海角大神

A shocking prison photo of inmates taken at a Georgia correctional facility could intensify a halting effort in the United States to alleviate poor prison conditions that can lead to unchecked barbarism likened to an American Abu Ghraib.

The picture from聽Burruss Correctional Training Center in Forsyth, Ga.,聽shows three young and shirtless African-American male prisoners. One of them is pointing at the camera as though holding a gun, another is holding a makeshift leash, and the third, an 18-year-old, is on his knees, his left eye closed from a beating, and the leash lashed around his neck.

The image is shocking on several levels, including its similarity to the Abu Ghraib torture pictures, the fact that a contraband cellphone was used to capture the degradation, and that prison officials didn't witness the mass beating and subsequent humiliation of a young man serving an eight-year sentence for aggravated assault after first being arrested for armed robbery as a 14-year-old.

Prison system critics say the image is a poignant insight into a broader problem of prisoner-on-prisoner violence in many US correctional facilities, not just in Georgia, and the extent to which those experiences influence 鈥測oung men who will be back among us one day,鈥� as Sarah Geraghty, an Atlanta human rights lawyer, put it.

Wide-ranging reaction to the degrading photo also illustrates America鈥檚 evolving views on the confluence of punishment and humanity, and the extent to which society tolerates prison violence as a form of deterrence.

鈥淚 think this picture can go a long way toward galvanizing a discussion about what prisons are for 鈥� particularly, does anybody believe that these men are deterred by prison?鈥� says Jonathan Simon, a University of California, Berkeley law professor and author of 鈥淢ass Incarceration on Trial.鈥� 聽

鈥淵ou have to ask yourself: If the basic story that we tell ourselves is that it鈥檚 all about laws and sending people to prison because they violated laws and harmed other people, how can we possibly justify sending them to a place where that is happening to them?鈥� Professor Simon says. 鈥淚f that鈥檚 our idea of punishment, then we have conceded the point that there鈥檚 a difference between crime and law.鈥�

In Georgia, reaction among prison officials to the picture was immediate and strong. The beaten inmate was moved into protective custody, and the Department of Corrections moved to find and punish the torturers. More broadly, new policies and detection technology have led to mass confiscations of cellphones, which have been tied to violent extortion schemes involving inmates and their family on the outside.

鈥淔irst and foremost, the Department does not tolerate contraband and takes very seriously its mission of protecting the public and running safe and secure facilities,鈥� spokeswoman Gwendolyn Hogan . 鈥淭he problem plaguing the corrections system nationwide is one that the [Georgia DOC] is aware of and continuously works to utilize extensive resources to combat this issue.鈥�

Yet critics say the Abu Ghraib-like photo is emblematic of the kind of violence that regularly occurs in Georgia鈥檚 prisons. In a 2014 report called 鈥�,鈥� the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta documented dozens of similar ordeals and argued that Georgia has seen an increase in the 鈥渘umber of really brutal incidents.鈥�

They include a prisoner who was airlifted to a burn center after fellow inmates poured bleach in his eyes and poured boiling water on his privates. In another case, a prisoner had three fingers severed by an inmate wielding a 19-inch prison-made machete. In another, a prisoner was tied to his bed and beaten, remaining a hostage until guards found him 鈥� two days later.

Root causes of such violence include failures of basic security, inadequate supervision, and accessibility to lethal weapons and cellphones, the report concluded. 聽

But while Georgia鈥檚 problems with violent prisons are significant, it鈥檚 far from the only state where life inside prison sometimes devolves into outright blood-sport degradation.

Indeed, it was California that became the poster child for 鈥渉orrendous鈥� prison conditions, in the words of Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.

In a 2011 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that California prisons overcrowded by long-term incarceration policies violated the Eighth聽Amendment鈥檚 guarantee against cruel and unusual punishment. In 2006, there was one preventable inmate death a week inside California鈥檚 sprawling prison complex. The opinion referenced several photos of prison conditions, including a picture of a suicidal prisoner who was "held in ... a cage for nearly 24 hours, standing in a pool of his own urine, unresponsive and nearly catatonic."

Aside from mandates to slim down California鈥檚 prison population, the ruling鈥檚 most lasting contribution came from Justice Anthony Kennedy. 鈥淧risoners retain the essence of human dignity inherent in all persons,鈥� Justice Kennedy wrote.

Kennedy鈥檚 stance represented a rejection of what University of Pennsylvania law student Sara Mayeux, , called 鈥渁 deeper cultural pathology: the tendency to imagine prisoners as an undifferentiated mass of uncontrollable criminality, not as human beings with organs that fail and extremities that break.鈥�

Still, problems remain deep and endemic in states like Georgia. It鈥檚 a system, the human rights report argues, 鈥渋n which prison officials have lost control.鈥�

Aware of such problems, political leaders in Georgia and other Southern states have begun to recognize that over-reliance on incarceration and mass imprisonment has itself become a problem that affects society.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said in 2011 that his get-tough-on- crime views had been tempered over time. 鈥淭here is an urgent need to address the astronomical growth in the prison population, with its huge costs in dollars and lost human potential,鈥� Mr. Gingrich pointed out. 鈥淭he criminal-justice system is broken, and conservatives must lead the way in fixing it.鈥�

Fighting off tears, Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal (R) in 2012 signed a law to help keep nonviolent offenders out of prison.

Conservatives joining forces with a long-running liberal push to curb society鈥檚 reliance on expanding prisons to deal with its most troubled citizens 鈥渨ill also provide an example of how bipartisan policy breakthroughs are still possible in our polarized age,鈥� David Dagan and Steven Teles .