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• Monday, December 1, 2008 05:30 PM

  @Amerigo

  Anyone who has ever worked with prisoners knows that they are ALL innocent. Every single one has been framed, or at the very least overcharged.

  You're tilting at windmills here. Who on this thread has claimed that Graner was innocent of the charges on which he was convicted? NO ONE. Mark Benjamin didn't claim that Graner was innocent and wrongfully convicted, and neither has Graner himself, from a close reading of his quotations in this article. The argument, rather, is that he was singled out and punished in a disproportionately harsh way relative to the other enlisted personnel who were prosecuted for the abuses at Abu Ghraib, and that superiors who were directly involved in the scandal have faced no punishment whatsoever.

  I seriously doubt that Graner has got, say, 30 days in solitary confinement for miscounting his magazines. There must be more to it.

  He didn't get 30 days in solitary; he's been in solitary for 29 months out of less than 48 months that he's been incarcerated at Leavenworth. Solitary confinement has its legitimate uses in prisons, but anyone who knows anything about American corrections will tell you that it's frequently abused. Mental health professionals will also tell you that extended periods of solitary are great ways to induce serious mental health problems in inmates, up to and including major psychosis and suicidal ideation.

  It's possible that Graner's extensive solitary confinement is reasonable and justifiable. As I mentioned in an earlier post, perhaps he's repeatedly assaulted and/or battered guards or other inmates, or was found with lots of contraband on multiple occasions, or was found to be making weapons on multiple occasions. Perhaps he's been attacked on more than one occasion by other inmates, or his life has been repeatedly threatened, and he's in solitary as a form of protective custody. Those things are possible, and we don't know for sure one way or another (although I'm sure if the solitary were a form of protective custody he and his family would have said so.) It's also possible that due to his notoriety and the shame he brought on the military, along with the fact that he has a big mouth, and that he's been singled out and made an example of, that his solitary has been abusive and punitive and that the prison administration has gone out of its way to nail him for any minor infraction that they could find. Given the overall circumstances, along with the fact that the prison blocked him from any contact, even by phone or letter, with his wife for two and a half years, I lean strongly toward the suggestion that his solitary has been primarily or even exclusively an unreasonable and unjustified extra punishment, and thus abusive.

  A follow-up and clarification of this issue from the author would be most welcome.

  —Confucius Always Say Read Confucius Always Say's other letters
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