UN human rights experts calls for major reforms of the US criminal justice system to combat systemic racism

UN human rights experts have issued a call for significant reforms within the US criminal justice system to combat systemic racism. They cited testimonies revealing that incarcerated Black women had been shackled during childbirth, while male inmates were subjected to “plantation-style” conditions.

In a report released on Thursday, three UN-appointed experts detailed practices within US prisons that they deemed “an affront to human dignity” based on their visits in April and May. The US diplomatic mission in Geneva declined to comment, while the Federal Bureau of Prisons stated its commitment to ensuring the safety and security of incarcerated individuals and the public.

One of the highlighted practices involved restraining and shackling women prisoners during childbirth. The experts reported “unbearable direct testimonies of pregnant women shackled during labor, who, due to the chaining, lost their babies.” When asked for details, a UN rights spokesperson referred to “several” cases and confirmed they all involved Black women.

The experts also gathered firsthand accounts of conditions at a Louisiana prison where thousands of predominantly Black male prisoners were “forced to labor in the fields (even picking cotton) under the watch of white ‘freemen’ on horseback, in conditions very similar to those of 150 years ago.” They described the stories from the ‘Angola’ facility as “shocking” and asserted that they constituted “contemporary forms of slavery.” They expressed alarm at the widespread use of solitary confinement, which appeared to be disproportionately applied to African descent inmates.

One Black man told the experts that he had been kept in isolation for 11 uninterrupted years. The report emphasized the urgent need for comprehensive reform, according to one of the experts, Juan Mendez.

Concerns about US prison conditions have persisted for decades, with rights groups advocating for the reform or closure of facilities with the worst records. The investigation was initiated by the UN Human Rights Council, of which the United States is a voting member, in 2021 following the killing of George Floyd, a Black man who died after a police officer pinned his neck to the ground.

The report was based on testimonies from 133 individuals in five US cities and collected from five detention centers. It included a list of 30 recommendations for US authorities, including a call for the establishment of a new commission to address reparations for people of African descent.