The Wrath of We, the People: The Softer, Gentler
Development of Industrial Justice Systems
“Beloved, do not look to avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God..."
Romans 12:19
Torture is an ugly word. But the popular principle of “accountability” is a two way street, a double edge sword. The hoiy regenerate legislatures must be held “accountable" just as the unwashed, degenerate and imprisoned are to be held “accountable”. Torture is such an ugly word; and that prisoners in America might make the claim that torture is part of the American industrial justice system will irritate the defender of the system to deny the assertion. This paper argues that torture is one of the main elements which makes the industrial prison complex a dangerously misleading slogan. Torture is the main element of the industrial justice systemw-prisoners are the products who are warehoused in prisons that put an end to the tortuous procedures of justice.
We argue that torture is what makes the justice system in industrial nations industrial. Lest you are bothered this claim is made by prisoners, we respond:
1. To the citizen claiming Christian affiliation we remind you, don't be haughty, but associate with the lowly”. (Romans 12: 12)
2. To the secular moralist, we say, remember the words of the famous progressivist Herbert
Spencer “There is a principle which is a bar against all information... that principle is contempt prior to investigation”.
This essay is a plea. It presents a paleontological record of the practice of industrial justice, in the hopes in showing various manifestation of the same species. We discuss the following:
. The panopticon nightmare of Jeremy Bentham.
. The famous US. Supreme Court decision, Miranda v. State of Arizona.
. The description of torture by Alexander Solzhenitsyn in The Gu/ag Archipelago.
. An eye~witness account of theeuphemistic institution of torture in the United States, called the “early resolution policy” which is an academically redesigned cloak for judicial torture.
We will then present an argument that this animal whose bones we have presented is one of the major structures of industrial totalitarianism. Let us make some prefatory remarks about the nature of this large beast of which the industrial justice system is a constituent.
Industrial society is not merely another term for capitalism. Socialism is a command economy; the industrial mode of production operates under the “dictatorship” of the proletariat. In iaissez-ifaire democracies the industrial production operates on internal laws of free~markets, which is to state a claim that it is the “invisible hand"; I think this represents the Calvinist perversion of the absolute directive will of God. Those who have are the elect marked by God's sign of electionm wealth. Those who have not ought to work for election, and those in prison are burdened with the scarlet letter of perdition. C
Industrialismi is a way of organizing for economic production of goods and services, characterized by three things:
John Qulntero (All rights reserved)
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1. Extensive exploitation of the natural resources of power.
2. Increasing emphasis on capital in relation to labor.
3. Various consequent modifications of reiated institutions in the total social system.
Industrial society is distinct from nomindustrial economies as they are open, and not closed or self~sustaining, arrangements. Here is another series of characteristics of industrial society, which basically”gears the entire society to meet the demands of organized production” of goods and services, such as “public safety" produced by the government systems of justice.
Increasing activity in larger, national and then international markets.
. Changes in the nature and composition of work force.
Reduction of agriculture.
Upgrading of unskilled and semi-sl
<.
3. “...the fear must be that which some other person excites, and not that which originates in the accused’s own mind from the seed of his own planting".
The above is canon for aggressive, poiitically ambitious public servants in the gigantic regime of the industrial justice system to increase his or her “head-counts “or “ki|l—stars” to wave in the eyes of the mythologicai “people”—~—~this same human force is what drove the Soviet regimes escalation of its Gulag. As in the Soviet system, the doctor and psychiatrist is the torture’s right hand man (Guiag, pg.208). If the accused has the good sense to battle back in the adversary system, the state can argue the fear was not exogenous, and present expert witness to that effect; and thus have the extorted confession admitted to evidence! The obvious potential for abuse became actual and the Warren Court exposed it, as we wiil now see.
Justice Earl Warren does not use the word torture in his decision, but “in-custody interrogation”. The term now carries, unfortunately, the more brutal and sanguinary connotation that recalls the old resentments of the Church-State connection which brought witches and heretics to the rack and to the burning stake. We continue to use it here for its poetic brevity and its technical precision. This decision is pointed at the modern practice of torture, which is iight, and as
Bentham and Solzhenitsyn have argued, even more effective. Warren clearly defines the topic:
“... We stress that the modem practice of in«custody interrogation is psychologically rather than physically oriented... the [Supreme] Court has recognized that coercion can be mental as weli as physical, and that the blood of the accused is not the only hallmark of an unconstitutional inquisitionxl.
In other words, American industriai justice systems have discovered the same thing the
Soviets have Bentham’s light methods work! We present the foiiowing iist which compiles the proof the Warren Court presents as to the existence of a science of extracting confessions, which have clear simiiarities to the Marxist industrial iegal system:
1. Articles and books iisted in Miranda: a) Booth, “Confessions and Methods Employed in Procuring Them” in Southern Ca. Law Rvw,
1930.. b) Kauper, “Judicial Examination of the Accused-~— A Remedy for the Third Degree” in Mich.
Law Rvw, 1932.,
John Quintero (Ail rights reserved) 9
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Hall, “The Law of Arrest in Relation to Contemporary Social Problems” in Univ. of Chicago
Law Rvw, 1936.
Kidd, “Police Interrogation” 1940.
Potts, “The Preliminary Examination and the ‘Third Degree” in Baylon Law Review 1950.
Molbar “Interrogation" 1951.
Dienstein, “Technics for the Crime investigator”, 1952.
Inbar and Reid “Life Detection and Criminal Interrogation”, 1953.
O’Hara,.“Fundamentais of Criminal Investigation”, 1956.
Inbar and Reid, “Criminal Interrogation and Confessions” 1953.
Sterling, “Police Interrogation and the Psychology of Confession” in Journal of Public Law,
1965.
2. The following is a compilation of maxims constructed verbatim from justice Warren's quotes from the above texts, either in the body of the decision or as footnotes, mainiy a quote at pg. 1615, FN 12: a) The subject shall be deprived of every psychologicai advantage. b) In his own home, the suspect may become confident, indignant or recalcitrant [this implies efforts are in order to create lack of confidence, impose dociiity and create compliance]. c) Suspect in home is more keenly aware of his rights and reluctant to tell of his indiscretions. cl) Suspects at home have the moral support of family and friends [and this is to be avoided]. e) The investigator in his office has all the advantages. f) [One must] create an atmosphere of invincibility of the force of the law. g) And highlight isolation h) And highlight unfamiliar surroundings. i) Display confidence in the guilt of accused. j) Maintain appearance of merely confirming details. k) Use closed questions: not did you do it, but how, where, when and why did you do it. i) Feign empathy. m) Minimize moral seriousness of alleged act; blame others. n) Keep accused in psychological state where his story is mere elaboration of what police already know.
Be dismissive and discourage all contrary explanations.
When these tricks fail escalate oppressive atmosphere and unrelenting persistence.
Never relent or give respite from the atmosphere of domination.
Use these methods only when guilt is highly probable. when all else fails, show hostility to engender fear.
The examiner is to concede suspect the right to remain silent as this has an undermining effect by the show of apparent, or false, fairness.
The industrial American development of torture in its lighter, but more effective forms reflects the general acceptance of confessions in law as having sufficient “probative value"><"i. The only prohibitive criteria of making a confession unadmissible as evidence to convict, is voluntarinesswwhich is to speak of a man's will, also understood right by catholic philosophy as the intellectual appetite. The common law reason for the rules of admissibility of confession are two~fold:
1. For the regulation of conduct of police officers, and
2. Insure right to fair trial and against false confessions by the individual accused and prosecuted by the power of the state.
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By the 1960's it was clear that he increasing size and compiexity of the state systems of justice had begun to place more weight on efficiency, and the escalation of torture in quaiity (in its effective soft techniques)“ and quantity had reached crisis proportions, and gotten beyond the controi of the state Courts. The Supreme Court had to step in and put a stop to it by the creation of the famous uniform rule. The Court notes that the problem had been studied by the Federai
Government and had issued the pubiication of a report to Congress on poiice vioience and the third degree“. States and municipalities passed “anti-sweating” statutes, all to no avail.
The Miranda decision, in its historicai overview, reveals an architectural locomotion of judiciai torturewfrom the judge's open court, to the police station, and after Miranda it takes on the principle of invisibiiity (proposed by Bentham) most perfectiy.
The oid name for “interrogation” was judicial torture. We mentioned eariier the introduction of torture to northern Germanic countries and England by way of the so—called “renaissance” of pagan Roman Law. This gave the magistrate the power to order the tortured confession, usuaily inflicted by the public executioner. Justice Warren says this system was in place
“until the expuision of the Stuarts in 1688... and the erection of additional barriers for the protection of the peopie against the exercise of arbitrary power”>
