Horn declined any comment
on any of this.
This was, in fact, a repeat of his
performance at the time when Amnesty International
published its report on the situation in SCI Greene in
1998. AI's Secretary General Pierre Sané, after
hearing the testimonies of long-term inmates Mumia
Abu-Jamal and Scott Blystone, then stated in an unusually
emotional tone: "Death row in Pennsylvania looks and
feels like a morgue. From the moment that condemned
prisoners arrive, the state tries to kill them slowly,
mechanically and deliberately - first spiritually, and
then physically."
And the report went on: "According
to the prisoners' testimony, these efforts include
beatings by guards, isolation, continual withdrawal of
privileges, unnecessary disciplinary action and
harassment."
Since the hearings in 1998 the
Philadelphia Abolitionists have received continuous
report of heavy abuse - the last one in this spring. And
Martin Horn is still the Corrections Commissioner in
Greene, well-known to many people in the movement for the
freedom of Mumia Abu-Jamal and against death penalty.
Last year, Abu-Jamal was denied urgently necessary
medical treatment for months before the prison
authorities gave in after having received literally
thousands of phone calls.
Charles A. Graner, who is presently
accused of having directed the torture of prisoners at
the Iraqi prison of Abu-Ghraib, was a member of the US
Army from April 1988 until May 1996, and since 1990 he
has been on the payroll of the Department of Corrections
(DOC) in Pennsylvania. At the same time he is a member of
the 372nd Military Police Company stationed in Maryland,
which sent him to Iraq.
According to testimony from a
military investigation into the abuse, Graner was put in
charge of some operations at Abu-Ghraib because he had
experience and knew "how things were supposed to be run."
The Green County Observer quotes DOC spokeswoman Sue
MacNaughton on the torturing of prisoners in Iraq: "We're
waiting to see what the outcome will be with the
military." McNaughton declined to comment on questions
regarding Graner's employment history. As did the prison
authorities in Greene when this writer called
today.
Before the incidents in Iraq,
Graner was due to return to SCI Greene on June 9. Whether
he will or will not do this now is unclear as of
yet.
The Pennsylvania Abolitionists held
a press conference on May 5 and demanded his immediate
dismissal from the payroll of the State of Pennsylvania.
Another person accused of torturing
prisoners in Abu-Ghraib is Sargent Ivan Frederick from
Virginia who in his civilian life also works as a prison
guard - as corrections officer at Buckingham Correctional
Center, a state prison in rural Dillwyn,
Virginia.
"They are learning a lot about
people and cultures - lessons that will make them even
more valued employees," Corrections Secretary Jeffrey A.
Beard recently said about the DOC employees "serving our
country" abroad.
And the rest of the world is
learning a lot about U.S. values and culture, too.
Annette Schiffmann
German Network to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
anna.schiff@t-online.de
The author warmly reccomends all of
Mumia Abu-Jamals books available at FrontList.com
More
information about Mumia Abu-Jamal
Links to sources for this
story:
The
Jericho Movement about Graner
The
Pennsylvania Abolitionists
Department
of Corrections Pennsylvania
Newspaper articles about current
DOC employee Charles A. Graner
Pittsburgh
Tribune-Review, May 5 2004
Pittsburgh
Tribune-Review, May 8, 2004
Pittsburgh
Tribune-Review, May 15, 2004
Pittsburgh
Tribune-Review, May 15, 2004
Articles about prisoner abuse at
SCI-Greene
News
Release Issued by the International Secretariat of
Amnesty International November
1997
"The
Greene Experience' - Life on SCI-Greene's Death Row" by
Roger Buehl January 22, 1998
"Pa.
Department of Corrections to Investigate Abuse at Greene"
April 9th, 1998
"Brutality
Scandal Explodes at SCI Greene" April 11,
1998
"Guards
Applaud Prison Official's Swift Demotion" Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette April 21, 1998
"The
Hole Truth" - Philadelphia City Paper - April 30,
1998
"Whitewash
in Greene County" by Mumia Abu-Jamal May 4,
1998
"State
prison officers demoted, fired; Waynesburg officers
reprimanded for abuse of inmates"
Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette Wednesday, May 06, 1998
"13
More Guards Disciplined at Pennsylvania Prison as Scandal
Grows" May 20, 1998
"Dead
Serious" - Philadelphia City Paper- May 28,
1998
"Under
Sentence of Death: Conditions on Pennsylvania's Death
Row" - Amnesty International USA
"Beatings
at Greene County" by Dr. Julian Heicklen provides
extensive documentation of abuse at
SCI-Greene
©
TFF & the author 2004
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