Attorney Who Stopped Guard-on-Inmate Torture in Rogers Prison Goes After
Valdosta State Prison and GA Department of Corrections
Class Action Filed Against Valdosta State Prison Officials Cites Routine
Torture of Restrained Inmates and Conspiratorial Cover-Up
VALDOSTA, Ga., Jan. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Atlanta attorney McNeil Stokes today
filed a class action suit against guards and officials from Valdosta State
Prison and the Georgia Department of Corrections. The suit names twenty-five
prison guards, officers, supervisors, wardens, medical personnel and
corrections officials in the routine beatings and torture of restrained
inmates and subsequent cover-up of the abuse.
The complaint details gruesome attacks in which prisoners are bound and
restrained while guards and members of the special Correctional Emergency
Response Team (CERT) kick them with hard-toe combat boots, beat them with
gloves especially designed for assaults known as "beating gloves," and choke
them with night sticks. Two young men have been beaten to death since these
series of cases were initially filed.
Abuses in other Georgia prison systems include guards inflicting torture
methods known as the "Georgia Motorcycle" whereby an inmate is stripped of
clothing and strapped in four or five point restraints to an iron bed or chair
for as much as 48 hours without food, water or bathroom facilities; and a
method known as the "Georgia G-string" whereby inmates are stripped and a
chain is cinched around their testicles for hours at a time, leaving them in
excruciating pain.
A former guard from Rogers State Prison has described these beatings as a
"sport" throughout the correctional system. Inmates listed as Level IV mental
health prisoners are often targeted because of the behavior caused by their
mental disabilities. Medical treatment is either denied to the victims or, if
administered, is not reported to prevent an official record of the abuse.
Stokes, who recently won a case against Rogers State Prison in Georgia,
thereby ending inmate abuse at that facility, is determined to protect
prisoners' rights throughout the state. "These beatings are a blood-sport
among the correctional officers involved," explains Stokes. "The victims (men
and women) are shackled with their hands behind their backs or otherwise
restrained while the CERT officers inflict the most horrendous torture. The
Georgia correctional system, including Internal Affairs and the Attorney
General, think they can continue covering this up, but it is going to stop. It
must stop. It's that simple."
The claim describes a pattern and practice of torturing restrained inmates
that serves no penological purpose utilizing premeditated violence including
but not limited to:
-- slamming inmates on the ground and running their heads into walls and
doors;
-- using profanity with racial and sexual innuendos;
-- not following Standard Operating Procedures on use of video camera;
-- beating prisoners in surreptitious locations such as showers, alcoves,
and empty rooms;
-- covering up beating in use of force reports;
-- instructing medical staff to cover up beatings;
-- covering up and condoning beatings by wardens and deputy wardens of
security;
-- covering up of beatings by internal affairs;
-- putting inmates who have been beaten in lockdown segregation
facilities to avoid observation of their injuries;
-- not allowing inmates who have been beaten to see their families or to
have picture taken of their injuries;
-- thwarting prison grievance procedure to cover up beatings and prevent
exhaustion of grievances by inmates who have been beaten so that they
cannot maintain causes of action in court.
Defendants in the Valdosta Class Action suit include Commissioner James
Donald; Rick Jacobs; Sarah Draper; Sr. Sharon Lewis, MD; Warden Hart; Deputy
Warden McLaughlin; Albert Jones; Captain Morris; Lt. Maine; Officer Powell;
Officer Jesse Howell; Officer T. Brown; Officer Yancey; Officer Cannon;
Officer Snake; Officer Smith; Officer Shane; Officer Grainger; Officer
Radcliff; Sergeant Bond; Officer Page; Officer Bates; Officer John Doe No.1;
and Officer John Doe No. 2; all of the Valdosta State Prison system.
Plaintiffs are listed as: Astainiel Jarvis Mann; Pip Heng; Elijah Adcock;
Rickie Lee Fox; Jodrph Daniel Fincher; and Shedrick D. Ross.
INTERVIEW OPPORTUNTIES:
Attorney McNeil Stokes, the victims' families and a former guard who
witnessed these beatings are available for interviews.
For a copy of the complaint-in-full or more information:
jenjones@fletchermartin.com. (404) 720-8149.
SOURCE Attorney McNeil Stokes
Jennifer Jones for Attorney McNeil Stokes, +1-404-720-8149,
jenjones@fletchermartin.com
