Stanford is awaiting trial and has not been convicted. Yet he was in a holding cell with eight others with no air conditioning in 100 degree heat for months, then got mauled in a fight, is in solitary now, and a few days ago was staring blankly and spitting blood into a cup while in court.
“They’re doing their best to break him,” [Stanford's lawyer] said. “That’s the thing you thought they did in other countries. Now, we find out they do it here.”
He’s 6’6″, was in superb condition when he went into prison, could bench-press major weight, and was a black belt. (Sure, a prison fight is way different from sparring in a dojo, but still…) Yet five months later he appears to be a physical and mental wreck.
My personal belief is Stanford is probably guilty of multi-billion dollar fraud. The reality is that US prisons routinely are this bad to everyone in them. Maybe he’s being singled out for even worse treatment either by the guards or, hmmm, it’s been whispered he was laundering drug money, and the cartels certainly have their tentacles inside prisons too.
Winston Churchill said people should go to prison as punishment, not for punishment. I agree.
