British court rules that the inhumane conditions in American prisons mean UK hacking suspect can't be legally extradited

CORY DOCTOROW / 7:30 AM TUE FEB 6, 2018

Lauri Love is a British man on the autism spectrum who also has depression and severe eczema, who was facing extradition to America on charges of hacking US military and private agencies.

A British appeals court has ruled that Love cannot be legally extradited to the US because the American prison system's methods of treating suicidal prisoners and people with mental illness are inhumane. American prisoners on "suicide watch" are typically stripped to a "suicide smock" and confined in isolation, both procedures that are cruel and likely to exacerbate the risk of suicide.

The ruling ratifies what mental health and prisoners' rights advocates have said for years: that the US prison system -- which imprisons more people than any other prison system in the world -- is cruel, ineffective, and out of control.

The American authorities' assurances to the UK court reveal how blind they are to this situation: when informed that Love was a suicide risk, the US authorities tried to reassure the court by promising that Love "would be restrained and escorted by Marshals, who would observe him within close proximity during the flight, having checked him for anything he might be able to use to harm himself" and that on arrival in the USA, he would be kept in isolation

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https://boingboing.net/2018/02/06/cruel-and-unusual.html