And
while my most desperate concern is for my husband, his health and
well-being, tonight I am literally sickened, having learned about a
sadistic practice that prison employees call "diesel therapy." Were you
aware that the BOP has its own "air force"? I wasn't. But apparently
they own lots of planes, employ pilots, and have all the accompanying
expenses - it's only tax dollars, right? This weekend, I learned that
these resources are often used to torture prisoners, and it's called
"diesel therapy." When a prisoner has "upset" a prison employee - not
broken a rule, mind you, just upset an employee - the prisoner is
subject to being awakened in the middle of the night, put on a plane,
and flown from place to place, without being told where he is, where he
is going, and without his family being able to find him.
All telephone,
mail, and visiting ends; they may leave him in a place, not just
federal prisons but county jails are used as well, for a day or two,
then move him again, sometimes for weeks at a time, to the point that
the prisoner doesn't even know his own name. I was told that sometimes
they put someone on a plane and fly him around, ultimately returning him
to the place he started. Just another form of abuse. And wasting
resources in this manner is rewarded!
As the end of an appropriation year nears, the BOP has to use any
unspent funds in order to appeal for more money for the next fiscal year, There is concern aamong the prisoners and their families that there is likely to be much more "diesel therapy" in the coming months.
Whoa!
I had never heard of "diesel therapy," but it doesn't sound remotely therapeutic to me. (It does resemble rendition a bit, however.)
I fervently hope that Gary escapes this special, tax-payer sponsored
treatment. Thank you for talking with me again, Judy. I know we still
have much more to discuss in upcoming installments. I invite our readers
to stay tuned.
***
Other pieces in my series with Judy:
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Joan Brunwasser is a co-founder of Citizens for Election Reform (CER) which since 2005 existed for the sole purpose of raising the public awareness of the critical need for election reform. Our goal: to restore fair, accurate, transparent, secure elections where votes are cast in private and counted in public. Because the problems with electronic (computerized) voting systems include a lack of (more...)