Religion and Prison System Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Religion and Prison System - Essay Example The current prison and jail population in recent times has shown a substantial rise of over two million. America undoubtedly leads the world in terms of number of imprisoned population and that is a disgrace. USA prison system has made millions lives to live constantly under the threat of torture. This is precisely true for the 6.9 million individuals in USA who are at present imprisoned or some way or the other subject to the USA penal body (Franklin). More insidiously, the prison system has essentially assisted in turning torture into a normal, lawful, and a common part of American culture. Imprisonment can be classified as a form of torture owing to the fact that it is considered as the legal form of both punishment and avoidance. Moreover, the American prison system is typically designed and run to maximize filth, brutality, and punishment. As mentioned by Franklin â€Å"Beatings, electric shock, prolonged exposure to heat and even immersion in scalding water, sodomy with riot b atons, nightsticks, flashlights, and broom handles, shackled prisoners forced to lie in their own excrement for hours or even days, months of solitary confinement, rape and murder by guards or prisoners instructed by guards† (Franklin) are very common within the closed walls of the American prison.... Christianity does not provide an easy answer to the viability of torture that is practiced by mankind. It does provide a sense of hope about something that Christians should respect and consider even more than their individual and national security. Due to the fact that the portrayal of the black sites are as elusive as attempts to define their legal status, a chronology from the past eight years of information pertinent to them can efficiently aid in understanding the phenomenon of the black sites. It is true that the black sites function beyond the jurisdiction of international and even, for all intents and purposes the American law. However, the way in which they do so is dependent and logically coherent with the divisions of power and accountability between various government agencies and departments-in particular, the pentagon, FBI, and CIA. The black sites are on the fringe of places that common man is able to see, but are cordoned off by essential makeshift legal fences. After the incident of 9/11, the CIA was ordered to operate and carry on their procedures without any legal restraints. By late 2001, empowered to act without restraints, the CIA fell short of places to hide their high valued detainees. Again the additional freedom that was granted to CIA instigated a desire to acquire greater control over their investigation without any sort of external indulgence. Due to this, the government of United States of America allotted millions of dollars to construct private prisons that were exclusively meant for the CIA. These private prisons are known as black sites. The first known and prominent black site was constructed in Kabul on an old factory site named as the ‘salt pit’. In the