American Civil Liberties Union

Many people saw the torture and abuse of prisoners and indefinite detention at Guantánamo Bay in the wake of 9/11 as a fall from grace. Harvard Historian, Jonathan Hansen disagrees. “America,” he says, “scarcely has any grace to fall from.”

In this episode of ACLU Studio, ACLU National Security Project Litigation Director, Ben Wizner talks with Hansen about his new book, Guantánamo, An American History. Listen and learn how Guantánamo is a reflection of America; revealing the good, the bad and the ugly.

Following the release of an ACLU report on Los Angeles County Jails, a columnist for the Los Angeles Times echoed this editorial in calling for L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca to do something about the deplorable conditions in his jails.

The ACLU report details a pattern of severe and pervasive abuse of inmates at the hands of deputies and an ongoing climate of violence that has been allowed to exist for years under Sheriff Baca, who the report says has covered up and ignored the claims of savagery. The ACLU is calling for Baca’s resignation and a thorough federal investigation of the L.A. County Jails.