Social Items

TPQ
Showing posts with label Prison Staff violence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Prison Staff violence. Show all posts
Miami Herald ✒ Witnesses called it a vicious mugging. The alleged ‘perps’: prison guards.

Carli Teproff

Ryan Dionne held the emotionally distraught woman down and Keith Turner kneed her repeatedly in the head and back, according to witnesses to the brutal daytime assault.

The two men then allegedly dragged their victim across a long field and a pavilion — her head “bobbing” off the ground, her eyes rolled back in her head — as they ordered potential witnesses: “Look away! Look Away!” 

Some did as they were told. But others looked on.

Now they are telling their stories as part of a lawsuit that seeks to recover money for Cheryl Weimar, 51, who is paralyzed from the neck down as a result of the Aug. 21, 2019, attack.

But because it happened at Lowell Correctional Institution and Weimar was an inmate, afforded few rights and little dignity, and Dionne and Turner were staff members, the alleged attackers have not been charged with a crime, and one of them remains on staff, his salary covered by the taxpayers of Florida. 

Continue reading @ Miami Herald.

Witnesses Say Staffers Beat Florida Inmate Viciously

The Journal - Report details case of mentally ill inmate found lying naked on floor of cell
 
Hayley Halpin  

The Council Of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture found a mentally ill prisoner lying naked in his cell in an Irish prison, with faeces and urine on the floor. 

The CPT has today published its report on its seventh periodic visit to Ireland, which took place from 25 September to 4 October 2019.

In the five prison establishments visited, prisoners stated that the vast majority of prison officers treated them correctly.

However, a small number of prison officers are inclined to use more physical force than is necessary and to verbally abuse prisoners, the committee outlined.

The CPT also found that the current complaints system cannot be considered fit for purpose.

The committee outlined that most people stated that they were treated corrected by gardaí when detained.

However, it said there were several allegations of physical ill-treatment and verbal disrespect from remand prisoners. These allegations mostly involved slaps, kicks and punches to various parts of the body.  

Continue reading @ The Journal.

Report Details Case Of Mentally Ill Inmate Found Lying Naked On Floor Of Cell

From The Independent - Medomsley is just one of several youth detention centres where former inmates have reported sexual and physical abuse.

Three prison officers have been jailed for inflicting years of “brutality and violence” on children held at a youth detention centre.

Christopher Onslow, 73, John McGee, 75, and Kevin Blakely, 67, beat, punched and stamped on young boys while working at Medomsley Detention Centre throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

Detective Chief Superintendent Adrian Green, who led the investigation, said the trio “abused their position to cause immeasurable suffering and lifelong damage to their victims”.

He added: 

We hope that their convictions and the sentences passed provide victims and survivors of abuse at Medomsley with some comfort and a feeling that justice has been served.


A judge sentencing the trio at Teesside Crown Court said that at the time they committed their crimes, “nobody wanted to hear” about the brutality.

Continue Reading @ The Independent.

Almost 1,800 Boys Abused At Detention Centre, Police Reveal As 'Brutal' Prison Officers Jailed

TPQ features a statement from Cogús regarding the treatment of republican prisoners in Maghaberry.

Last week, Cogús POW department learned that Roe 3 POW Danny McClean broke his arm while playing a game of football in the Maghaberry prison yard. Cogús were informed that Danny would be taken out of the prison to a hospital, where he would undergo an assessment to deem if the arm was broken.

Maghaberry Malice

Leaflet Drawn up at the request of the Taylor Family

End Brutality in Maghaberry


16th May protest at Maghaberry (click for photos)

Text of speech given by Maureen Fitzsimmons, sister of Maghaberry prisoner Harry Fitzsimmons, who "was dragged into SSU (isolation) where he had his clothes cut off his body. He was handcuffed and chained to a bed" at the start of the month and is still being held in isolation.

We come here today to stand in solidarity with the men incarcerated in Maghaberry, to demonstrate to them and the world that we do not forget them, that we will not forget them and that we will campaign tirelessly until they have been granted the full rights and recognitions they deserve.

The claims that our prisoners are self-inflicting brutalities upon themselves and their condtions are actually akin to a 5* hotel are insulting: it is every bit as insulting as when they told us Bobby Sands and his comrades similarly self-inflicted brutalities upon themselves while housed in the most progressive prison regime in Europe.

The full stories of the H-Blocks are well known now and nobody is under any illusion as to what type of mentality the screws of that era possessed. Today, those same screws with the same mindset are trying to reverse the gains and safeguards initiated after the hunger strike in 1981; it is the screws who are upping the ante and forcing Republican prisoners into a position where they will once again be held behind locked doors for year after year.

It is the system which wants to bring us back to the dark days, the days of total lock-ups, the endless days of degradation and humiliation: the screws are on a revenge run, it is they who hark back to the good old days when it was a sacred duty to beat a Fenian a day.

Prisoners, like my brother Harry, are being singled out for intensive punishment and humiliation. He was beaten, chained to a bed and had his clothing literally cut off him by the screws. He is denied visits from his family and even refused legal visits from his solicitor. Is this the 5* hotel Spratt the Prat claims it to be?

The horror of Maghaberry has been allowed to run for too long and the wall of silence which surrounds it is going to be broken down. We, together, can bring this issue to the fore and demand a satisfactory resolution for the prisoners.

Our prisoners are not making any unreasonable demands, our prisoners are not even asking for new mechanisms or structures to be put in place: all these men are asking for is the right to be able to serve their time free from sectarian bullying and harassment. Our prisoners are not animals to be caged 24 hours a day, they are human beings with every right to be treated respectfully and in accordance with international norms for the treatment of prisoners.

These safeguards were put in place after the 1981 hunger strike and we demand the immediate reinstatement of these conditions so that we may be able to resume some sort of semblance of normality, free from the constant stress and pressures of not knowing what is happening to our loved ones behind these walls and wire. This prison is every bit the monument of shame to penal repression and Britain’s nefarious role in Ireland that the H-Blocks were, and like the H-Blocks we will not stop until our family members incarcerated here are given the full recognitions and respect that they have earned.

We do not walk away from here today to forget, we walk away to plan further our approach, we walk away from here determined that we are not going to be intimidated or bullied; we are determined to make the living conditions of our prisoners a top priority for protest and agitation.

Do not forget the men in Maghaberry, break the wall of silence which surrounds the treatment these men are being subjected to. Victory to the prisoners!


"Our prisoners are not making any unreasonable demands..."

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)