Maine Prison Guards Torture a Restrained Inmate

[ВАЛТЕР]

http://www.pressherald.com/news/mdc-...013-03-21.html

Fucking disgusting....

Maine officials seeking pepper-spray video leak

The Maine Department of Corrections is investigating to determine how the press obtained video and documents about a captain's treatment of an inmate last year.The video and related documents recount how Capt. Shawn Welch, an official at the Maine Correctional Center in Windham, used pepper spray on an inmate who was bound in a restraint chair, then left him in distress for more than 20 minutes. A story about the incident appeared in this week's Maine Sunday Telegram.
Scott Burnheimer, superintendent of the medium- and minimum-security prison, fired Welch over the incident, but that decision was overruled by Corrections Commissioner Joseph Ponte, who gave Welch a 30-day suspension, according to the documents and interviews.
The newspaper story and video posted on the paper's website led the chairmen of the Legislature's Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee to seek a review of the incident.
The committee plans to review the incident in the context of the department's experience with use of force and its policies for investigations, said Rep. Mark Dion, D-Portland.
It asked the Corrections Department Wednesday to provide data on the prisons' use of force and investigations, and plans to have the department's leadership discuss that data and the incident with legislators on March 27.
The Department of Corrections has assigned an investigator to determine how the information got out.
"Your possession of that indicates a breach of security on our part and we absolutely do need to look into that," said Associate Commissioner Jody Breton. "We certainly will be tightening up security -- where (information) is stored, who has access."
Breton said the probe is not being conducted because the story and video cast the department in a poor light, but because it revealed private information about an inmate.
Advocates for prisoners and for corrections officers criticized the investigation.
"The use of the department's resources should be going into training of their staff and officers and management so this kind of incident doesn't happen again," said Judy Garvey of the Maine Prisoner Advocacy Coalition. "Trying to find out how the information got into the hands of a reporter shows a reluctance to have transparency. It reeks of government heavy-handedness in oversight.
"Certainly, the inmate's right to privacy should be respected. There's always a fine line between (that and) what the public needs to know to keep abuse and tragedy from happening," Garvey said. "We feel the department itself is probably not the best arbiter of that kind of decision,"
Garvey said the coalition favors having a citizens group of prisoner advocates working with the department.
James Mackie, spokesman for the union that represents corrections officers, said he is not surprised that the department is investigating.
"The number of investigations since (Ponte) has taken over have just increased exponentially," he said.
Mackie said he was surprised that the incident, which happened on June 10, took so long to come to light. Welch was disciplined in August and September.
"We were all aware of the issue at MCC. There was no way it was going to be kept secret," Mackie said.
Breton said she does not know whether investigations have increased under Ponte.
The newspaper's story and the accompanying video offered a rare glimpse inside the prison and into a confrontation between officers and a medicated, mentally ill inmate.
Paul Schlosser had received hospital treatment for a gouge he inflicted on his left arm, but had repeatedly removed the dressing in an effort to get medication and a book to distract him.
Inmates who hurt themselves to manipulate staff are among the most difficult to deal with, Ponte said last week.
Officers restrained Schlosser in a restraint chair so the medical staff could treat his arm, because he refused to go to the medical unit voluntarily.
When one officer pinned his head to the chair, Schlosser struggled and spit at an officer. Welch sprayed him at close range with pepper spray, called OC spray, from a canister intended to be used on multiple people at a distance of 18 to 20 feet, according to an investigator's report.
Welch then refused to let Schlosser, who said he couldn't breathe, wash his face for 24 minutes. A spit mask was placed over Schlosser's mouth and nose, trapping the pepper spray against his face.
An investigation concluded that Welch's use of force was excessive and motivated in part by personal animosity.
Burnheimer fired Welch and denied his appeal, saying he had discussed it with Ponte, according to department documents.
But Ponte said last week that Welch was never actually fired.

[Os Cangaceiros]

Breton said the probe is not being conducted because the story and video cast the department in a poor light, but because it revealed private information about an inmate.

yeah, OK

[Sinister Cultural Marxist]

yeah, OK

They must really think people are stupid.

[Brutus]

yeah, OK

It makes me disguised that not only do they allow this to happen, they then give lies as excuses of why the video is not leaked to the public.

[Art Vandelay]

Acab.

[Comrade Nasser]

Fuckin' cops. No different than the Nazis.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlhA22MHWOo

[MarxArchist]

Standard operating procedure in county jails in the Bay Area. I stood by helplessly while they tortured a schizophrenic woman in the 'intake' a few years back. The cell was across the way from mine. They stripped her and cuffed her to the floor. Anytime she would sob and cry and scream they'd enter her cell and twist her uncuffed arm in an unnatural position behind and above her head - because the noise bothered them. The noises she was making alone in her cell. The sort of thing severely mentally ill people do. She would scream louder painful weezing sobs begging for mercy and they would tell her to "stop resisting" as they pressed on. It brought me to tears. This was both male and female guards while some 'mental health professional' stood around and looked on. They see people who come through their jails as subhuman. Inmates are systemically dehumanized as a matter of policy. I've witnessed a drunk man (in the same jail about a week later) have his arm broken in half by three deputies using the same torture tactic (compound fracture). You don't have to be 'resisting' to receive it. A wrong look, a comment under your breath.... I myself have had my tail bone broken from being picked up by three officers and slammed on the cement. Most of them seemed to be suffering from roid rage and they all laugh about it as people sit in pools of blood. There needs to be independent citizen cameras in police cars and in jails but they'd find ways around that as well just as they now do with internal affairs. As we all know they even kill people and get away with it. It's all very unsettling but it comes from high command in the county jail with the theory that they need to 'set the tone' that they are in charge so anyone who enters the jail and is a 'troublemaker' gets an overwhelming display of force. Their idea is it will 'keep the peace' in normal day to day jail life if inmates are scared shitless of the guards. Some of them simply 'snap' from working in jail day in day out but it's not like they're great people to begin with. The state purposely hires thugs who they think they can control. Like the military.

[conmharáin]

A fundamental and disturbing violation of human rights and a twisted mockery of everything a free society should stand for? TRANSFER

Smoking pot? JAILTIME

Seriously, though, why is every able-bodied human being not revolting right this very second

[Jesus Saves Gretzky Scores]

How many times can I say ACAB before I get infracted for spamming?

[DasFapital]

Sniff...sniff...what's that smell? Oh yeah...FUCKING Pork! Good ol fashioned pig roast!

[Orange Juche]

A fundamental and disturbing violation of human rights and a twisted mockery of everything a free society should stand for? TRANSFER

Smoking pot? JAILTIME

Seriously, though, why is every able-bodied human being not revolting right this very second

Because American Idol! is on.

[bcbm]

not surprising in anyway, sadly and probably a routine occurrence everywhere in the us

Because American Idol! is on.

careful, your contempt is showing

[Green Girl]

http://www.pressherald.com/news/mdc-...013-03-21.html

Fucking disgusting....

Agreed and it's not just in Jail and Prison, have you seen the Police Brutality inflicted on Occupy Wall Street? It's sicking. Here is an Occupy Police Brutality Compilation:

+ YouTube Video

[Lacrimi de Chiciură]

The fact that this "incident" is only of concern to them because the images being leaked to the press constitutes a violation of state secrecy, and not because they document a violation of human rights, is lockstep with the militarization of civilian law enforcement. Apparently now they have the same protections to torture as those given to the military by the Detainee Photographic Records Protection Act of 2009 (a bill designed to protect the the crooks at Guantanamo, Abu Ghirab, & the other so-called "black sites.") Expect that when torturers are exonerated by policymakers, torture culture is bound to become entrenched with more regularity, more normality, and more protections as the war-addicted ruling rich escalate their fight against poor people on the home front.

This isn't an isolated incident but a symptom of a broader torture culture.

US torture culture has historic roots going at least as far back as after 1899-1902 when counterinsurgency/"intelligence" strategies tried and tested during the US genocide in the Philippines were diffused into the domestic law enforcement complex that is now called "homeland security."

[ВАЛТЕР]

I f anyone is interested here is video of the incident. (Warning: some may find this disturbing to watch.)

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=b01_1364192974