I find it strange that they can do things to kids that they're prohibited to do to prisoners.
Well, maybe they're technically prohibited from doing it, but they still do it anyway (admittedly with
far more oversight). There's always the standard officially sanctioned reason of one's actions being "for the person's own safety or the safety of others."
The truth, however, is found in the details of the particular incident in question. Details which may never make it as far as, let alone into, the Incident Report.
Here are some details from conditions in Maine's Supermax... From that first
article above, emphasis added:
For me to verify the prisoners' stories, a source who wished not to be identified — to preserve his relationship with the prison — gave the
Phoenix a
videotape of a cell extraction of a young man. He was not one of the men I interviewed. The prison tapes each extraction in order to prove, some people would say ironically, that the prisoner is not mistreated. The videotape I obtained, although dated to 2000, corroborates the stories I heard.[/list][/size]
Here's a link to a page containing excerpts from that videotape; format is Apple's Quicktime:
-------------- • -------------- • --------------
The Boston PhoenixPrison, American-styleNovember, 2005
•
Clip #1
•
Clip #2
•
Clip #3A WARNING TO POTENTIAL VIEWERSThe extremely explicit and graphic scenes on this tape are real. They are not for the faint of heart. They include nudity and violence. Anyone who views them should be prepared to be disturbed and outraged. We have blurred the faces of the inmate and the guards in order to protect their privacy.
The three video clips represent one minute and thirty seconds of a more-than hourlong video that chronicled the 2000 "extraction" of a prisoner from his cell inside Maine's Supermax and his placement in the prison's restraint chair. As Lance Tapley explains in the story (
part one,
part two), the "prison tapes each extraction in order to prove, some people would say ironically, that the prisoner is not being mistreated."
The full video starts with the guards receiving instructions from a superior on the inmate's situation, his extraction from his cell, and his march toward the hallway outside the restraint room, where he is forced to the ground and sprayed in the face with what looks like pepper spray. The prisoner's clothes are then cut off until he is nude. He is picked up off the floor and thrown into a chair, where a guard again sprays him repeatedly while three other guards strap him in. The bulk of the video shows the naked prisoner in the chair, trying to get free, and yelling to the guards: "I am sitting in piss." Through the reflection of the window-enclosed room, guards can be seen periodically looking in on the suspect.
It is important to bear in mind that the actions captured in these clips are not outlawed. They are sanctioned by the state, and the guards are shown are working within a well-established legal framework. By showing these tapes we aim to bring to public attention to the internal workings of Maine Supermax and similar correctional facilities across the nation.
Copyright © 2005 Phoenix Media/Communications Group