American Violence Begins at Home

Re “Exporting America’s Shame,” Commentary, May 6: Robert L. Bastian Jr. has accurately pinpointed the real origin of violence and abuse toward Iraqi prisoners: our own prison system. One has to look no further than the Twin Towers jail in downtown Los Angeles. In Module 171, mentally ill inmates are held, naked or almost naked, not the three days reported in the case of Iraqi POWs but for months at a time. They are routinely kept in tiny cells 23 hours a day, without sunlight. When out of their cells for one hour a day, they are shackled to metal benches. Shackles cause sores that go untreated unless a visitor sees them and makes a complaint. Nutrition is inadequate.

There are prisoner reports of violence perpetrated against them, but who would believe a mentally ill prisoner? (Or an innocent Iraqi held in Abu Ghraib?) Medical care is sporadic for our L.A. prisoners. I suspect many Iraqi detainees got better attention. These poor, wretched prisoners are mostly U.S. citizens afflicted with terrible brain diseases who are usually delusional, terrified and untreated. How do I know? My son was one of these prisoners.

President Bush said to the whole world that the photos of Iraqi prisoners being abused did not reflect “his” America. Well, it is an all-too-familiar picture of “my” America, and that of many, many thousands of others.

Carol Teter

La Crescenta

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I was pleased to read Bastian’s observations about the prison outrage in Iraq and the “American way” of treatment of inmates. As a former physician in the California Department of Corrections, I saw the results of public apathy about prison conditions, severe overcrowding and the stonewalling of efforts by both outside and inside groups aimed at reform by the guards union and some of the department administrators.

I also saw many dedicated correctional officers and administrators who worked hard, under very difficult circumstances, to provide humane conditions for their inmates. Strong leadership is needed if meaningful reforms are to be made.

Philip S. Hicks MD

San Rafael, Calif.