Prisoners

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 * Federal panel of medical examiners trying to get regulations loosened on pharmaceutical testing on prisoners after the practice “was all but stopped” three decades ago because of the abused power (Urbina).
 * Supporters think that programs such as this will “benefit to the prison population” (Urbina).
 * Up until the early 1970’s nearly 90 percent of all pharmaceutical products were tested in inmates.
 * “But such research diminished sharply in 1974 after revelations of abuse at prisons like Holmesburg here, where inmates were paid hundreds of dollars a month to test items as varied as dandruff treatments and dioxin, and where they were exposed to radioactive, hallucinogenic and carcinogenic chemicals” (Urbina).

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 * Jessica Mitford, in 1973, stated in //The Atlantic Monthly// that the reason prisoners were used what because “they were ‘cheaper than chimpanzees’” (“Should Prisoners Participate” ).
 * Three decades later the protection of the inmates what less valuable than that of chimpanzees, dogs, and hamsters.
 * The number and disposition of each animal was documented and reported to congress while no federal law was ever passed saying that the number of humans used or harmed needed to be kept up with.
 * “Prisoners were exposed to cancer-causing and radioactive chemicals at Holmesburg Prison in Pennsylvania between 1951 and 1974” (“Should Prisoners Participate”).
 * In 1977 juvenile inmates were given psychotropic drugs
 * “A federal investigation in 2000 documented gross violations in prison research conducted by the University of Texas at Galveston” ("Should Prisoners Participate”).
 * It is being argued that the only testing that should involve inmates is “noninvasive research aimed at improving prison conditions” (“Should Prisoners Participate”).
 * Biotech and pharmaceutical are using “captive subjects with limited rights” due to the lack of volunteers.

FIGURE 12: Unnatural Deaths in Custody - International Comparison