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Treating prisoners humanely

A documentary on Dr. Murray’s life is already showing on TV worldwide amid protests from Michael Jackson’s fans. There are questions about where Murray found the money to pay for his defence because he says he did not receive his promised salary from Jackson.

Every day brings new revelations about the case.

I describe it as a circus because it confirms my worst impressions of the American justice system. Because the evidence was largely technical it was obvious that the jury was going to be swayed by the grandstanding performances of the defence and prosecuting authorities. As a result both behaved as if they were appearing in a Hollywood movie.

The only person in the drama who behaved with dignity throughout was the defendant, Dr. Murray. He was rewarded by being humiliated by the court that, at the conclusion of the trial had the sheriff’s deputies seize him from behind and handcuff him.

Outside the court a crowd of Michael Jackson fans carrying placards abusing Murray reacted like a lynch mob baying for Murray’s blood, cheering the verdict and shouting for Murray to be put behind bars for life. In the Los Angeles jail that night, this humiliation continued. Murray was confined to a small, dirty concrete cell with a thin mattress and one blanket. His complaint that he was cold and could not sleep accompanied by a request for a second blanket was denied.

It seems to me that the American prison system can be cruel and vindictive. We tend to think that the many films based on injustices in prisons are fictions. But this is not always so. Take the case of Robert Hanssen, an FBI agent who was convicted in 2002 of having spied for the Russians.

In return for a plea of guilty the American authorities agreed not to press for a death sentence. But they made no agreement about the conditions under which Hanssen would serve his sentence of imprisonment for life.

He is currently in a “supermax” penitentiary in Florence, Colorado. His cell is made of concrete and measures 7ft by 12ft. All the furniture—bed, desk, stool, toilet and shower are also made of concrete. Hanssen is in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day. He is allowed one hours exercise day in a different concrete chamber under armed guard. He is allowed no letters or telephone calls. The only view of the outside world is a window 4in. by 4in from which all that can be seen is the sky.

This sensory deprivation is described by prison reformers as “a closed- off world designed to isolate inmates from social and environmental stimulations, with the ultimate purpose of causing mental illnesses and chronic physical deterioration. It’s meant to inflict as much misery and pain as is constitutionally permissible. It’s a clean version of hell.”

Dr. Conrad Murray will not have to endure anything like this. His maximum sentence is fixed at four years and is expected to be much less. But the shock of being a free man one day and then being handcuffed in public while outside the court a lynch mob bayed for his blood and a few hours later to find himself in an American prison is not an experience he will easily forget.

I know prisons are not meant to be holiday homes. But surely a civilised society can find ways of confining its transgressors that is safe but humane.

Phillip Knightley is a London-based journalist and commenta