Supermax banns Obama’s books
July 10th, 2009
This is what America’s supermax prisons are like: The supermax at Florence, Colorado has refused to allow an inmate to read President Obaba’s two books because they are “potentially detrimental to national security.” According to the AP:
Prison officials cite specific pages – but not specific passages – in the books that they deem objectionable. They include one page in Obama’s 1995 book, “Dreams from My Father,” and 22 separate pages in his policy-oriented 2006 book, “The Audacity of Hope.” It was not immediately obvious what passages might have been deemed problematic, though nearly half of the pages cited are in a chapter devoted to foreign affairs
The inmate’s lawyer commented:
The rejection is just one indication of the harsh conditions imposed on inmates at the supermax prison, according to Abu Ali’s lawyer, Joshua Dratel.
“Imagine an existence controlled by characters created by Louis (sic) Carroll, and that would approach that which Mr. Abu Ali faces each day for the duration of his sentence,” Dratel wrote.
Supermax prisons are the epitome of inhumane punishment. They are designed solely to destroy souls. The are a product of the fear of crime that has been carefully stoked over decades to distract the public from other issues.
Fortunately, this fear is dissipating as people learn that “law and order” fails to protect and ever larger proportions of our population are imprisoned at ever greater cost. The supermaxs should be shut down as part of a broad change in our criminal justice system.
Entry Filed under: Torture