AMERICA'S ABU GHRAIBS

Most Americans were shocked by the sadistic treatment of Iraqi detainees at
the Abu Ghraib prison. But we shouldn't have been. Not only are inmates at
prisons in the U.S. frequently subjected to similarly grotesque treatment,
but Congress passed a law in 1996 to ensure that in most cases they were
barred from receiving any financial compensation for the abuse.

We routinely treat prisoners in the United States like animals. We
brutalize and degrade them, both men and women. And we have a lousy record
when it comes to protecting well-behaved, weak and mentally ill prisoners
from the predators surrounding them.

Very few Americans have raised their voices in opposition to our shameful
prison policies. And I'm convinced that's primarily because the inmates are
viewed as less than human.

Stephen Bright, director of the Southern Center for Human Rights,
represented several prisoners in Georgia who sought compensation in the
late-1990's for treatment that was remarkably similar to the abuses at Abu
Ghraib. An undertaker named Wayne Garner was in charge of the prison system
at the time, having been appointed in 1995 by the governor, Zell Miller,
who is now a U.S. senator.

Mr. Garner considered himself a tough guy. In a federal lawsuit brought on
behalf of the prisoners by the center, he was quoted as saying that while
there were some inmates who "truly want to do better . . . there's another
30 to 35 per cent that ain't fit to kill. And I'm going to be there to
accommodate them."

On Oct. 23, 1996, officers from the Tactical Squad of the Georgia
Department of Corrections raided the inmates' living quarters at Dooly
State Prison, a medium-security facility in Unadilla, Ga. This was part of
a series of brutal shakedowns at prisons around the state that were
designed to show the prisoners that a new and tougher regime was in charge.

What followed, according to the lawsuit, was simply sick. Officers opened
cell doors and ordered the inmates, all males, to run outside and strip.
With female prison staff members looking on, and at times laughing, several
inmates were subjected to extensive and wholly unnecessary body cavity
searches. The inmates were ordered to lift their genitals, to squat, to
bend over and display themselves, etc.

One inmate who was suspected of being gay was told that if he ever said
anything about the way he was being treated, he would be locked up and
beaten until he wouldn't "want to be gay anymore." An officer who was
staring at another naked inmate said, "I bet you can tap dance." The inmate
was forced to dance, and then had his body cavities searched.

An inmate in a dormitory identified as J-2 was slapped in the face and
ordered to bend over and show himself to his cellmate. The raiding party
apparently found that to be hilarious.

According to the lawsuit, Mr. Garner himself, the commissioner of the
Department of Corrections, was present at the Dooly Prison raid.

None of the prisoners named in the lawsuit were accused of any improper
behavior during the course of the raid. The suit charged that the inmates'
constitutional rights had been violated and sought compensation for the
pain, suffering, humiliation and degradation they had been subjected to.

Fat chance.

The Prison Litigation Reform Act, designed in part to limit "frivolous"
lawsuits by inmates, was passed by Congress and signed into law by Bill
Clinton in 1996. It specifically prohibits the awarding of financial
compensation to prisoners "for mental or emotional injury while in custody
without a prior showing of physical injury."

Without any evidence that they had been seriously physically harmed, the
inmates in the Georgia case were out of luck. The courts ruled against them.

This is the policy of the United States of America.

Said Mr. Bright: "Today we are talking about compensating prisoners in Iraq
for degrading treatment, as of course we should. But we do not allow
compensation for prisoners in the United States who suffer the same kind of
degradation and humiliation."

The message with regard to the treatment of prisoners in the U.S. has been
clear for years: Treat them any way you'd like. They're just animals.

The treatment of the detainees in Iraq was far from an aberration. They,
too, were treated like animals, which was simply a logical extension of the
way we treat prisoners here at home.