Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Girls abused in New York's Juvenile Prisons

I was on the Human Rights Watch website and found this article. Turns out it was on the main Human Rights news page. If we thought that human rights abuses occur in other countries that are removed from "us," this story brings home the truth. I also thought that the article tied in very well to what we were talking about in class today--what credibility we have in the global politics when human rights abuses are occurring in our own backyard.
The article is shocking as it points out the inhuman ways in which these girls are treated. Sometimes, simply being sloppy in making one's bed can lead these girls to get inhumanly beaten. In the past five years, there have been five cases of staff having intercourse with these girls as well. I am not American and have heard people make statements like "the prison system is less than perfect," or "it needs reform." However, I had no idea that things got this bad. Has the public been kept in the dark about this issue or do we just have blinkers on?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

First of all, I would like to comment that for the most part, New York juvenile prisons are not full of perfect little angels. Many of them are violent girls who are not put there for no reason.

I will also start out with acknowledging a few things. I think it is wrong for someone to be beaten for not making their bed correctly or forgetting to raise their hand before speaking. No one deserves that (unless they are a convicted murderer, then I don't care). Also, there is absolutely no reason for any sexual conduct with the prisoners. Any guards/staff that do that should be thrown into jail themself.

However, let's be honest here. As mentioned before, we don't have little Daisy and Brownie Girl Scouts that are being put into jail. It is most likely possible that many of the girls who are being beaten have an attitude that needs to be readjusted. Yes, you could say that violence is not the answer, but what else is going to put these girls into line? Think about it, we are talking about convicted criminals in New York city. I'm not sure about you, but when I watch girls being arrested on Cops, I see some violent, out of control people. So someone needs to put them back into control and let them have a little taste of their own medicine especially those incarcerated by the Three Strikes rule.

--Kristy G

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