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.

  • theodewere@kbin.social
    523·
    1 year ago

    you’re a child, just like all Americans… you want an excuse for your lack of dignity… your absolute inability to even conceive of it…

    • ayaya@lemdro.idEnglish
      113·
      1 year ago

      It takes a special lack of awareness to make these kinds of sweeping prejudiced statements against a group of people on a post about racism.

      • theodewere@kbin.social
        412·
        1 year ago

        your attempts to avoid the reality and excuse yourself are predictable, and limited to the realm of social media… you are social media beings… dignity is something you must aspire to, and then express… you can’t demand it out of fairness…

        • Zink@programming.dev
          31·
          1 year ago

          I’m not commenting to support your approach to this, but your comment about dignity hit home for me. I’m an American who recently traveled to Scandinavia for the first time. There is something wholly different about the feel of the culture over there, even in mundane everyday details. I was seeing levels of dignity and respect (for self as well as others) that I am NOT used to here.

          Over here I’m used to pride, competition, and indifference to the plight of others.

          Over there I observed dignity, cooperation, and well, dignity.

    • flicker@kbin.social
      51·
      1 year ago

      Does your paintbrush extend to the incarcerated black Americans who are victims of the policies observed by the UN, or do you mean a specific subset of Americans when you say these things?

        • flicker@kbin.social
          1·
          1 year ago

          I can’t ask all of them, so I asked one, and he said that he’s no less American because he’s in jail.

          So back to my question?