US rejects UN call to abolish death penalty

gimmesometruth27 wrote:

nobody has answered my question in my original post. why do we feel that we are above international law and can blow off suggestions and complaints from the rest of the world?

Honestly? I think it's arrogance, pure and simple. It's a "Damnit, we're America, nobody can tell us what to do!" attitude. I think there's a certain segment of the population that refuses to believe anyone outside of the 50 states could ever be smarter or have better ideas than them.

"The U.N. thinks we're being inhumane? Who the fuck do they think they are, anyway?"

"The whole world has accepted as fact that man is causing the Earth to warm at a faster rate than it should be, and they want us to limit our carbon emissions? Fuck them! We're not going to look into clean energy sources just because some pussy scientist from Norway says we should!" (like the politician from Oklahoma (I think) who said it was his right as an American to drive a car that spewed pollutants if he wanted to)

The country with an education system ranked in the 30s worldwide has spent so many years telling itself that it's the best in the world at everything, it can't possibly believe that anyone does anything better than it does.

Drowned Out wrote:

mikepegg44 wrote:

people aren't kept in super max prisons with 23 hours of solitary for fun or because it was an unlucky draw...they earn it somewhere, somehow.

Again, did you read the articles (or for that matter, my last post)?
Why would you continue to argue without even looking at the contrary evidence I've already provided? If you're ok with your ignorance, that's one thing, but why try to infect others with your uninformed statements?

The links plainly state (as I did in my previous reply), that MANY of the people in these supermax's did NOT do anything to earn 23 hrs a day in solitary.

Courts don’t assign convicted criminals to supermax units. Instead, the decision to confine prisoners under these conditions is generally made by the relevant department of corrections or by prison officials at some point after sentencing. Evidence suggests that prisoners are isolated for a wide range of reasons, many of which are not related to the dangers they pose or to the risk that they might attempt to escape.

A number of states have moved all prisoners facing execution into supermax units, regardless of their individual disciplinary records. In Wabash, Indiana prisoners have been assigned to supermax detention for acts of insolence toward prison staff. Others have reportedly been confined in supermax units because of overcrowding or because they complained about prison conditions. Women in Valley State Prison in California have alleged that they were assigned to the supermax unit, or threatened with assignment, if they complained about sexual abuse by guards. Some prisoners have reportedly been assigned to supermax units because of their political affiliations, although such allegations are difficult to verify because the allowable grounds for confinement are so broad.

They typically spent all their waking and sleeping hours locked alone or with a cellmate in small sometimes windowless cells from which they were released for only a few hours each week for solitary recreation or showers. Super-max prisoners had almost no access to educational or recreational activities or other sources of mental stimulation and were handcuffed, shackled and escorted by officers whenever they left their cells.

....despite the fact that is is PROVEN to be more detrimental to their mental health than it is rehabilitative. In your last post you stated that people are given the opportunity to better themselves in prison (which is false when speaking of supermax's), and trumpet it as a virtue of your system...Yet when told of the fact that relatively minor criminals are being abused to the point that they likely come out a much bigger threat to the community than when they went in, you say 'they earned it'?

Amnesty International recognizes that it is sometimes necessary to segregate prisoners for the safety of others or for their own protection. However, many aspects of conditions in US supermax facilities violate international human rights standards and in some facilities constitute cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Prolonged isolation in conditions of reduced sensory stimulation can cause severe physical and psychological damage

articles are one thing, go there and find out for yourself, I have been to a super max facility, have you? If it is dangerous to keep them any other way, what are you supposed to do?

edit to add: I have a degree in criminology, I have read more about prisons, there causes and effects, conditions, and seen it for myself. I am not just speaking from ignorance as you claim

gimmesometruth27 wrote:

...
U.S. State Department legal adviser Harold Koh said capital punishment was permitted under international law, brushing aside long-standing appeals by European countries and others to temporarily halt or completely abolish the death penalty, which critics say is inhumane and unfairly applied.....

not only that... its morally unjustifiable.