Daily Archives: March 4, 2008
Does the United States really favor torture?
By Stephen Laurence
Greenville
Some five years ago, in the days leading up to our invasion of Iraq, a local peace advocate carried a sign outside Greenville’s federal building asking “Are we what we say we are?” as a nation. More recently — about a week ago, in fact — a former U.S. House Speaker implored public radio listeners to carefully consider the relationship between our rhetoric and our actions.
An ongoing debate about the acceptability of torture as an interrogation technique has led to passage of the Intelligence Authorization Act, with a provision that bans torture through its reference to the U.S. Army Field Manual. Regrettably, Sen. Lindsey Graham opposed use of this standard for civilian intelligence gathering; Sen. Jim DeMint voted against the final legislation; and President George Bush threatens to veto it.
While we often boast of being the most democratic and most pious of nations, the rest of the world watches our actions and recognizes the frequent hypocrisy between what we say and what we do. Abu Ghraib is one example. The high civilian casualty count in Iraq is another. Guantanamo is yet another. And now we have representatives of the United States, including the “leader of the free world,” condoning torture — albeit couched in more acceptable language — with the ultimate outcome of the issue being uncertain.
Torture is completely indefensible on moral and ethical grounds. Most faith communities specifically condemn inhumane acts toward others. The New Testament of the Christian Bible quotes Jesus calling on us to love our enemies and to do unto others as we would have them do unto us. The United States has been party to the Geneva Conventions since their inception in 1864. And our “greatest generation” punished enemy soldiers and officers found guilty of torture during World War II.
The South behind bars
Let’s do the numbers
Total number of adults incarcerated in America: 2.3 million
Total number of adults incarcerated in China: 1.5 million
Rank of U.S. incarceration rate among all nations: 1
Rank of South’s incarceration rate among all U.S. regions: 1
Percent increase in South’s incarceration rate in 2007 alone: 2.8
Rank of Texas’ incarceration rate among all U.S. states.: 1
Year in which Florida is expected to run out of prison space: 2009
Percent of American adults in prison or jail: 1
Percent of all men age 18 or older: 2
Percent of white men age 18 or older: 0.9
Percent of Hispanic men age 18 or older: 3
Percent of black men age 18 or older: 7
Percent of black men age 20 to 34: 11
Percent of white women age 35 to 39: 0.3
Percent of Hispanic women age 35 to 39: 0.4
Percent of black women age 35 to 39: 1
Amount states spent on corrections in 2007 alone: $49 billion
Percent which that amount has increased over the past 20 years, adjusted to 2007 dollars: 127
Percent increase in adjusted spending on higher education over that same period: 21
Minimum amount Texas is expected to save over the next two years from prison reforms that expand drug treatment and change parole practices: $210 million
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Statistics taken from “One in 100: Behind Bars in America 2008” by The Pew Center on the States, available online here.