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Buried Alive Cruel and Unusual Punishment
Torture in US prisons.
by Stephen Lendman
What America's Eighth Amendment and international law prohibit, US federal, state and local prisons permit.
Solitary Watch reports "news from a nation in lockdown" to bring America's widespread use of barbaric "solitary confinement and other forms of torture in U.S. prisons out of the shadows and into the light of the public square."
It calls the practice "one of the most pressing (unaddressed) domestic human rights issues in America today - and also one of the most invisible."
Many thousands are affected. More on that below. Supposedly solely for the "worst of the worst," it's used abusively as punishment without cause, despite no legitimate penological purpose.
"Today, inmates can be placed in complete isolation for months or years not only for violent acts but for possessing contraband, using drugs, ignoring orders, or using profanity."
Thousands are isolated for whatever reasons authorities choose. Some were for being gang members "based on information from other inmates who are rewarded for 'snitching,' " whether or not what they said was true.
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