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Teen inmates pepper-sprayed on
videotape December 4,
2007
BY Mike Ward
Banging on his steel cell door, the
teenage boy was agitated. He shouted epithets through the missing
Plexiglas window and then held the door shut, first with his hand
and then with his muscled arm.
After a few minutes of exchanged
shouts, a cluster of Texas Youth Commission guards outside his
solitary cell appeared to grow impatient.
"We're gonna spray you," they
yelled at the youth several times before wresting the door open and
tackling him inside. Pinned on the concrete floor by several guards,
he jerked once again.
They hit him with pepper spray.
That use of force, videotaped Oct.
2 as Youth Commission personnel removed incarcerated teens from the
privately run Coke County Juvenile Justice Center, starkly
demonstrates what has become increasingly routine inside Texas'
troubled youth lockups: use of chemicals to control unruly inmates.
It also highlights why the practice is so fiercely debated.
Commission officials say the tape
shows why pepper spray is needed, to reduce injuries to youths and
staffers in what can be a dangerously hostile environment. Opponents
say the tape proves that pepper spray is being used for punishment,
for convenience, to gain compliance when other methods would avoid
increasing violence even more.
On Monday, at a public hearing to
vet a new use-of-force policy that would allow pepper spray to be
used before physical restraint in controlling incarcerated youths,
state officials got mostly criticism. Several people argued that it
could violate a federal court agreement, made more than 20 years
ago, that chemicals should not be used in the state's youth lockups
except to quell a riot.
After the state months ago pledged
to adopt a best-practices model for reform, its proposal to
liberalize the use of pepper spray has drawn scorn and derision from
corrections experts across the country. Other juvenile justice
systems are moving in the opposite direction: Pepper spray has been
banned in juvenile lockups in Washington state, and its use has been
restricted in California and other states.
Although the Youth Commission's
increased use of pepper spray has been documented — court testimony
two weeks ago revealed that more than 1,200 reports have been logged
this year through October, compared with 200 all of last year — the
videotape provides graphic details about how it is being used. The
tape was made by employees of Geo Group Inc., which operated the
Coke lockup until the Youth Commission abruptly canceled its
contract and moved the youths to state-run lockups. A copy of the
tape, which was not made public, was viewed by the
American-Statesman.
Before the video started, youths
had littered a dayroom with dirty wads of toilet paper to thwart
their being moved. Most of the youths being removed from their cells
by Youth Commission personnel complied, several amid loud protest,
several after first refusing to leave their cells. The din of
youths' shouts and banging on the steel doors makes some of the
verbal exchanges inaudible. What is clear is that guards used pepper
spray on two male teenagers after tackling and restraining them.
One of the youths had tried to hold
his door shut, so the guards contemplated a second blast into his
face after he resisted again while on the floor.
"It ain't working," one guard says.
"You got that arm?" asks another.
No injuries were apparent, though
people doused with pepper spray in the face are quickly, though
temporarily, hobbled by burning and watering eyes. The spray can
also cause skin irritation and even respiratory irritation or other
problems for those who are allergic. Opponents of the new policy
said youths with mental disabilities can suffer severe emotional
reactions, and they urged that its use be prohibited at mental
health units.
Steve Martin, a nationally
recognized corrections expert who lives in Austin and has reviewed
recent Youth Commission reports on the use of pepper spray, said
that instead of entering the cell, tackling the youth and then
spraying him for failing to comply with an order, the guards should
have tried to de-escalate the confrontation first with words and, if
that proved unsuccessful, physical intervention.
"There are proven ways for properly
trained staff to de-escalate confrontational situations without
using chemicals ... and this is even more important in juvenile
institutions, where their judgment is not as mature and where the
courts have repeatedly held that its use is restricted," he said.
"It would be the same as hitting a
youth with a baton for not following an order. No one would argue
that would be wrong. This is the same thing, just with pepper spray,
which also can cause injury.
"It can become de facto corporal
punishment."
Agency officials again said Monday
that the policy is designed to make the state-run youth lockups
safer for youths and the staff. Three people, including a
corrections officer, testified Monday that they favor the change.
"It has eliminated a lot of the
violence on the units," said Rodney Rowch, 39, who works at the
Giddings State School. "When you see someone sprayed, it's a
deterrent. I've used it ... on someone who was actively aggressive.
... It prevented the situation from getting worse."
Youth Commission general counsel
Steve Foster said agency officials plan to meet with opponents
before enacting a final use-of-force policy. That could take six
months, he said.
The story so far
Mid-1980s: State policy says mace
can be used in juvenile lockups only to prevent or quell riots.
May 2007: A blue-ribbon panel
recommends that the use of pepper spray not be expanded.
July: Youth Commission officials
informally allow use of pepper spray before physical restraints for
the first time.
August: Acting Executive Director
Dimitria Pope issues a directive making that change official.
September: Texas Appleseed and
Advocacy Inc. sue, alleging the change was approved illegally.
October: Youth Commission agrees to
roll back the rule change, allow public input and provide statistics
on pepper spray use to the two groups.
November: Groups ask an Austin
judge to sanction the agency for letting the liberalized use of
pepper spray continue and for not supplying the records.
Nov. 29: State agrees again to roll
back the policy change until a new policy can be properly vetted.
Source: Youth Commission
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