Abuse Common in U.S. Prisons, Activists Say

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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040506/us_nm/iraq_abuse_prisons_dc&cid=1896&ncid=1473

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Horrific abuses, some similar to those revealed in Iraq (news - web sites), regularly occur in U.S. prisons with little national attention or public outrage, human rights activists said on Thursday.


"We certainly see many of the same kinds of things here in the United States, including sexual assaults and the abuse of prisoners, against both men and women," said Kara Gotsch, public policy coordinator for the national prison project of the American Civil Liberties Union (news - web sites).


"This office has been involved in cases in which prisoners have been raped by guards and humiliated but we don't talk about it much in America and we certainly don't hear the president expressing outrage," she said.


President Bush (news - web sites) has said he was disgusted by the abuse of Iraqi prisoners. Yet, there were many cases of abuse in Texas when he served as governor from 1995 to 2000.


For example, in September 1996, guards at the Brazoria County jail in Texas staged a drug raid on inmates that was videotaped for training purposes.


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