The Story of Cruel and Unusual

by Colin Dayan

A searing indictment of the American penal system that finds the roots of the recent prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo in the steady dismantling of the Eighth Amendment's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment. The revelations of prisoner abuse and torture at Abu Ghraib and more recently at Guantánamo were shocking to most Americans. And those who condemned the treatment of prisoners abroad have focused on U.S. military procedures and abuses of executive powers in the war on terror, or, more specifically, on the now-famous White House legal counsel memos on the acceptable limits of torture. But in The Story of Cruel and Unusual, Colin Dayan argues that anyone who has followed U.S. Supreme Court decisions regarding the Eighth Amendment prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment would recognize the prisoners' treatment at Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo as a natural extension of the language of our courts and practices in U.S. prisons. In fact, it was no coincidence that White House legal counsel referred to a series of Supreme Court decisions in the 1980s and 1990s in making its case for torture. Dayan traces the roots of acceptable torture to slave codes of the nineteenth century that deeply embedded the dehumanization of the incarcerated in our legal system. Although the Eighth Amendment was interpreted generously during the prisoners' rights movement of the late 1960s and 1970s, this period of judicial concern was an anomaly. Over the last thirty years, Supreme Court decisions have once again dismantled Eighth Amendment protections and rendered such words as cruel and inhuman meaningless when applied to conditions of confinement and treatment during detention. Prisoners' actual pain and suffering have been explained away in a rhetorical haze--with rationalizations, for example, that measure cruelty not by the pain or suffering inflicted, but by the intent of the person who inflicted it. The Story of Cruel and Unusual is a stunningly original work of legal scholarship, and a searing indictment of the U.S. penal system.

Genres: Nonfiction, School

128 pages, Hardcover

First published March 16, 2007

About the author

Colin Dayan, is the Robert Penn Warren Professor in the Humanities at Vanderbilt University, where she teaches American Studies, comparative literature, and the religious and legal history of the Americas.

Reviews

[Aron · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an extremely short yet extremely powerful exposition of US treatment of criminals. Essentially the author convincingly argues that our prison system is an extension of slavery and Abu Ghraib and Gauntanomo are extensions of our existing prison system. Along with the fact that the US is number one in the world in both the absolute number and proportional number of prisoners, the implications of this book are horrifying for anyone who cares about human rights and justice.

[Myriam · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very solid essay (not a book though sold in book form -- get it through your libraries!) on the abuses of the 8th amendment and the US's infringement of international law to permit torture on behalf of the nation; the argument of the essay hinges on the US's history of legal infringements of human rights with regard to the slave population during times of enslavement....read it to find out...

[Meggs · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this for my undergraduate honors thesis - an exploration of the Eighth Amendment in relation to urban camping bans - and I think it provides a solid review of the Eighth Amendment jurisprudence. It thoughtfully tracks how the Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause has been gutted and degraded to protect only the most basic of human necessities. It follows punishment in the U.S. from the beginning of slavery in the colonies through the founding to the upheaval of prisoner rights in the 70s all the way to U.S. torture at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib. Would highly recommend this short book (or extensive essay) if you’d like to learn more about how the United States treats those in its custody (prisoners, enemy combatants, etc.).

[Bree Pye · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very thorough look at how our contemporary American penal system is moving toward state-sanctioned torture and returning to a penal system that justifies slavery by calling it "discipline" and "reform." I'll write a more extensive review later, but the book brings court cases from the late 19th century to the present to show how we are moving backward, not forward in terms of how we treat those we deem "criminal" or "enemy combatants."

An excellent read.

[Jessica Whitehead · Rating 5 out of 5]

So informational and eye opening. Explained in a very understandable way how our government operates around the act of torture at home and abroad. The book gave me a better understanding as to how our prison system has evolved to the state that is is in today.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Difficult to get through but a thought provoking essay of the most urgent kind.

Dayan traces the interpretation of the 8th Amendment and demonstrates how much of the case law which applies to prisoners is based upon case law which applied to slaves.

Along the way, the author illuminates how a series of courts and White House attorneys have defined cruel and unusual so that it cannot mean anything, enabling torture conditions both in U.S. prisons (witness the isolation conditions at the various supermax facilities) and abroad (witness Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo).

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

The strength of this particular book (really an article or essay) is its brevity. Dayan makes a concise critique of judicial abuse and subversion of the 8th Amendment. Though focusing on the application of tactics in the war on terror, Dayan draws parallels to their use in the American prison complex.

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

She did the damn thing.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

really important and REALLY SHORT -- READ IT!

[Amanda Hobson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very short and excellent legal exploration the history of punishment and the idea of cruel and unusual punishment throughout history