by Robert Saleem Holbrook

Imprisonment in the United States is distinguished from imprisonment in the rest of the world by one enduring trait = the total and complete humiliation and de-humanization of the prisoner. This trait demonstrates why the U.S. prison system is a total failure and shunned by the rest of the world. While other countries prison systems may toil under brutal and inhumane conditions, particularly in the developing world, that are not up to American standards these countries "treatment" and "conditions" of their prisoners and prisons owes more to the lack of funds available or a unwillingness to invest in their prisons systems as opposed to a government philosophy guiding their treatment of prisoners. So while conditions in Mexican prisons are brutal and inhumane it is not owed to a specific government policy rather it is because as a developing country Mexico does not have the funds to invest in the upgrading of its prison system. However even if Mexico had the surplus money to invest in its prison system it is unlikely, based on regional and international trends, that Mexico would adopt the United States imprisonment model. Why? Because it simply does not work.

Canada on the other hand is a nation that has the money to invest in its prison system and its facilities and treatment of prisoners would be up to or exceed American standards however Canadians shun the American model of humiliating and de-humanizing prisoners in preference to a model based on punishment, rehabilitation and empowering the prisoner as a individual. Canada does not mass imprison drug offenders and acknowledges drug addiction as a disease, it allows and encourages prisoners to maintain their humanity and promotes family and the institution of marriage. It reserves imprisonment for only the most violent and habitual offenders and even then does not deliberately isolate the prisoner from his/her family and community. It works actively to reintegrate offenders back into the community and does not use their imprisonment as a "scarlet letter" branded on their backs forever causing them employment problems. It has abolished mandatory sentences and does something practically unheard of in American "corrections", it actually holds prison staff accountable for their actions. Families of prisoners in alliance with local legislators recently successfully shut down one of Canada's first private prisons after allegations and actual incidents of abuse and mismanagement surfaced. Such a alliance would be impossible in America's present political climate where the concerns of prisoners families are disregarded by politicians eager to cater to a victims rights movement that has been highjacked by right wing conservative activists.

The "distinct" model of imprisonment in the United States owes its origins and development to the end of chattel slavery in the United States. The "philosophies" of corrections and slavery are intrinsically linked by a common objective which is the de-humanization and humiliation of the individual. The institution of slavery denied that the slave was a man and totally sought to strip him/her of their sense of identity, humanity and individuality. It turned man into a number. It was this denial, that the slave was not human and did not possess a soul, that distinguished chattel slavery in the United States from slavery in other regions of the America's.

With the abolition of slavery in the United States the philosophical underpinnings of the institution was shifted into the emerging prison system of the United States. The philosophy of "corrections" denied the prisoner was a man and sought to reduce him/her to a number. Prisoners were labeled "slaves of the state" and the process of stripping them of their humanity, identity,self-worth, individuality, etc was undertaken not by a class of slaveholders but by the bureaucracy of the state. Although throughout the years there have been different trends on how prisoners should be treated one common trend has endured and that is the de-humanization of the prisoner. From the moment a prisoner enters the Department of Corrections his/her humanity and individuality is methodically and deliberately stripped and his/her human rights trampled upon. Our nation's much celebrated 13th Amendment eliminated one class of slavery while legitimizing another class/concept of slavery:

"Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for a crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Section 2. Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

-13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

Mass imprisonment is the model of American "corrections". Mass imprisonment of drug offenders and juvenile offenders. Drug addiction regarded as criminal, imprisonment of the mentally insane, the severance of prisoners from their families though distant transfers as state policy, imprisonment as profit, child offenders sentenced to life without parole, chain gangs, prisoners as "whipping bags" of society. elimination of educational and vocational programs in the prison system to build more prison beds, the use of mass imprisonment to maintain low unemployment rates, racial/ethnic profiling, prisoners placed in "SuperMax" prisons in isolation for years, disproportionate sentencing guidelines for minority offenders, dracionian mandatory sentencing guidelines. The list is endless. What country would want to duplicate this model?

In terms of treatment of prisoners and the protection of human rights under international law the United States has either not signed or completely disregarded international treaties governing the treatment of prisoners such as the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, Convention on the Rights of the Child, Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhumane or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Basic Principles for the Treatment of Prisoners, Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention. Declaration on the Protection of All Persons Being Subjected to Torture and Other Cruel, Inhumane, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, Safeguards Guaranteeing Protection of the Rights of Those Facing the Death Penalty, United Nations Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of Their Liberty, and the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice.

The inhumane and degrading treatment of Iraqi prisoners the world witnessed at Abu Ghraib prison was merely a extension of the American philosophy of "corrections" and imprisonment exercised on a international level by a member of the Army Reserve that was a "corrections"lieutenant in his civilian life at SCI-Greene in Pennsylvania. His (Charles Granier's) attitude toward prisoners is the norm within American corrections, he was just able to exercise his perverted attitude toward prisoners unrestrained by legal regulations that otherwise held his behavior in check in American prisons.

A system that is established on the skeleton of a inhumane institution such as slavery should not exist in a just society, yet with over 2 million people imprisoned in the United States prison occupies a central position within American society. Despite the state's attempt to keep prisons on the periphery of American society the world regards the American prison system as barbaric in spite of its modern facilities because its philosophy belongs to a era when human bondage and degradation were the law of the land. No amount of doctors or experts presiding over Department of Corrections across the country can change this.

No human being is changed or reformed through humiliation and dehumanization. Humiliation only breeds resentment and reinforces the idea in the mind of the prisoner that he or she is and never will be more than what they already are. You change a human being's character and value system by empowering them. Empowering prisoners, not humiliating them, is the key to rehabilitation and personal transformation. However this very approach is threatening to the employees of Department of Corrections around the country because it would strip them of the omnipotent power they possess over prisoners and would undermine the very philosophical trend that has dominated American prisons the past 100 years. It would expose the failure of the American model of "corrections" to the public and world.

As the United States continues to embrace its neo-slavery philosophy governing its prison system its prisons continue to empty out more men and women worst off than before they entered the system. A endless cycle of recidivism and imprisonment are the consequences of this philosophy. The trend appears in no danger of being abandoned. Any prisoner interested in change must empower themselves and individuals in society interested in seeing prisoners change must encourage their empowerment and a shift in the philosophy governing Department of Corrections across the country. As "slaves of the state" the men and women exiting these prisons only reflect the values and standards of the state responsible for their imprisonment.

They are only what the state makes them. In looking at the ex-prisoner or prisoner you are only observing a product of the state.

Robert Holbrook
#BL-5140 SCI-Greene
175 Progress Drive
Waynesburg, PA 15370

August 25,2007