U.N. human rights experts have called for major reforms of the U.S. criminal justice system to combat systemic racism, citing testimonies that jailed Black women had been shackled during childbirth while male inmates were forced to work in "plantation-style" conditions.

In a report published on Thursday, three U.N.-appointed experts said they had found practices in U.S. prisons that amounted to “an affront to human dignity” in visits in April and May.

The U.S. diplomatic mission in Geneva declined to comment. The Federal Bureau of Prisons said it was committed to ensuring the safety and security of incarcerated individuals as well as employees and the public.

One such practice is restraining and shackling women prisoners during childbirth, the report said.

The experts “heard, first hand, unbearable direct testimonies of pregnant women shackled during labour, who due to the chaining, lost their babies”, it said. Asked to give details, a U.N. rights spokesperson referred to “several” cases and confirmed they all involved Black women.

  • MelllvarEnglish
    7•1 year ago

    “Shithole”?

    Strongly disagree. Whatever problems the USA has, there are far more places that are far worse, and very few that are better.

    • @beebarfbadger@lemmy.world
      1•1 year ago

      “Better” and “worse” are such useless qualifiers in this context. If 99.9% of all people have nothing and one dude has half the world’s money, it can be the richest country in the world and statistically lead in all categories yet still have most of the population be ruined if they ever need an ambulance transport, let alone price-gauging medical treatment.

    • @girlfreddy@lemmy.caOP
      1•1 year ago

      Just because there are worse places in no way means that America is not a shithole as well … specifically because it promises hope and freedom and but gives murdering cops and killer capitalism instead.

      • MelllvarEnglish
        8•1 year ago

        Then all countries are shitholes and the term is rendered meaningless.

        • ALQ
          6•1 year ago

          In this spirit, I suggest “porta-potty” country. A step up from shithole, since we have structure and something to sit on, but it’s still unpleasant and bad in many ways.

        • @Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          2•1 year ago

          “shithole” does not imply that it’s better or worse than anywhere else. It’s simply “shithole”. Don’t overthink it. The state of things in other countries has absolutely zero to do with whether or not the US is a shithole.