U.N. human rights experts have called for major reforms of the U.S. criminal justice system to combat systemic racism, citing testimonies that jailed Black women had been shackled during childbirth while male inmates were forced to work in "plantation-style" conditions.

In a report published on Thursday, three U.N.-appointed experts said they had found practices in U.S. prisons that amounted to "an affront to human dignity" in visits in April and May.

The U.S. diplomatic mission in Geneva declined to comment. The Federal Bureau of Prisons said it was committed to ensuring the safety and security of incarcerated individuals as well as employees and the public.

One such practice is restraining and shackling women prisoners during childbirth, the report said.

The experts "heard, first hand, unbearable direct testimonies of pregnant women shackled during labour, who due to the chaining, lost their babies", it said. Asked to give details, a U.N. rights spokesperson referred to "several" cases and confirmed they all involved Black women.

  • thepianistfroggollum@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    He's not, though. He's asserting that the actions of our government reflect the will of the people, and that hasn't been true for a very long time.

    America has a stupid amount of different cultures that influence the country, so saying we have no culture and don't value human life is inaccurate.

    • WilliamTheWicked@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      So, the core of his argument is clearly just a troll's attempt to get a rise out of everyone and I don't really want to engage any further with it because I have places to be today.

      But what's been bothering me lately is that many of us, myself included, are acting like these are things that are happening to us, as if we have no agency in the matter. Perhaps, at this point, we don't. If the government isn't addressing our wishes, why aren't we fielding and voting for candidates that will?

      • thepianistfroggollum@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        We really don't have any agency. The federal government is set up so we're stuck with elected officials until their time is up with no democratic way of removing them from office.

        The main problem is that the people who have the highest voter turnout are retirees whose brains are fucked from years of lead poisoning, and these same old fucks are also running the country.

        I mean, hell, just look at the 2016 election. The person with the most votes lost. That's proof that the will of the people isn't being honored even at the highest levels of government.