Psyche, Science, and Society

Our domestic penal system drives prisoners crazy too

April 26th, 2008

As if in response to my posting earlier today on the horrors of Guantanamo driving detainees insane,   David Luban at Balkinization reminds us that our concern for the horrors of a Guantanamo driving many of its inmates mad shouldn’t dilute from our outrage at a domestic criminal justice system that does the same to hundreds of thousands.

My colleague James Forman has several times remarked that virtually everything wrong with Guantánamo is wrong on a far greater scale in the domestic criminal justice system. That doesn’t mean that outrage about Guantánamo should be any less – but it certainly means that we ought to be equally outraged about a Madness Archipelago that drives hundreds of thousands of inmates insane.

In January David and I were at a workshop at Harvard Law School where I made a similar pint. I’m glad he’s reminding me. As I’ve focussed upon detainee torture and abuse over the last few years, I’ve often felt guilty that I had insufficient energy to take on the horrors of our criminal justice system with the same passion.  Or is it that there isn’t as clear a focus as psychologists aiding and abetting torture? I’m not sure.

Entry Filed under: Guantanamo, Law, Psychological Torture, Psychology, Torture