Newly Released Documents Confirm Bureau of Prisons Visit to CIA Torture Site in Afghanistan

ONE OF THE MANY alarming facts that came to light with the release of the executive summary of the Senate Torture Report in 2014 was that the Justice Department’s Bureau of Prisons had sent a “delegation of several officers” to Afghanistan to conduct an assessment an infamous CIA detention site and concluded the CIA “did not mistreat the detainees.”

Senate investigators found that the bureau officers visited a detention site code-named Cobalt north of Kabul in November 2002. That site — also known as the Salt Pit — has become infamous for the brutal torture inflicted on detainees there, including rectal exams conducted with “excessive force.” According to Senate investigators, the CIA’s own employees described the facility as “a dungeon,” where detainees “cowered” as interrogators opened the door and “looked like a dog that had been kenneled.”

In April, the ACLU filed suit to obtain documents related to the visit, which the Bureau of Prisons initially claimed did not exist.

The bureau has now turned over several emails mentioning the visit — along with a written declaration by a senior Bureau of Prisons lawyer explaining the attempted cover-up. That declaration states that the officers were tasked orally, so that there was no record of their travel, and that the CIA forbade the two officers from producing records of or about the visit...

https://theintercept.com/2016/11/25/newly-released-documents-confirm-bureau-of-prisons-visit-to-cia-torture-site-in-afghanistan/

Prison Profiteering | Explorer

The largest private prison company in America is changing its name—but can’t escape a troubled record

The largest private prison company in America is changing its name in an attempt to overhaul a business that has been dogged by accusations of inmate abuse and violence.

Corrections Corporation of America, which runs more than 70 prisons and houses 70,000 inmates around the country, is rebranding as “CoreCivic,” the company announced on Friday.

The name change comes as the private prison industry is facing some of the rockiest times in its three-decade history. After an inspector general report found substandard living conditions, inadequate medical care, and higher rates of violence at 14 prisons run by CCA and other private companies, the Department of Justice announced in August that it would be phasing out its private prisons. The company’s stock fell 35% in one day. Now, the Department of Homeland Security is considering following suit and phasing out privately run immigration detention centers, with a decision expected to be announced by the end of next month.

Meanwhile, watchdog groups, elected officials, and the media are devoting more attention to what goes on behind the doors of private prisons. In a blockbuster Mother Jones investigation earlier this year, reporter Shane Bauer went undercover as a private prison guard in a CCA facility in Louisiana and uncovered how cost-cutting was putting guards and prisoners at risk. (That prison is no longer operated by the company.)

http://fusion.net/story/364000/cca-corecivic-private-prison-rebranding/

Prison operator Serco slammed over treatment of inmate at Mt Eden Prison

A report has exposed a shocking lack of medical care for a prisoner at Mt Eden prison, formerly run by Serco.

The cellmate of a cancer-stricken elderly prisoner was forced to clean his friend's gangrenous toes with toilet paper after the prison failed to provide adequate care.

Details of the incident, which happened at Auckland's Mt Eden Prison in 2013 while it was managed by the multinational company Serco, were revealed in a report released by the Health and Disability Commissioner.

As well as failing to treat the prisoner's toes, the report slams Serco for failing to provide painkillers and denying him a wheelchair despite there being two available.

The man died later in the year...

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/82241264/prison-operator-serco-slammed-over-treatment-of-inmate-at-mt-eden-prison

Serco's prison falls into chaos

When prison inspectors visited Serco-run Doncaster prison, they found numerous inmates too terrified to leave their cell.

You can see why. The report they published this morning reveals an institution descending into chaos. In the months before the investigation there had been "numerous acts of indiscipline", including hostage-taking and the use of barricades. Levels of assault were much higher than in similar prisons, with numerous violent incidents resulting in serious injuries, both to prisoners and staff. Half of the inmates told investigators they’d been victimised by other prisoners. A quarter of them currently felt unsafe.

In the six months before the inspection, there’d been 365 assaults. Many were serious. Many involved a gang setting upon a single victim. Early last year, one inmate was murdered.

"The last inspection report was awful, and this one is even worse," Frances Crook, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, says...

http://www.politics.co.uk/blogs/2016/03/09/serco-s-prison-falls-into-chaos

Serco targets £1bn Australian immigration centre contract

Serco, the British outsourcing company, has entered the race for a £1bn contract to run offshore immigration detention centres for the Australian government.

The contract, which is due to be awarded by the end of this year, is to manage the government’s two offshore immigration detention centres on Manus Island and Nauru for five years from April 2017.

A fresh deal to run offshore detention centres in Australia would be a boost for Serco, which has been struggling to win new business since being investigated by the Serious Fraud Office for overcharging the British government on the electronic tagging of prisoners.

In the first half of 2015, Serco won contracts worth £1bn, including a three-year £6m deal to provide contact centre services for the British National Careers Service and a £34m contract with the Ministry of Justice to build and manage an extension to Thameside Prison in London.

The FTSE 250 company is competing against the current provider, Broadspectrum, operating under the name Transfield, which recently had its contract extended to March next year, while the government revises the scope of the tender....

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/496a8ad2-cf1f-11e5-92a1-c5e23ef99c77.html

Wiki: Hwasong Concentration Camp

Location

The camp is located in Hwasong County (Myonggan County), North Hamgyong Province in North Korea. It is situated along the upper reaches of the Hwasong River in a secluded mountain valley. The western border is Mantapsan, a 2,205 m (7,234 ft) high mountain. On the north and east sides, the camp reaches the Orangchon River valley. The entrance gate is right on the Hwasong River and on the road from Hwasong, 8 km (5.0 mi) west of Hwasong-up (Myonggan-up).[1] The camp is not included in maps,[2] but the entrance gate and the ring fence with watchtowers can be recognized on satellite images.[3]

Description[edit source | edit]

Hwasong camp is a penal-labor colony in which detainees are imprisoned for life with no chance to be released.[4] With around 549 km2 (212 sq mi) in area[5] it is the largest prison camp in North Korea. Puhwa-ri (Chosŏn'gŭl: 부화리), 4 km (2.5 mi) north of the entrance gate, is the camp headquarters.[6] The number of prisoners is estimated at 20,000.[7] They are classified as "anti-revolutionary and anti-party elements" and held on charges such as opposing the succession of Kim Jong-il.[4] Many of the prisoners are merely family members of suspected wrong-doers, who are held captive in a “guilt-by-association” punishment.[8] It is believed that the camp was founded in the 1990s.[9]

Working conditions[edit source | edit]

Prisoners are exploited for hard, dangerous, and deadly labor in mining, logging and agriculture.[8] According to Mr. Lee, a former security officer in Hwasong camp, the inmates were overworked and had very little time to rest. Prisoners had to work all day until they fulfilled their quotas and attend self-criticism meetings afterwards. Often they were allowed to sleep only four hours in the night. Mr. Lee witnessed many fatal accidents in the workplace.[10]

The North Korean nuclear test area at Mantapsan is just 2 km (1.2 mi) to the west of the camp border. Several defectors reported that political prisoners were forced to dig tunnels and build underground facilities in areas exposed to nuclear radiation.[11]
Human rights situation[edit source | edit]

Information is extremely limited, as the camp has always been a maximum security camp under strict control and surveillance.[9] An unidentified teenager reported how he was sent to the camp with his entire family at age 13. He witnessed his father being beaten cruelly and his mother and sisters being raped by security officers.[12][13] Residents from nearby villages heard about the horrific conditions inside the camp, but were never allowed to get near the camp.[12]

Security officer Lee explained the methods to execute prisoners in an interview with Amnesty International. He witnessed prisoners forced to dig their own graves and being killed with hammer blows to their necks. He also witnessed prison officers strangling detainees and then beating them to death with wooden sticks. According to him several women were raped by the officials and executed secretly thereafter.[8]

Camp expansion[edit source | edit]

Analysis of satellite images by Amnesty International in October 2013 shows that the prisoner population of Hwasong camp has slightly increased compared to 2008.[14] In several prisoner villages new housing structures and new administrative buildings can be identified.[15] Some of the new prisoners may have been relocated from Hoeryong concentration camp to Hwasong.[16]

Former prisoners/guards (witnesses)[edit source | edit]

Besides the unidentified teenager, no former prisoner was found to provide a direct testimony, probably for fear of retribution.[12]
Mr. Lee (full name withheld for his safety; 1980s - mid-1990s in Hwasong) was a security officer in the camp.[8]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hwasong_concentration_camp

Exclusive: Freed CIA Whistleblower John Kiriakou Says "I Would Do It All Again" to Expose Torture

In a broadcast exclusive interview, we spend the hour with John Kiriakou, a retired CIA agent who has just been released from prison after blowing the whistle on the George W. Bush administration’s torture program. In 2007, Kiriakou became the first CIA official to publicly confirm and detail the agency’s use of waterboarding. 

In January 2013, he was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison. Under a plea deal, Kiriakou admitted to a single count of violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act by revealing the identity of a covert officer involved in the torture program to a freelance reporter, who did not publish it. In return, prosecutors dropped charges brought under the Espionage Act. Kiriakou is the only official to be jailed for any reason relating to CIA torture. Supporters say he was unfairly targeted in the Obama administration’s crackdown on government whistleblowers. 

A father of five, Kiriakou spent 14 years at the CIA as an analyst and case officer, leading the team that found high-ranking al-Qaeda member Abu Zubaydah in 2002. He joins us from his home in Virginia, where he remains under house arrest for three months while completing his sentence. In a wide-ranging interview, Kiriakou says, "I would do it all over again," after seeing the outlawing of torture after he came forward. Kiriakou also responds to the details of the partially released Senate Committee Report on the CIA’s use of torture; argues NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden did a "great national service," but will not get a fair trial if he returns to the United States; and describes the conditions inside FCI Loretto, the federal prison where he served his sentence and saw prisoners die with "terrifying frequency" from lack of proper medical care...

http://www.democracynow.org/2015/2/9/exclusive_freed_cia_whistleblower_john_kiriakou