“The site definitely denies arrestees access to their lawyers,” Tracy Siska told Sputnik on Thursday. “It means that since Vietnam there has been an ongoing process where military type interrogation tactics have been creeping in to the interrogation rooms of domestic law enforcement.”
Once brought to the Homan Square, the arrestees could be held here for up to 48 hours, according to the attorneys who talked to Sputnik about the compound. And it is a rarity when lawyers can see their clients. Siska noted that there are countless examples of cases where his colleagues’ clients were denied access to counsel.
“Clearly these tactics are unconstitutional in the United States but they continue to be used regardless,” Siska said about the possible torture practices at the compound.
He pointed out that such tactics would persist unless prosecutors and judges live up to their responsibilities to be a check and balance on bad police practices.
On Wednesday, Anthony Hill, a Chicago-based attorney specializing in criminal defense matters in state and federal courts in Illinois, told Sputnik that he was lucky to get into the facility a few years ago. According to Hill, the atmosphere in the shadow compound is coercive and forces false confessions, while the arrestees are denied basic rights.
There are about 25 police stations spread across the city of Chicago, all of them denoted as police departments on the outside. However, the facility in Homan Square is different – it has no signs identifying it as a police station, and the officers there do not wear regular police uniforms.
Chicago Police Department (CPD) dismissed the allegations and said that the police site at Homan Square abides by all regulations.
