ISOLATION PRISONS AND “BRACELETS” – THE NEW OPPRESING CLASSES’ VISION FOR THE OPRESSED

Isolation prisons are another modernisation of Greek “democracy”. The public outcry refers to them as the Greek Guantanamo.

But to be fair, we must acknowledge that it was the “European legal culture” that first came up with the “white” cells, already since the ’70s, in Germany, France, Spain and elsewhere, and today they have become a growing tendency in the whole area of the European Union.

Isolation -blocking communication- is proven to have devastating effects on the individual. It is well known that the rate of mental illness among prisoners in solitary confinement reaches 25%. It is however less known that the organs of the human body stop functioning after a long period of isolation. Blindness, deafness, heart failure and eventually cancer are usually the problems caused to a body whose senses and organs are not used as they are supposed to, which means in a socially organised life.

Solitary confinement equals death penalty slowly and painfully applied, causing disabilities all along the way.

This is why it is listed as torture by all international organisations (in which of course all countries that impose it, participate).

But to whom does solitary confinement apply? It is primarily reserved for those characterised as terrorists, opponents of the regime. In Spain, in the Basque country, journalists and ordinary citizens are held in solitary confinement because they publicly defend the rights of Basque citizens and, as a consequence, they are considered to “be supporting ETA”.

The fact that in the Basque country one can find the most powerful Spanish capitals, most of Spain’s factories and the lowest wages in Spain, makes us suspicious…

According to the Greek bill, participation in a criminal organisation is the main offense justifying solitary confinement. But it also applies to prisoners “deemed particularly dangerous for the country or prison”! This general formulation provides the entire mechanism (police, judges, prison) with the power of life or death over detainees.

While those convicted for involvement in “November 17″ are serving life sentences in isolation cells and the twenty-year-old convicts for participation in other organisations of armed violence have been imprisoned for many decades (although their action hasn’t harmed human beings) or are unlawfully held in custody for much longer than 18 months, Golden Dawn members Zaroulia and Koukoutsi, who were also prosecuted for involvement in a criminal organisation, received orders of house detention!

Obviously, “objective criteria” are only ostensibly included in the bill. Of course, the reason why an entire prison is built, millions are invested and a government bears the political cost is not just to punish the political prisoners. Most of these people are already being eliminated in many different ways. The whole point is the interpretation of the term “particularly dangerous for the country or prison”… This phrase corresponds to the definition of “terrorist” according to the European terrorism legislation: “Whoever attempts to severely alter the social, political or economic structures of a country or an international organisation in which this country participates”…

In the era of generalised capitalist crisis and in order to overcome it, all EU governments enhance repression as a response to the explosive social contradictions, which they create themselves –and not only in the European south (These days, mobilisations against austerity have been violently suppressed both in London and Berlin.) “European Gendarmerie Force” has been proactively founded, having as its main task to intervene inside the member states (so that we keep putting the blame on those coming from outside…).

In Greece, the government is proceeding with exempting the state and companies from any obligation and depriving people of every right. Hundreds of thousands of people who until recently felt like “citizens” are already drifting off to the margins of society and faced with the serious prospect of imprisonment (usually for debts). These people may prove to be like explosive material, as the moment at which they will have nothing to lose but their chains is approaching.

This is why the government responds with imprisonment not only to misery, but also to social indignation. It includes in the crime category not only delinquency, but also socio-political struggles. It aims not only to push prisoners to the limits of their endurance, but also to form prison conditions for the whole society. Therefore, it creates grades of imprisonment: a) leg bracelets and house detention, b) private prisons are being built in Macedonia, c) isolation prisons.

Prison is the new oppressing classes’ “vision” for the oppressed: a prison “inside out”. A new social hierarchy… Imprisonment is no longer confined to walls and buildings, it is spreading to society. Leg bracelets for the convicts who will serve their sentence at home as long as they are cooperative or maybe even useful. Imprisonment with forced labour for the poor in order to generate profits for the state or the prison’s private owner. Isolation and physical extermination for those who are disobedient, unruly and uncooperative with the country and authorities; for the political prisoners and all those who resist injustice and demand respect for their rights. For the rest, the “useable”, the “householders”, this huge prison will always be a threat that will push for even more obedience, efficiency and an exemplary model of work and life…

Therefore, this battle cannot be given by prisoners alone –even with our full support. This battle should be given inside society and not outside of it… Because it concerns us. We should correctly “diagnose” the question posed by the history that we write ourselves (even by our absence). Misery, elimination or rebellion?

Antonia Legaki, lawyer