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R.I. Prison Guards Charged in Abuse Case

By Jeralyn, Section Inmates and Prisons
Posted on Sun May 07, 2006 at 05:33:47 AM EST
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Students for Sensible Drug Policy alerts us to this disgusting case of prisoner abuse in Rhode Island:

Three state correctional officers, including a captain who allegedly forced an inmate to taste his own feces on Valentine's Day, were arrested and charged yesterday with multiple counts of assaulting five inmates in the Adult Correctional Institutions.

The arrests were the result of a three-month investigation launched by authorities after prison officials learned about the feces incident involving inmate Michael Walsh, 30, of East Providence. State police Maj. Steven G. O'Donnell said that other inmates came forward with allegations that they suffered physical abuse at the hands of correctional officers. State police detectives interviewed those inmates and were able to corroborate the allegations that resulted in yesterday's charges.

The inmates "were serving short sentences for crimes such as felony shoplifting and drug possession."

The guards were charged with misdemeanors and arraigned Friday.

Arrested and charged with simple assault are: Capt. Gualter J. Botas, 37, of 186 School St., Pawtucket, a 17-year ACI veteran, eight counts; Lt. Kenneth J. Viveiros, 53, of 211 Woonasquatucket Ave., North Providence, a 25-year ACI veteran, four counts; and Officer Ernesto Spaziano, 37, of 50 Whipple Rd., Burrillville, a 15-year veteran, one count.

The guards' lawyer has already outlined their defense: They simply were doing their jobs. Since when is this part of the prison guard job description?

According to affadavits that state police detectives submitted to the court, the guards are accused of whacking inmates in the head with phone books and a clipboard. Others allege that they were punched in the head, slapped in the face or had packets of soup tossed at them.

SSDP has stronger words for the guards' lawyer: Eat Sh*t.

Let's look at the charges pertaining to one inmate:

Inmate Walsh, a laborer and father of a 6-year-old girl, is scheduled to be released from the ACI this month. He was sent to prison for violating the terms of his probation stemming from a past shoplifting conviction. Days after the prison guards and staff were suspended from the ACI, Walsh's lawyer called a news conference to announce that he was preparing to sue the prison.

Walsh, through his lawyer, Kenneth A. Schreiber, said he was punished for trying to smuggle cigarettes into the prison. He was strip searched and forced "to take [his own] fecal matter and put it in his mouth," Schreiber said.

SSDP puts it this way:

Tell me how we can justify this? How can we, as a so-called "civilized" society, possibly justify subjecting non-violent drug users and petty criminals to this kind of treatment? How can we justify locking them up in an environment where they are in contant danger of being abused - physically, sexually, and emotionally - not just by other prisoners, but by prison guards!?

....This kind of disgusting bahavior isn't just going on in Iraq, folks. It's happening every day in our prisons. This happened in my back yard. And it's happening in yours.

< Abuse, Cover-Up Suspected in Inmate Death | Leopold: Fitz Considering Obstruction Charge Against Rove >

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    R.I. Prison Guards Charged in Abuse Case | 7 comments (7 topical)
    Re: R.I. Prison Guards Charged in Abuse Case (none / 0) (#1)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sun May 07, 2006 at 07:04:50 AM EST
    On Valentine's Day? Forrest Gump: My momma always said, "Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get."

    Re: R.I. Prison Guards Charged in Abuse Case (none / 0) (#2)
    by soccerdad on Sun May 07, 2006 at 08:26:17 AM EST
    But America does not torture or abuse anyone. /sarcasm

    Re: R.I. Prison Guards Charged in Abuse Case (none / 0) (#3)
    by Che's Lounge on Sun May 07, 2006 at 08:38:11 AM EST
    "Don't feel like satan, but I am to them. So I try to forget it any way I can. Keep on rockin in the free world." Back to work.

    Re: R.I. Prison Guards Charged in Abuse Case (none / 0) (#4)
    by scribe on Sun May 07, 2006 at 09:02:46 AM EST
    A couple points here: 1. Assuming the truth of the allegations, those guards ought to be taken out and flayed. 2. SSDP is right on the slogan for the guards' lawyers, and it might be useful to keep a sign saying that in the background of any TV appearances those lawyers make. 3. Interesting that the RI media puts the addresses of cops in the paper. Then again, it's a very small state, so everyone probably knows already. Now, the good stuff: 4. Just because these are egregious violations of any standard of civilized behavior, don't think any suit against the guards is a slam-dunk. Scalia, Rehnquist, Warren, and Thomas, among others, have spent, well, a generation working over Section 1983 and finding immunities the drafters of that section surely must have been aware of when they drafted it, to find ever more creative ways of barring citizen lawsuits and leave individuals powerless (and remediless) before the minions of the State. I'd take the Guards' civil defense case in a second, because there's a good chance the only money which would get paid would be out of fear of any claims getting to the jury, and out of public relations value. A well-crafted defense would likely invoke enough immunities to get the inmates' cases tossed. Besides, the government will pay their civil case defense lawyers.... 5. The Rhode Island National Guard spent a lot of time in - you guessed it - Guantanamo, doing - you guessed it - guard duty of those Bushie and his pal Rummy described as "the worst of the worst". An enterprising reporter would likely get him/herself some sort of award for tracking down (again, it's a small state) just which of these guards got deployed, and which of their cousins, brothers, brothers-in-law and so on got deployed and came home to tell stories over beers Sunday after dinner of how they treated "The worst of the worst" when they were off fightin' the Wah on Terrah. Just to show how the Gitmoizing migrated from there, to a local jail near you. 6. Just keep this in mind about the state courts, too. The Chief Justice of the R.I. Supreme Court was deployed to Gitmo, where he served on those dubious Military Tribunals. People in R.I. tried to get him tossed from the bench, but the feds intervened (behind the scenes) and the case was tossed for "lack of standing" or some similar BS. How Appealing and the Providence Journal covered this story when it was going on, about a year or so ago.

    Re: R.I. Prison Guards Charged in Abuse Case (none / 0) (#5)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sun May 07, 2006 at 03:56:22 PM EST
    Yes, printing the home addresses seems like a bad idea, even if it is routine. Do they do it for everyone who's arrested? What purpose does it serve that outweighs the obvious increased chances of harassment and vigilantism?

    Re: R.I. Prison Guards Charged in Abuse Case (none / 0) (#6)
    by scribe on Mon May 08, 2006 at 09:04:32 AM EST
    Just to follow up on why lawyers tend not to take plaintiffs' civil rights cases, this opinion was posted today. A pertinent quote:
    Ellen Maria Reasonover (Reasonover) was convicted in 1983 of killing James Buckley (Buckley). Reasonover served over 16 years in prison, and was released in 1999 after her petition for writ of habeas corpus was granted. The habeas court found, in light of new evidence discovered and disclosed after Reasonover's conviction, it was more likely than not that no reasonable juror would have found Reasonover guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Reasonover v. Washington, 60 F. Supp. 2d 937 (E.D. Mo.1999). Reasonover and her daughter, Charmelle Bufford (Bufford), now bring an action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and Missouri state law against many of the individuals and municipalities responsible for her conviction and incarceration. Their claims include (1) a section 1983 claim for malicious prosecution, false arrest, use of unreliable and fraudulent investigatory techniques, procurement of unreliable and fabricated evidence, and wrongful conviction and imprisonment; (2) a section 1983 claim for conspiracy; (3) a section 1983 claim for suppression of exculpatory evidence; (4) section 1983 claims against municipalities and counties for failure to train police officers; (5) a section 1983 claim for deprivation of associational rights and loss of family privacy; (6) a claim under Missouri state law for negligence resulting in wrongful incarceration and continued detention; (7) a state law claim for false arrest; (8) a state law claim for malicious prosecution; and (9) a state law claim for abuse of process. The district court granted all of the defendants' separate motions for summary judgment, and Reasonover and Bufford appeal. We affirm the district court.
    The opinion is 27 pages long, .pdf, and instructive. Sixteen years in prison for a murder she didn't commit, and she gets - next to nothing.

    Re: R.I. Prison Guards Charged in Abuse Case (none / 0) (#7)
    by kdog on Mon May 08, 2006 at 12:02:43 PM EST
    That says it all Che. Well quoted. I don't believe in Satan, but if he were real this is certainly his work. And by association...our work. I fear inhumanity such as this impossible to stop, it must be inherent in human beings. We can only hope to expose it and limit it.

    R.I. Prison Guards Charged in Abuse Case | 7 comments (7 topical)