My long-standing friend Ali went to USA on summer holiday…. to be ‘mistakenly’ arrested there and… confined in prison for 2 years!
This is how they live in that American ‘paradise of freedom’. I got interested in the theme and discovered lots of arresting and somewhat discouraging info. Here you are with it.
America rates the first in the world relating the total number and ratio of its people behind bars. According to the data by USA Justice Dep. on Oct. 23., 2005 the total number of people incarcerated in the USA was 2,267,787 at the end of 2004. The incarceration rate is 724 per 100,000 up 18% from ten years earlier and 25% higher than that of any nation. Over the past 10 years the number of people sentenced to life in prison has doubled in USA.
Americans exploit that terror threat to seize people just in the street and keep them prison without any indictment like in my friend’s story. Foreign citizens are no exception! On Dec.21 2005 the CNN Larry King Live program interviewed 4 convicted felons turned out to be innocent later by DNA evidence. They stayed in prison for 10 years or so! The longest ‘wrong’ incarceration has been so far with the poor guy from Georgia Robert Clark by the name with his 24 (!) years of life in prison. According to Los Angeles celebrity, criminal defense attorney Mark Gerados, there are up to 20% of wrongful convictions in the USA generally.
And life in American prison can hardly be called life. Prisons being overcrowded (at the end of 2004 the federal system was 40% over capacity) and the govt cut on expenditure of prisons, medical care as well, which resulted in a large number of prisoners infected with TB and hepatitis. Add here injures from maltreatment (my friend was handcuffed during the bath even), insufficient food, and sexual violence. USA Dep. of Justice released a report in June 2005 to cite an estimated 8,210 allegations of sexual misconduct. And so on and so forth…
I know one thing for sure. I’ll never go to American Hades!
