Prison Papers: A Companion to Prison Torture in America

By Paul Singh

A companion to Prison Torture in America, Prison Papers provides medical and administrative records, inmate correspondence and legal documents as proof of the testimonies and shocking tales as described in Prison Torture in America. As an experienced physician, Singh was stunned by the cruelty that inmates with physical and mental condition

• Language: English
• Publisher: Science Literacy Books
• Release date: Feb 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9781949454161

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PREFACE

RONALD REAGAN SIGNED AND CHAMPIONED THE UNITED Nations (UN) Convention against Torture in 1987 and submitted it to the Senate for ratification in 1988. In his speeches against torture to the United Nations and elsewhere, he bragged about the universal applicability of what he had signed. The Senate ratified this treaty in 1994 during the Clinton Administration. According to Article 6 of the US Constitution, any international treaty signed by the US government is part of our Constitution, which makes that treaty the supreme law of the land under this Supremacy clause. Article 6 of the Constitution clearly states: [A]ll treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land. Clause 2 of this article states: [T]he Constitution, federal laws made pursuant to it and treaties made under its authority, constitute the supreme law of the land.

The Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, also known as the United Nations Convention against Torture (UNCAT), is an international human rights treaty, under the review of the United Nations, that aims to prevent torture and other acts of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment around the world. This treaty was signed by 162 countries on February 4, 1985, and became effective on June 26, 1987, and then was ratified by 159 countries (out of the 162) by their respective governments, which included the United States’ own ratification of it by the Congress in 1994. Article 2 of the UN Convention ensured that torture was a criminal offense, and Article 8 of the Convention made it mandatory that torture was an extraditable offense, which required torturers in any country to be handed over to the international community for prosecution.

Article 16 of this treaty also requires parties to prevent any acts of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment which do not amount to torture as defined in article 1. Because it is often difficult to distinguish between cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment and torture, the Committee of the Convention regards Article 16’s prohibition of such acts absolute and non-derogable. The committee also requires parties to submit a report every four years to the United Nations in the form of concluding observations. Do the US government’s four yearly reports to the Committee on Torture relate the human rights abuse, torture, and medical cruelty in US prisons?

According to Article 10, all parties to this convention are required to train and provide education regarding the prohibition against torture to their law enforcement personnel, civilian or medical personnel, and public officials, as well as any other persons involved in the custody or treatment of any individual subjected to any form of arrest, detention, or imprisonment.

An Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT) was adopted by the General Assembly on December 18, 2002, which has been in force since June 22, 2006. The Protocol provides for the establishment of a system of regular visits undertaken by independent international and national bodies to places where the people are deprived of their liberty, to prevent torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, which will be overseen by a Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. As of October 2016, the Protocol has 75 signatories (which includes several third-world nations) and 83 parties, to which the United States is not a party. Our double standards are manifested in the fact that while we claim to be the champions of universal human rights, we do not want anyone to inspect or scrutinize whether or not we are remotely honoring our promises to the rest of the world that we are a civilized western nation, as we expect of all others on this list of signatories.

It is not a brain science to understand why the US government will not volunteer to sign this protocol. The US government, as well as the rest of the civilized world, Amnesty International, and human rights organizations, knows that the United States is among the top violators of human rights in the world today and will be immediately