THROUGH FOREIGN EYES
Docteur Pierre Duterte of France Reports onTorture in the USA
The Chain Gang
The chain-gang-a practice exuding a strong odor of slavery-is made up of
prisoners shack-led together (the left leg of the first man chained to the
right ankle of the second, the latter in turn bound to the third man's leg,
and so on) in order to perform labor on roads or in the fields. By a striking
coincidence, it is the Southern states that have been the most prominent
in reinstating this vile practice.
In Arizona, for example, even the pariahs of death row have been allowed
since December 7, 1995, to go out on chain gangs. Until that date, these
prisoners, incarcerated in special segregated wings, were not permitted
to work. Now they are allowed to leave the prison compound to go to work,
legs in chains, decked out in white uniforms bearing two orange stripes
and marked with the institution's identifying letters ADC (Arizona Department
of Corrections). They must walk past other prisoners in a halting gait because
of the shackles, surrounded by armed guards and well aware that they will
be shot dead if they go a bit too far-a spectacle reminiscent of the sinister
concentration camps, which were also inhabited by non-human beings destined
to die. This regime of men laboring in fields, weighed down with chains
and surrounded by guards on horseback, also recalls the fact that for slaves,
too, there was no way out other than death.
Such a regression to the worst practices of slavery can in no way be justified-not
by the financial benefits deemed to result from it, not by the presumed
deterrent effect (the attention of prisoners is not focused on this aspect
nor do they look with favor on prison and the living conditions it offers!)
and not by the "educational" argument.
Only demagoguery, the wish to present a "tough" image to voters,
the exhilarating prospect of appearing in the media linked to sadistic attitudes
can explain this new form of forced labor.
Orwell Was Too Early
AS SEEN FROM FRANCE, the American dream sometimes seems to me to be slowly
sliding towards an Orwellian nightmare.
A new example: the donation of organs by death row prisoners. When I first
thought about the fact that organs could be taken from an executed body,
my first reaction was a quick "Why not?" That's what came to my
mind when a death row prisoner asked me about this problem three years ago.
I thought that this could be a way of making a useless death useful to someone.
On the spur of the moment, this question seemed to me to constitute a real
paradox, to pose the main problem. An execution could be useful! The death
penalty is no way a deterrent; this is obvious! But the death penalty could
be useful. What a monstrosity-not a deterrent but useful.
Useful by saving one life while destroying another life. This would transform
every death-row prisoner into a supermarket for organs where "doctors"
could go and take what they needed. On a prisoner's Department of Corrections
card there would be, alongside his administrative number, his blood group
and his HLA group, so without wasting time, according to need, some executions
could be scheduled.
In Arizona, House Bill 2271 was proposed for such a purpose. The condemned
man would have to "choose" a way of being put to death other than
by lethal injection or by being fried in an electric chair. (Fried or poisoned
organs are not usable!) Or, as in China, the method of execution would
depend on what organ is needed. Perhaps a physician will kill the "patient"
on the operating table, taking the organs that are required. Unfortunately,
the humanitarian excuse may encourage some surgeon to throw away, along
with a bloody compress, his Hippocratic Oath, and so participate in this
recycling of human body parts! After the strange fate of Paul Jernigan,
whose 1600 slices are flying around the world on Internet, the medicalization
of that whole barbaric practice will simply go on one step further. Doctors
would "just" have to be more involved, killing the body by removing
organs.
I expect that there would be, for an execution, a protocol setting out the
right procedures. This would stipulate what can be removed first: eyes,
kidney, bone marrow, then the liver, lungs and heart, and the blood.
I think it is about time that we get back to some "human" ideas
of humanity. After having been allowed, first, to go out into the fields
in a chain gang to harvest crops for the benefit of the authorities, the
death row prisoners will be harvested themselves, their bodies used to take
what is needed for the benefit of the population. They are really very recyclable,
these people condemned to be killed. Very "handy"!
It will be necessary to continue to increase their numbers, so that we can
have more people building prisons, more staff employed in prisons, and more
organs to use. Really, what progress!
Come back, Mr. Orwell, they are going mad! And you, too, Mr. Huxley, so
that you can appreciate the very latest Brave New World.
Pierre Duterte works in a French association taking
care of refugees, victims of torture or repression
in their homeland. He writes to death-row prisoners
and prisoners in general population in quite a
number of states in the U.S. He has been
to the Texas death row twice.