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The current prison and jail population in recent times have shown a substantial rise of over two million

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The current prison and jail population in recent times have shown a substantial rise of over two million. America undoubtedly leads the world in terms of the number of imprisoned populations and that is a disgrace. The USA prison system has made millions of lives to live constantly under the threat of torture. This is precisely true for the 6.9 million individuals in the USA who are at present imprisoned or some way or the other subject to the USA penal body (Franklin). More insidiously, the prison system has essentially assisted in turning torture into a normal, lawful, and common part of American culture. Imprisonment can be classified as a form of torture owing to the fact that it is considered as the legal form of both punishment and avoidance. Moreover, the American prison system is typically designed and run to maximize filth, brutality, and punishment. As mentioned by Franklin “Beatings, electric shock, prolonged exposure to heat and even immersion in scalding water, sodomy with riot batons, nightsticks, flashlights, and broom handles, shackled prisoners forced to lie in their own excrement for hours or even days, months of solitary confinement, rape and murder by guards or prisoners instructed by guards” (Franklin) are very common within the closed walls of the American prison.

Any sort of torture is immoral. The main point to be emphasized is the necessity of Christians to oppose not only torture but also the legal gymnastics performed to create the extra-legal physical spaces where the incidents of torture take place. The torture phenomenon in the USA relies on spaces such as the CIA black sites, as they are beyond any kind of legal jurisdiction. The Christian belief is in sharp contrast with what is being practiced within the confinement of prison in the USA. According to the theology grounded in the bible and Christian tradition, the legal rule is provisionary of god’s rule. Christianity does not provide an easy answer to the viability of torture that is practiced by mankind. It does provide a sense of hope about something that Christians should respect and consider even more than their individual and national security.