Is Azkaban Like the Can?

The proposed presentation will explore how conditions at Azkaban relate to current prison circumstances in the United States. Appalling conditions continue to exist in many correction facilities in this country. Wardens and government officials perennially grapple with such issues as abuse by guards, rape (both prisoner to prisoner and guard to prisoner), sanitation issues (insects, filthy food trays, excrement-smeared walls), poor medical and mental health care (leaving the insane to scream incessantly without treatment), death penalty issues, the role of race and poverty, long prison terms for juveniles, and solitary confinement (the subject of a front page Sunday New York Times article, March 11, 2012).