Guantanamo Bay is one the most highly debated or controversial places in the United States. Guantanamo Bay is a federal detention center located in Cuba used to detain terrorists. This center was built following 9/11 as part of the United States’ efforts in the “War on Terror”. Since it was opened in 2002 there have been almost 800 people detained here.

So why Cuba? Because the center is in Cuba, prisoners there are not protected under the United States Constitution. Recently in 2020 the US Appeals Court of the District of Columbia heard of a case of a man who argued for his release from Guantanamo Bay, claiming evidence against him was not substantial and was flawed. The federal court released an important ruling saying, “The Due Process Clause may not be invoked by aliens without property or presence in the sovereign territory of the United States”. This is the first time it has been clearly laid out that those in Guantanamo Bay do not have the right to due process. This means the people being held there do not need to undergo any formal trial or be officially charged with any crimes.

There are several issues with Guantanamo Bay. One issue is that there have been several prisoners held there for years having never been charged with a crime. 11 prisoners have been held in Guantanamo Bay for up to 16 years simply for being suspicious. Another issue with this prison is that even if detainees in Guantanamo Bay are cleared for transfer it can take years before they are actually released. A lot of this is due to difficulties finding a place to send these people as many countries will not accept them. Additionally, Guantanamo Bay is the most expensive prison in the world. It costs $13 million per prisoner per year. This is due to several reasons including the guard to prisoner ratio which is 45:1 and the fact that everything must be imported into Cuba. 

While these are all important issues, I believe the main issue is the way people have reported being treated at Guantanamo Bay. *Just as a warning the following paragraphs may contain some details of abuse or torture* Many prisoners have reported mistreatment, poor conditions, and torture including one prisoner, Mohamedou Slahi, who was there for 14 years without trial or charge. When he returned to his home in Mauritania, he wrote a book called, “Guantanamo Diary” which was later adapted into a movie called “The Mauritanian”.

There have been several horrific accounts of torture at Guantanamo Bay. Another report of torture at Guantanamo Bay was reported on by the New York Times. The man spent 3 years in Guantanamo Bay and detailed many experiences including, forced feeding, waterboarding, and other examples of physical and sexual abuse. He said that when he refused to eat he was fed a puree through his anus. He also said that when others would refuse to drink they would shoot water up their rectum. At times he said he was chained up in such an uncomfortable ways that he became so sleep deprived that he experienced hallucinations. This is just some of the abuse one man experienced, and surely is not the only instance of this kind of treatment.

Because of the accusations of mistreatment and torture, many organizations and groups have criticized the United States including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the United Nations, and the European Union. However, the United States government denies all of these accusations. 

While the people in Guantanamo Bay are accused of terrible acts including terrorism, they are still people. Torturing and abusing people in the ways the United States government has done is not acceptable. These individuals are people and should not be denied basic human rights. The way the United States has created a loophole to commit torture and not give people a fair trial by having their prison in Cuba is wrong. While the courts have ruled that the United States constitution does not cover these people because they are not on US soil and not US citizens, it is still not okay. The treatment being done here still violates international law and treaties signed by the United States. While the terrorists have committed terrible acts, many people would also consider torture including waterboarding and other acts as just as terrible. We have to consider how far we are willing to go to prevent terrorism. 

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/2021/08/7-things-for-students-to-know-about-guantanamo-bay/ 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/02/us/politics/guantanamo-detainees-due-process.html? 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/02/us/politics/guantanamo-detainees-due-process.html? 

https://www.aclu.org/news/human-rights/20-years-later-guantanamo-remains-a-disgraceful-stain-on-our-nation-it-needs-to-end

The 8th Amendment of the United States: “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted“. My civic issue blog will be focusing on cruel and unusual punishment and actions the United States takes that question the implementation of this clause.

This week I will be discussing the death penalty. The death penalty should be abolished for many reasons. The criminal justice system is flawed resulting in false convictions, discrimination, racial bias, and an excessive use of the death penalty on vulnerable groups. Additionally, many of the execution methods are inhumane and the death penalty is a violation of human rights.

Our criminal justice system is far from perfect and this is reflected in the death penalty. False convictions are more common than they should be. The equal justice initiative was founded by Bryan Stevenson, a lawyer from Harvard who has spent his life fighting for a more equal and fair criminal justice system. If you’re interested in reading or watching a compelling and heartfelt book or movie, I highly recommend both the book and movie adaptation of “Just Mercy” by Bryan Stevenson. His organization has discussed and researched the prevalence of false convictions and exonerations of those on death row. According to the Equal Justice Initiative, 1,542 people have been executed in the United States since 1973. However, even more shockingly, 183 people convicted and sentenced to the death penalty have been exonerated and then released from death row, meaning evidence later came out that they were innocent. This is a scary amount of error for a system that is ending people’s lives. For every 9 people executed by the death penalty, one person on death row has been exonerated. Unfortunately our system does not always convict the guilty, but a system where the innocent can be convicted should not be putting people’s lives at risk.

Additionally, bias is clearly present in our criminal justice system and death penalty convictions certainly do not escape this. First, there is racial bias in our criminal justice system and this is reflected in the use of the death penalty. 42% of all people on death row are African American despite African Americans making up just 13% of the US population. Additionally, people convicted of killing White victims are 17x more likely to be executed than people convicted of killing Black victims. The criminal justice system is biased especially with the usage of the death penalty.

Another flaw of the death penalty is that it has been used most on those who are the most vulnerable in our society. This includes poor people who can’t afford adequate representation and people suffering from severe mental health. The most vulnerable people should not be punished with execution while the rich and privileged get away with so much. There have been many situations in which poor people cannot afford an effective lawyer. There have been people sent to death row whose lawyers slept through the trial, showed up to the court intoxicated, did not prepare proper evidence, witnesses, or do any sort of investigation into the case. This leads innocent people to end up on death row for the crime of being poor and having a bad lawyer. Additionally, according to mental health experts, approximately 20% of those on death row are likely suffering from severe mental illness. Instead of sentencing people with severe mental illness, many of whom have endured trauma, we should be providing mental health resources and treatment to reduce crime.

Even if our criminal justice system was flawless with no false convictions or bias of any sort, there would still be serious problems with using the death penalty. Many of the methods used during execution should be considered a violation of the cruel and unusual punishment clause. Some of the most inhumane ways people have been executed in the United States are by the electric chair, hanging, a firing squad, and lethal gas. Additionally, executions themselves are violation of one of the most fundamental human rights: the right to life. Under many widely accepted human rights documents including the monumental, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the right to life is guaranteed. The government taking away someone’s life is an extremely dangerous thing, especially in the United States where it is clear the process has been discriminatory and flawed.

https://eji.org/issues/death-penalty/

https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/executions/methods-of-execution

https://www.aclu.org/issues/human-rights/human-rights-and-death-penalty