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■ ■■Tf ■ - i I S ■ Prisoners often abused — reform seems unlikely Editor’s note: As prisoner releases abroad asserting that they knew their rights and The women then sypd'ior damages for before he dies. Tucker will be a ward of the indicate, human rights is one of President otherwise acting in an undbcile manher. their time of unabatednorror at Matteawan. State again. In this case too, no one has Carter’s few successful policies. New Nat At Matteawan, the women were forcibly and the state of New York, rather than go to admitted any responsibility for what Hentoff reports on what may be the most dosed with such powerful neuroleptic drugs trial, agreed to a settlement. Not that happened to Henry Tucker. serious violation of human rights in U.S. as -Thorazine and Prolixin, along with a anyone—from the State Commissioner of Nor is what happened to him unique. As prisons—the forced over-drugging of literally stunning array of sedatives. Correctional Services on down to the staff his lawyer, Stephen Ney, says, “Who knows inmates. Hentoff writes a monthly column hypnotics, and anti-depressants. They were psychiatrists on the ward—has admitted any how many thousands of human vegetables on legal and educational trends for PNS. He never told the types of drugs they were being wrongdoing. Even in those few suits that are sitting, right now, in institutions around is the author of numerous books and articles given; and no physical, neurological or prisoners win, the defendants almost the country? Until there’s a lawsuit, only the on education and civil liberties issues, and a psychiatric examinations were conducted by invariably take the Nuremberg defense (“It prisoners are looking. What happened to staff columnist for the Village Voice. the staff psychiatrists to determine whether wasn’t my responsibility*’!. Henry Tucker could have happened the drugs were producing allergic reactionsor Meanwhile, in Virginia, another prisoner, anywhere in this country’s prisons.\ other side effects—even though the womch Henry Tucker, after “acting out” in acute Looking hard at America’s prisons during frequently complained of highly disorienting disappointment at the denial of his parole in the month of August was an unprecedented side effects. (Such drugging is not *■ 1-976,* was injected with Prolixin, a team of seven investigators—all of them uncommon in “contgrol units” of American formidable anti-psychotic drug. At the international jurists. They were asked to prisons dealing with “uncooperative” Virginia State Penitentiary in Richmond, no. conduct an independent probe of possible inmates who have also never been determined one gave Tucker any neurological, human rights abuses in American penal to be mentally ill.) ( psychiatric or physical examination to institutions by three organizations that had In addition to the continuous drugging, the evaluate what the drug might be doing to filed a petition with the United Nations in seven women were compelled to participate , * 1 ' m * December, 1978, asking it to investigate in h behavior modification program, one of i For seven days, at one point, he was violations of the human rights of American “T1 I • by Nat Hentoff Special to The Spectrum There is currently no more unfashionable preoccupation than the rights of prisoners. Insofar as the citizenry thinks of prisons at all, they want more of them—the more punitive the better. The notion that one of the purposes of these fastnesses is rehabilitation is no longer held even by most liberals. E. Donald Shapiro, dean of the New York Law School, recently spoke for a clear consensus of the populace when he proposed, for the 1980s, not only an increase in prisons but a desire that they should not be “any better than the the more trendy control devices in many prisons around the country. This one was called STEADY (Steps Toward Eventual Acceptance of a Disciplined You). The women were forced into STEADY, one of their lawyers later said, because “Prison officials wanted to go beyond sedating these women. They wanted to break them.” Ostensibly, the program would enable the women to “earn” their way out of segregation (they were in their cells 23 hours a day) and back into the general population at Bedford Hills. They were to receive plus marks for “cooperative” behavior and minus grades for conduct unbecoming an inmate.. The problem was that there were never any clear, comprehensive guidelines as to how they were expected to behave, and so, as court papers point out, “they did not know from one day to the next what conduct would result in earning a reward or punishment.” Furthermore, whenever it looked as if STEADY was not' working, the women were administered even larger quantities of drugs. Finally, they were rescued from Matteawan by a federal judge who ruled that their Fourteenth Amendment rights to due process and equal protection under the laws had been violated by their transfer to a mental institution without a judicial hearing. isolated in a cell at the back of the prison prison inmates. hospital and there was given large doses of Divided into four the „„ Prohxin five times the prescribed international investigators conducted amount by untrained and unlicensed cop j ous interviews in prisons throughout the inmates working in the hospital No staff count while also examining trial physician or psychiatrist even looked at his transcriptS( a f ridavits> and court documents, medical records^—or, for that matter, at cond udcd that a “clear prima facie Tucker himself. case\ exists of human rights violations in fiecause of the Prolixin, the muscles American prisons , Eluding forced drugging around Tucker's joints inexorably hardened and manifold abuses of -behavior until hisi arms and legs were permanently modification .. programs. The team has paralyzed. Yet, even after his true condition recommendcd a Unit cd Nations was diagnosed at the hospital of the Medical i nvcstigation> md it is that its report. College of Virginia. Tucker was returned to now appended to the origina , petitfon. may ‘ te \ tiary h 5f he ® a l ms reach the General Assembly floor. ACLU s National Prison Project, “virtually ... . unattended and untreated in his paralyzed “There is no question, says Richard state for six months.” Harve V- ° ne of the jurists that United Tucker developed enormous bed sores States policy on human rights has had a which became infected and infested with \hoary effect around the world. All the maggots. Eventually, back at the Medical more reason, then, for its own abuses to be College, Tucker underwent skin graft examined,. Furthermore, if we can expose operations for the bedsores, and his hips America’s violations at this high a level at the were surgically removed. U.S.-thc first time any nation’s human Now pardoned, Tucker is bound to a rights policies will have been this thoroughly wheelchair for life. He did, however, win an dissected—there can be a breakthrough unprecedented damage award of toward really focusing on what other nations $518,000—ten times larger than any damage are doing in their prisons, payment ever received by an American prison After all, Jimmy Carter has emphasized inmate. He has to use it, of course, to pay for that he wants the United States to lead the his round-the-clock care and if it runs out way in matters of human rights. Commentary slum housing in which society places the poor, the unfortunate elderly or dependent children.” In this ambience, it is rather difficult to focus public attention on what it is actually like to be in most prisons. Yet two recent cases of not all that extraordinary abuse of prisoners’ most fundamental rights may help concentrate the mind on the most invisible of this nation’s discards. Seven women in New York State were awarded $45,000 in damages on July 12, 1979, in a settlement that the ACLU’s National Prison Project has described as “the first of its kind in the country.” Three, years before, the women had been involuntarily transferred —without a judicial commitment hearing—from the Bedford Hills prison to Matteawan, an institution for the criminally insane. The reason was that they were “difficult” to control, incessantly PUBLIC NOTICE ANflCONE' INN The Publications Board will allocate $4,000 to — A Home Away From Home — IF YOU WANT TO RELAX AND HAVE A GOOD TIME ANACONE'S INN SPECIAL INTEREST PUBLICATIONS IS THE PLACE TO DO IT - We have no Hootin, Hollering, Yelling, Screaming or Loud Music. If you are interested in starting your own publication in some area of special interest, you can apply for funding from the Publications Divi- sion of Sub Board I, Inc. 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