What Causes, And Effects Of The World Without Torture?

The War on Terror has produced several different viewpoints on the utilization of torture and its effectiveness as a means to elicit information. A main argument has been supplied that torture is ineffective in its purpose to gather information from the victim. The usefulness of torture has been questioned because prisoners might use false information to elude their torturers, which has occurred in previous cases of torture. It has also been supposed that torture is necessary in order to use the information to save many lives. Torture has been compared to civil disobedience. In addition, the argument has been raised that torture is immoral and inhumane. Lastly, Some say that the acts are not even regarded as torture.

Such as perjury for perjury people were placed in stocks with their ears nailed “ most torture ended in physical maiming” (Langbrint 4). You could be tortured for Perjury, Adultery, bigamy, Manslaughter and so on but later on every punishment was replaced by hanging it was replaced around the 1820 with public hanging

Soon after undergoing procedures they found out people where going insane and even taking their own lives. These customs of confinement where retired for a long time until about the 1920’s when they made a comeback at Alcatraz off the San Francisco Bay. The jail is known for housing some of the most notorious prisoners in the country and they wanted to keep the upper hand and not have anything go wrong. They created a whole prison block called D-Block which housed dozens of prisoners in confinement.If you were to break any rules while in confinement you would get sent to the “hole” which was worse than solitary confinement because you would not receive any clothes or any food other than bread and water. (http://www.alcatraz101.com) Robert Stroud was one one of the prisoners at Alcatraz in his lifetime he served 42 years in solitary confinement. While in another jail he was confined and found a group of birds which he housed later on in his years in jail he publish a couple books one called Diseases of Canaries. He was a very intelligent man with an IQ of 134 but while being looked up he was later diagnosed a psychopath.(Robert Stroud/wikipedia.org) Many prisoners go into solitary confinement perfectly fine and come out different due to the lack of human

The United Nations Convention Against Torture stated that torture is defined as “any state-sanctioned act ‘by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person’ for information, punishment, intimidation, or for reasons based on discrimination” (AFSC). Craig Haney, a social psychologist and psychology professor of University of California, interviewed a group of people in solitary confinement in 1993 at Pelican Bay State Prison (a supermax, Security Housing Unit (SHU)) where he was studying psychological effects of isolation on prisoners. 20 years later he went the same prison to do more interviews only to find the same prisoners there in the same condition (Goode). Haney found high rates of psychological trauma in long term solitary confinement where more than half of the studied prisoners had nightmares, heart palpitations, fear of impending nervous breakdowns, hallucinations, perceptual distortions, while a quarter of the prisoners had suicidal ideation (Rice). In ACLU prison, prisoners have gone as far as swallowing broken glass, amputating fingers, testicles, scrotum, earlobes, and one even amputated a finger and ate it in a bowl of ramen noodles (Katel). Dr. Haney describe what they were going through as, “They were grieving for their lost lives, for their loss connectedness to the social world and their families outside and also for their lost selves. Most of them really did understand that they had lost who they were, and weren’t sure of who they had become” (Goode). In other words, in solitary confinement prisoners experienced identity loss as they were completely isolated from human contact: One inmate who was in solitary confinement for 24 years explained, “I got a 15-minute phone call when my father died. I realized I have family

In one particular asylum in La Bicetre, that was located in Paris, patients were chained to walls in dark cramped cells. In this same institution these patients only had enough room to feed themselves, so they were forced to sleep upright. The quality of the food was not cared for and the staff members did not pay any attention to who was being fed and had no intention of caring. Rooms were cold, they were forced to sit in their own manure, and the only visits were to deliver food to the cell. These conditions were not just retained to La Bicetre but throughout the world around the times of the 1500 hundreds to the early 1900 hundreds. If you thought these conditions were harsh many patients that had personality disorders were experimented

Not only can torture do cruel things to the person receiving the affliction, but it can also affect the torturer. When a person gives torture, it damages the humanity of them, which means they will never be the same person again. When torture is used, the victim is treated as a “thing” rather than a person. The receiver is basically dehumanized to achieve the desires of the torturer. Although torture can be used to discover new information, it does not always work that way. Torture can cause inaccurate information to be provided due to the want for the torture to be finished with. In some cases, torture is not the

Even though the prison in this article is not real, the prisoners still went through the same struggles as real prisoners. “‘Real’ prisoners typically report feeling powerless, arbitrarily controlled, dependent, frustrated, hopeless, anonymous, dehumanized and emasculated” (Zimbardo 3). The prisoners felt as if this prison was real and that they were real prisoners. Dehumanization played a large part in their feelings of being real prisoners. “Here he began the process of becoming a prisoner- stripped naked, skin-searched, deloused and issued a uniform, bedding, soap, and towel” (Zimbardo 1).

After watching this video, I believe that the most difficult thing about being in this prison during the 1800-1900's would be the isolation. Simply hearing how the walls were sound proof, they were punished for making noise, and they could only come out of their cells for baths once every two weeks, sent chills up my spine. According to studies, even perceived social isolation in humans alone can predict a cognitive decline, an increased chance for Alzheimer's, a lower permanent IQ, and more (Cacioppo, Hawkley, Norman, and Berntson,2011). If that can happen from perceived social isolation then one can only imagine how terrible living in constant social isolation would be.

Another form of punishment was the “rope.” During the “rope” the prisoner was hung so their heels would not touch the ground. This made the prisoner stand on their toes to stay alive. This lasted usually around 2 hours per incident. The “rope” was used to punish people who were caught collecting evidence, which was on a no tolerance level. Whipping happened almost on a daily basis. Prisoners were whipped for anything from mouthing back to not doing there work right, to even looking at a guard the wrong way. Being whipped was looked at by prisoners as the easy way out. Most considered the gassing of prisoners to be the worst punishment of all. Gassing occurred in groups, prisoners were gassed for various reasons, but mostly for refusing to do work. To be gassed prisoners were sent to Linz, Austria.

In this paper, I will begin by outlining Shue’s argument that while there may be some rare circumstances in which torture would be morally permissible, laws against torture should not be less severe, as torture does not satisfy the constraint of possible compliance (CPC), and other moral considerations. I will argue that since the cessation of torture cannot be guaranteed by the torturer, interrogational torture does not satisfy the CPC. Then, I will consider the objection that in practice, torture systems can ascertain the compliance needed by the victim, and can ensure this compliance is within the victim’s power. I will conclude by countering this point, as systems of torture have proven to be unreliable, and generally, unnecessary.

Many of these well documented effects include but are not limited to, mental and physical illness on individuals who were never plagued with such condition, “disruption in their emotional processes”(Corcoran. 3), and “symptoms associated with post-traumatic stress disorder.” (Corcoran. 4) Doesn’t that not sound like torture to you? Criminals are sent to prison to be incapacitated and rehabilitated, not to be isolated and tortured. Inmates are given prison or jail sentences, not torture sentences.

The topic of torture is one that is very controversial and should not be taken lightly. Torture is used to break a person apart, physically and mentally, in order to get what you want from this person. Krauthhammer’s “The Truth About Torture: It’s Time to be Honest About doing a Terrible Thing” and Sullivan’s “The Abolition of Torture” are two different views on torture and whether or not it should be made legal and the moral complications that arise in certain situations. Although torture is a monstrous and horrible thing, there are two cases (ticking time bomb and high level terrorist problem) where you have to reconsider whether or not torture can be morally justified. To expand, I will undoubtedly have to disagree with Sullivan’s approach and outline the different problems he poses with his argument. Ultimately, Krauthhammer made the stronger case in which there are two cases where torture is morally the right thing to do and should be applied legally (but carefully) in the judicial system in order to

This period could last for months or years. And while the jails were of the same standard as the secular authorities, the impacts of being kept in prison for months or years were significant. Jobs were often lost, families were unable to be fed, and members of the imprisoned suffered. Once the trail took place, the defendant received a defense and all possible records were thoroughly examined. Torture was used when there was missing evidence or to extract confessions.

If you did anything little like even smile at another prisoner you were punished by being handcuffed, soaked in water, put in a strait jacket for a couple days or be whipped

This paper uses 6 articles, 3 scholarly and 3 non scholarly articles to discuss when is torture necessary despite conflicting with peoples’ moralities. This paper is to compare and contrast the two different types of articles and see how both can benefit a paper as long as the author can distinguish what information is useful and credible information. It will, also, discuss what makes some people see torture as a necessity as opposed to those who view torture as wrong. In addition, the paper will discuss what social factors and events make some individuals break their moral codes and feel that they have no choice but to violate basic human rights and see torture as the only means to an end.