In a report published on Thursday, three U.N.-appointed experts said they had found practices in U.S. prisons that amounted to “an affront to human dignity” in visits in April and May.
The U.S. diplomatic mission in Geneva declined to comment. The Federal Bureau of Prisons said it was committed to ensuring the safety and security of incarcerated individuals as well as employees and the public.
One such practice is restraining and shackling women prisoners during childbirth, the report said.
The experts “heard, first hand, unbearable direct testimonies of pregnant women shackled during labour, who due to the chaining, lost their babies”, it said. Asked to give details, a U.N. rights spokesperson referred to “several” cases and confirmed they all involved Black women.
The headline says “jail” but the article only refers to cases in prisons. I know the entire criminal justice system is messed up, but did this UN study specifically find both jails and prisons to be severely repressive and racist?
This is an important distinction because jail is where people wait pre-trail, meaning they typically have not yet been found to be guilty of the charges brought against them, while prison is where people who have been charged, found guilty and sentenced to prison will go. Jail is where a cop that decides to arrest someone for dubious reasons will take them, whether that’s enforcing an unconstitutional law (such as flag desecration laws which is protected speech under federal caselaw), findings from a blatantly illegal search, or even they arrested the wrong person because they went to the wrong address to execute a warrant, or any number of other reasons
That is a good distinction to make, but even convicted felons should be treated humanely.
Not strictly true, jails can also house those convicted of less serious crimes (say, less than 1yr), as well as temporarily awaiting transfer to other facilites.
Looks like the UN only visited jails in person, but interviewed people with a range of experiences. You can read the full report here: https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/09/systemic-racism-pervades-us-police-and-justice-systems-un-mechanism-racial
Do other major countries use jails the way we do? 💀