Cell extraction is routine in correctional facilities, used on prisoners who have displayed threatening behavior or who have broken prison rules.[1] A prisoner is forcibly removed from their cell by a team in riot gear using Tasers, pepper spray, and stun shields.[2] While the officers wear protective gear to guard against attack, the prisoners are commonly injured – concussions and broken bones are not unusual.[3]
At Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Tennessee, Charles Jason Toll died after a cell extraction. To facilitate shackling him, he was held to the floor with an electrified shield; during this process and for some time afterward he told the officers that he couldn’t breathe.[4] Charles suffered from diabetes and mental illness.[5] Capt. James Horton was videoed telling him that “you’re not going to be able to breathe; you wanted this.”[6] After being carried face-down for a search in the recreation yard, Charles died of “asphyxia and suffocation” from the force applied to him while in restraints.[7] His death was ruled a homicide.[8] His mother was called the next day and told that Charles had been found dead in his cell. There was no mention of the cell extraction.[9]
Many corrections experts believe that extractions are “vastly overused.”[10] In some facilities, extraction is a last resort after attempts to defuse the situation have failed, and are closely supervised when they do occur.[11] The reality is that in many places, there is little training or supervision and extractions are conducted in lieu of alternative methods.[12] Most facilities videotape extractions, but officers taking those videos have been known to point cameras away from the action when officers want to conceal what is going on.[13] The Nevada Department of Corrections directs staff that they “must begin videotaping the incident as soon as possible.”[14]
The Ideal Extraction and Deviations
A handout prepared by the Nevada Department of Corrections (hereinafter Nevada DoC) gives a good idea of how things are supposed to go in a perfect world.[15] The instructional goal of the handout is that:
The student will understand that the objective of any cell/tier extraction involving the calculated use of force is to remove the inmate from the area as soon as possible, in a controlled manner while utilizing the least amount of force necessary.[16]
The handout says that “[i]n all cases, staff must be mindful of the Use of Force Continuum and use only the least amount of force necessary to control the situation.”[17] Among the list of “musts” for cell extraction is listed the necessity of videotaping; of seeking alternative means of resolution; having authorization from a supervisor; using the least force necessary; that staff know the responsibilities of each team member; that the prisoner receives medical attention as soon as practicable; and that the officer’s involvement and actions during the incident be thoroughly documented.[18]
If alternative conflict resolution fails, Nevada DoC lists the next step of introducing a Taser of OC gas (pepper spray) into the area.[19] Among other things notes that the Taser or Nova shield (electric shield) may not be used in infirmaries, mental health units.[20] However, it seems that there are no restrictions on using these weapons on mentally ill prisoners outside of designated mental health units.
Even in the best facilities, cell extractions can be risky for both the officers involved and the prisoners. The chaos of the situation can lead to injuries. Officers have been bitten by prisoners carrying blood-borne diseases.[21] One officer had a leg badly cut during the making of a cell extraction training video.[22] The Nevada DoC lists many hazards that officers may face during the extraction: a prisoner with a weapon; obstacles placed in the way of officers, inmates starting a fire, covering the floor with water, lotion, or other substances to make the floor slippery; inmates throwing hot water and/or baby oil at the officers; inmates applying lotion to themselves to make them hard to grab.[23]
Prisoners, outnumbered and outgunned, suffer the greater risk.[24] Todd White, a prisoner at the same institution as Charles Toll, said “you feel helpless. They just come in there and beat the hell out of you and do what they want to.” Todd had his head slammed into a wall during a cell extraction, after he had been put in restraints.[25]
In some facilities, Dr. Jeffery Schwartz, a seasoned correctional consultant, said, ”staff like to do call extractions because it’s an excuse to kick the crap out of inmates.”[26] In his view only around 20% of cell extractions conducted were actually necessary.[27] The extractions can make a situation worse, with prisoners compelled to fight back to save face in front of other inmates and officers gearing up like soldiers before a battle. “Once they put on those heavy pads and the adrenaline is flowing, they want to go in.”[28]
The Use of Dogs in Extractions
Dogs can also be used in cell extractions.[29] The dogs are allowed to jump on the outside of the cell to encourage the prisoner to submit to restraints voluntarily.[30] The dog is allowed into the cell on a leash; while the dog handler is supposed to maintain control of the dog as it attacks, but that is not always what happens.[31] One prisoner in Connecticut stated that “[t]he dog was barking uncontrollably and jumping up and out towards me. The K-9 officers released the dog leash, and the dog, a German Shepherd, charged me.”[32]
The dogs are trained to bite whatever they can. An Iowa corrections official stated “[the dogs are] taught a . . . full-mouth bite. The dog opens his mouth real wide and get as much as [he can] whether it’s a thigh or whatever in his mouth.”[33] As the prisoner attempts to fend off the dog, officers place the restraints.[34] At some point, the dog is called off.[35] Having personally been attacked by a German Shepherd I can attest that it is rather terrifying to have a dog that big jump on you; 10 years later I still bear the scars.
A different and even more disturbing practice was used by the Arizona Department of Corrections. The dog handler would stay outside the cell and send the dog in on a 30-foot leash.[36] After the dog bites the prisoner, the officers pull on the leash and drag both the dog and the prisoner – gripped by the dog’s powerful jaws – out of the cell.[37] Thankfully, Arizona placed a moratorium on the use of dogs in extractions as of March 29, 2006.[38]
Prisoners are almost always injured when dogs are involved in the extraction.[39] Usually it is “just” a puncture wound, but if the prisoner pulls back there can be muscle or tissue tearing.[40] My wound was “just” a puncture wound, but I had nerve problems in my hand for about a year and a half later as scar tissue aggravated the nerve; I still get aching pains from the area on occasion. Even a puncture wound can lead to problems that extend far past the injury’s treatment.
Prisoners have also experienced long-term problems. One Connecticut prisoner recalled the dog biting completely through his hand. This led to a loss of feeling in the middle and ring fingers and a “pins and needles” feeling in the index finger and thumb.[41] The dog had severed multiple nerves. This type of injury will never go away.
Thankfully, many corrections departments do not condone the use of dogs in extractions.[42]In 2006, Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Correction Kathleen Dennehy moved away from using dogs in extractions because “[t]here are other ways to compel inmates to cuff up than sending in an animal to rip his flesh.”[43] The dogs have, however, proven useful in situations to compel a prisoner to comply voluntarily through fear of confrontation with the dog. An Iowa official believed that after dogs were brought in, the incidence of forced cell removals dropped dramatically.[44]
The summary of a survey on the use of dogs in cell extractions was performed by the Association of State Correctional Administrators. While somewhat out of date, it does include many data points in one place.
Mental Illness and Disproportionate Targeting
Prisoners with mental illness are disproportionately targeted.[45] Mentally ill inmates are more likely to exhibit behavior that officers see as defiance. As mental hospitals have been shut down across the country, institutions hold more and more of the nation’s severely mentally ill. In Oklahoma, a third of inmates show signs of mental illness.[46] Jailers receive training for how to deal with mentally ill inmates, but they are not mental health professionals.[47]
One inmate in California was videoed being pepper sprayed repeatedly, and had delusions that the guards were intent on raping him.[48] Officers ordered him to back up and put his hands through the ports for handcuffing, reinforcing the prisoner’s fears.[49] The officers introduce more chaos and fear through their brute force methods and habits of yelling at and insulting the prisoners.
California was venue to perhaps one of the largest lawsuits regarding the extraction of the mentally ill. One of the prisoners who brought the suit was Jermaine Padilla. He had been deteriorating mentally and was convinced he heard voices, including that of President Barack Obama.[50] The incident was videotaped, but was not performed well. The intervention – the attempt to use alternative means to resolve the situation – lasted 32 seconds, surely not enough time to actually hope to connect with Jermaine.[51] Prison psychiatric teams had noted that “he expressed paranoia, appeared psychotic, delusional, and illogical.”[52] The extraction team consisted of at least seven officers and a gurney.[53] To Jermaine, this seemed like a nightmare, and believed that the extraction team intended to take him somewhere to harvest his organs or turn him into a cyborg.[54] Jermaine had no idea what these people wanted from him. In about two minutes, the officers had sprayed pepper spray into his meal slot while he screamed in pain.[55] In the next six and a half minutes he was sprayed six times again.[56] Even the captain overseeing the extraction made a note that Jermain “was clearly not capable of submitting to handcuffs due to his mental state.”[57] Eventually the cell was rushed, forcing Jermain’s to the ground and dragging him, naked, across the floor before putting him in restraints.[58] Jermaine’s lawsuit alleged that even though he was crying for help, no one attempted to de-escalate, and that this incident exacerbated his mental illness.[59]
Videos from California showed officers in state prisons dousing mentally ill prisoners with large amounts of pepper spray before extracting them.[60] Hon. Lawrence K. Karlton, a federal district judge, ordered the release of the videos and called them “horrific.”[61] Along with releasing the videos, the judge also found that the use of force against mentally ill prisoners was unconstitutionally harsh.[62] He ordered state officials to revisit the use-of-force policies used against the state’s 33,000 mentally ill prisoners.
In Nevada, Administrative Regulation 405 “prohibits the use of the Taser or Nova shield in infirmaries or mental health units.[63] With so many prisoners suffering from mental health issues, the legal premise for separating “mental health units” would, at least rationally, extend to other mentally ill prisoners. If the regulation was developed mostly to protect other mentally ill prisoners from seeing such an extraction, that so many prisoners are mentally ill the regulation should, in spirit though not in practice, apply to any place where there are mentally ill prisoners that can observe the extraction.
Dogs are used on the mentally ill in cell extractions in Connecticut.[64] A Department of Corrections employee said that “[t]here is too much potential for things to go wrong because you cannot assume someone who is mentally ill will act in a rational manner.”[65] The Department’s public affairs office, however, said that dogs may be used on mentally ill prisoners after a “direct mental health intervention has failed and the inmate is considered to be a threat to staff or his/her self.”[66] The incongruence of using a dog that will almost certainly harm a prisoner on a prisoner deemed a threat to him/herself reminds me of the police officers that end up shooting people who are contemplating suicide.
In Iowa, however, dogs will not be used for extractions of mentally ill prisoners.[67] In an interview with Human Rights Watch, the acting warden of Anamosa State Penitentiary, John Fayram, said “. . . when we’re aware a person has a history of mental illness, canines don’t get used in that situation . . . We don’t want to aggravate a situation, if the person acting out isn’t going to comprehend the meaningfulness of the dogs present (sic).”[68] Though the use of dogs at all is at best a questionable practice it is at least good that some corrections officers recognize that the perceptions of the mentally ill may not be the same as expected in other individuals.
Cell Extraction as Retribution
Steve J. Martin, a lawyer, corrections consultant, and expert on the use of force in correctional facilities, said “[cell extraction] can move from a proper tactical exercise to a punitive and retaliatory exercise.”[69]
In December 2012, two mentally ill inmates were forcibly extracted from their cells, taken to a clinic, and beaten in front of medical staff.[70] An investigation by the New York City Department of Investigation concluded that the officers had assaulted both inmates “to punish and/or retaliate against the inmates for throwing urine on them and for their overall refusal to comply with earlier search procedures.”[71] Based on statements from inmates and clinic staff:
A Captain and multiple officers took turns punching the inmates . . . while they were restrained. One clinician reported that . . . one inmate [was] punched in the head while handcuffed to the gurney for . . . five minutes. . . . A Captain later approached a senior [mental health] official and stated, in substance, that it was good the clinical staff were present ‘so that they could witness and corroborate the inmates banging their own heads into the wall. The correction officers’ reports did not refer to any use of force . . . stating “The inmate was escorted to the clinic without further incident or force used. . . . One of the inmates told our consultant that he was still spitting up blood . . . more than a month later.”[72]
At the Charlotte Correctional Institution in Florida Kelly Bradley, who suffered from schizophrenia, was cowering under a blanket in the corner of his cell when five officers in riot gear stormed the cell and jumped on him. They pinned him face-down on the floor. As they cuffed Kelly, Office William Hamilton Wilson dug his finger repeatedly into Kelly’s eye until he ripped out his right eyeball. As they took him from the cell, his eye dangled from the optic nerve, hanging on his cheek.[73]
The Nevada Department of Corrections makes special note that “[u]nder no circumstances will any type of restraint or Use of Force be used as a means of punishment.”[74] Along with that note is mentioned that the “8th Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits cruel and unusual punishment.”[75] The Nevada DoC requires that, once the restraints are applied, that “CUFFS ON” should be announced loudly.[76] In this incident, one officer had repeatedly announced that the restraints had been applied while the gouging nevertheless continued.[77]
The Danger for Whistleblowers
It is also difficult for officers who see what is being done and find it disturbing. The Blue Code of Silence encourages and intimidates them to remain quiet or risk losing their jobs and/or being subject to harassment by the other guards themselves.
In the case of Charles Toll, the internal-affairs investigators at the prisons said that Charles’ death was “in no way caused by the actions of staff.”[78] However, corrections consultant and former warden Ron McAndrew, an expert witness in the case, said “it was the most incompetent investigation I’ve ever seen.”[79] One officer, William Amonette, quit his job in part because of the incident.[80] In his resignation letter, the officer said that he had been treated badly “ever since I asked questions in your office about the witnesses in the Charles Toll case that were not spoken to by Internal Affairs . . . I cannot work somewhere where asking questions or trying to do what is right is punished.”[81]
In Kelly Bradly’s case, the extraction team was questioned by the commander, Captain Scott Anderson, about what happened.[82] None of the officers admitted anything; officially, it seemed that no one saw or heard anything.[83] The Captain told the officers to write a report that left out the injury.[84] A similar incident at the same facility left inmate Matthew Walker dead with a crushed larynx and head bashed in.[85] Similarly, no officer admitted to what happened and once the gear was washed of blood, there was no evidence.[86] This lack of evidence was problematic for the grand jury and led to criminal charges against the officers being dropped.[87]
One member of the team that extracted Kelly, however, told his coworkers that he couldn’t go along with it.[88] Officer John Pisciotta had the courage to go up against the standard procedure of feigning ignorance. William, the officer who gouged out Kelly’s eye, responded by saying “c’mon, he’s just a fucking nigger.”[89] The Captain told the officers involved not to mention Kelly’s injury in the reports.[90] After filling out reports, he looked at John, who was visibly upset, and said “Are you OK? You’re making us all nervous here.”[91]
John broke the blue wall of silence.[92] “I knew that it was morally wrong,” he said.[93] After John told the truth, the officer that stabbed out Kelly’s eye was arrested.[94] After testifying about the truth of the incident, John was fired.[95] He told the jury during the 2009 trial: “I knew once I did the right thing, and I stepped forward . . . my career would be over. It’s something you don’t do. You don’t go against other officers. Because my life has been a living hell ever since.”[96]
Other officers shunned John and intimidated him.[97] A union representative told him that “It’s going to be rough for you now.”[98] After William Wilson’s arrest, the arrest affidavit was emailed to 19 officers; the affidavit described John’s role as a witness.[99] Shortly thereafter, “Coward” was spray-painted onto the side of his home, his car’s fender was damaged, and his transmission wires were cut.[100]
William was convicted of civil rights violation and served only five years.[101] The captain involved was promoted to colonel.[102] This April the warden of the facility where Matthew and Kelly were assaulted, Tom Reid, was given the “Secretary’s Leadership Award” by Florida Prisons Secretary Julie Jones.[103] The award is meant to recognize a warden who “consistently exemplifies the department’s values.”[104]
John Pisciotta’s attorney, Bill Amlong, said “Generally, corporate culture does not start at the loading docks and seep up. For this stuff to be going on, there must be a tolerance for it at the top that seeps down. I’m not exactly sure how you break that.”[105] John had seen William’s aggressive behavior on the day of Kelly’s extraction and even asked his bosses not to let William participate.[106] The Captain told him that William would do fine. John said “he was a big boy and he took care of what they wanted taken care of. He was part of the good ol’ boy crew that did things the way they wanted.”[107]
Sources below the cut.
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