What gives you the idea that any of the people involved in this are private contractors? This is for Federal prison, and as far as I can tell, everybody involve

What gives you the idea that any of the people involved in this are private contractors? This is for Federal prison, and as far as I can tell, everybody involved in it is an employee of the Federal Bureau of Prisons or the Marshalls. And calling it torture strikes me as ridiculously over the top. But then, I've come to think lately that the word torture isn't very useful at all. The only real use is to allow people to make inflammatory claims that compare some practice of the prison system to racks and thumbscrews. If you object to a specific practice, call out that practice explicitly. If it's actually unnecessarily bad, then no inflammatory rhetoric is required to get people to object. Suggest something more reasonable to accomplish the same goal instead. Making vague claims of torture makes me think that you're reaching in an attempt to make something sound worse than it is.