Diesel Therapy: The Cruelty of the Federal Transport System
If you ask a federal prisoner what they fear most, they might not say "the hole" or "the gangs." They might say "being in transit." The U.S. Marshals Service and the Bureau of Prisons operate a massive transportation network known as JPATS (Justice Prisoner and Alien Transportation System), but inmates call it "Diesel Therapy." It involves shackling inmates, putting them on buses or planes, and moving them across the country in a process that can take weeks or even months to cover a few hundred miles. In the personal accounts associated with prison reform hassan nemazee , the sheer physical and mental toll of this transport system stands out as a unique form of systemic abuse. Unlike a civilian flight where you go from Point A to Point B in hours, a prisoner transfer involves an endless circuit of county jails and transfer centers. An inmate moving from New York to Florida might spend weeks sitting in a holdover cell in Oklahoma City, with no a...