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13 de Marzo, 2008
Four Days in the Hole
Categorized under Derechos Humanos , Frontera , Ley , Política Estados Unidos | Tags: borders, Criminal Justice System, Immigration, migra
A STORY that makes you cringe. And really, only the tiniest sampling of how inhumanely those inside the "justice" system can be treated every day.
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - A woman being held as an illegal immigrant spent four days forgotten in an isolated holding cell at a courthouse with no food, water, or toilet, authorities and the woman said.Adriana Torres-Flores, 38, appeared in court Thursday and pleaded not guilty to a charge of selling pirated CDs, but a judge ordered her held because she is in the country illegally, Sheriff Tim Helder said.
Bailiff Jarrod Hankins put her in the cell to await transport to jail, and she was forgotten. Because of heavy snow, few staff members were in the courthouse to hear her cries and pounding later Thursday or on Friday and through the weekend.
Torres-Flores wasn't found until Monday morning when Hankins opened the door. She was treated at a hospital and allowed to go home. [...]
The cell had two benches, a metal table and a light that Torres-Flores could not turn off. She slept using a shoe to cushion her head, she told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, with 14-year-old daughter Adriana acting as an interpreter.
"She was feeling like she was going to die. ... She had to use the bathroom on the floor," her daughter said. [...]
Torres-Flores had not eaten Thursday before going to court. She had a jacket but still was cold in the cell.
Torres-Flores' trial is set for April 1, and she faces deportation by federal immigration authorities.
Aside from my feelings on the many humans "without documents" that live with and among us and help support our economy, I have much to say about the "Criminal Justice System." I've been in it here and there. And even when they do not forget about you for four days, they may as well. Even when they don't leave you to fester in your own waste, they treat you like waste and contain you like waste. Caged and humiliated and removed of your agency, you become an animal and feel yourself one.
I have friends who are very against the growing profit system of prisons and punitive measures, and then I have friends who defend it as a necessary part of human society. But the friends I'm thinking of who defend it philosophically have not been arrested nor incarcerated. It can change your mind about a few things, trust me. And while we may feel we need prisons, cops, and jails now for the society we have so far made, I wonder why the most dangerous criminals remain free and worse yet, enforce or create our laws.
We need to begin thinking of the world and each other and property and punishment differently. And we need to start reframing crime, for one thing. And we need some justice. When mothers are being dropped in a cell and forgotten and men with hundreds (thousands) of deaths on their heads are tap dancing on TV, I see none.
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Comentarios (7)
kyledeb dijo:
This story just filled me with horror. You can't survive much longer than 4 days without water. This story is symbolic for so much more that is bad in the U.S.
Palabras por kyledeb spat forth on el 13 de Marzo, 2008 at 09:06 AM
Maegan la Mala dijo:
But I think that's the saddest part of it- because of the fact that the criminal justice system targets our communities, so many people will never really understand the impact and harm it does on a widespread level, not just individually.
Palabras por Maegan la Mala spat forth on el 13 de Marzo, 2008 at 09:21 AM
Jaime dijo:
Amen! I've head the great fortune never to have been arrested, though I have a deep respect for many people who've willingly allowed themselves to be subjected to that ultimate in deprivation of human rights as a consequence of standing up for their principles. We think we can protect ourselves from harm by corralling the "criminals" off somewhere where we don't have to worry about them anymore, but there's nothing we can do to ensure our own safety, really. Life is frightening and unpredictable. Torturing millions of people who are either desperate enough to commit a crime, psychologically unsuited for life in this surrealist wilderness we call America, or simply the wrong color and in the wrong place at the wrong time, will never change that. Abusing prisoners, instead of trying to help them, ad give them the tools to make amends for their wrongdoing and reconnect with the community through restorative models of justice, only ensures that they will return that abuse on a new victim once they get out.
Palabras por Jaime spat forth on el 13 de Marzo, 2008 at 12:42 PM
noemi dijo:
that's really fucked up.
Palabras por noemi spat forth on el 13 de Marzo, 2008 at 01:09 PM
Pat Logan dijo:
Horrifying. She's lucky to have survived that.
Palabras por Pat Logan spat forth on el 13 de Marzo, 2008 at 06:30 PM
mariachi mama dijo:
She has been deported, no civil suit against the jail, nobody fired, "unfortunate accident", yeah right. They will always, always enjoy abusing , but especially the weak, the non citizens, the poor and the colored, just because they can. God Bless America.
Palabras por mariachi mama spat forth on el 13 de Marzo, 2008 at 10:10 PM
bint alshamsa dijo:
But this is America and we don't TORTURE people here! Right? *sarcasm*
If this woman would have died, we'd have never heard about what was done to her. She'd be like all the other undocumented people caught up in the "criminal justice" system who are deported before they get the chance to tell their stories. It makes me sick to my stomach!
Palabras por bint alshamsa spat forth on el 20 de Marzo, 2008 at 08:55 AM