Abuse alleged in state prisons
Mass strip searches. Humiliation and Taunts.
Inmates in several central and southern Illinois prisons say that they have been subjected to this and more by Department of Corrections tactical teams dubbed Orange Crush for the color of their uniforms. And they have sued in federal court, seeking both financial compensation and a judicial order to end alleged abuses.
The Department of Corrections won’t comment on the lawsuit filed last month in East St. Louis. The department also will not say whether video cameras, which are typically used to document the actions of prison tactical teams, documented the incidents that prompted litigation. Inmates say that they were physically abused and sexually humiliated by tactical teams whose members at one point chanted “Punish the inmate.”
“It should have been videotaped,” says Alan Mills, executive director of the Uptown People’s Law Center in Chicago, which is representing inmates. “We hope to find out.”
Mills says that Orange Crush is usually called in to shake down one or two cells at a time, but last year, tactical teams began shaking down entire prisons. The lawsuit lists as defendants more than 230 corrections officers who are members of Orange Crush. According to the lawsuit, Orange Crush traveled from prison to prison to conduct shakedowns, with 40 or more corrections officers at any given prison belonging to the tactical squads. Inmates in at least four prisons, including Menard Correctional Center, Big Muddy River Correctional Center, Lawrence Correctional Center and Illinois River Correctional Center, were targeted between April and July of last year.
The ordeal at Illinois River in Canton described in the lawsuit lasted hours.
Orange Crush arrived at the prison last April. Team members entered the housing wing, banging batons on walls, tables and railings and yelling at inmates to “get asshole naked.” Once nude, inmates were ordered out of their cells one by one and told to bend over and spread their buttocks. After doing so, they were ordered to turn around so that they were facing officers, then lift their genitals. They were then forced to hold their mouths open without being allowed to wash their hands.
After strip searches, inmates were allowed to put on clothes but not underwear. They were then told to face a wall with backs to guards and to keep their heads down.
“Any prisoner who looked at the officers was slammed into the wall and told to ‘put [his] fucking head down,’” plaintiffs’ lawyers say.
While against the wall, inmates were handcuffed with their hands behind their backs and their palms facing outward, thumbs pointing skyward. Inmates were cuffed regardless of whether medical staff had ordered that cuffs be applied with hands in front, and prisoners who asked for medical attention were ignored. After being cuffed, the men were ordered to line up with heads down.
“Defendant Orange Crush officers then lined up next to the prisoners, hitting their batons in their hands and chanting ‘punish the inmate,’” plaintiffs’ lawyers write. “This went on for several minutes. Once the chanting stopped, defendant Orange Crush officers grabbed the back of each prisoner’s head and slammed it violently into the back of the prisoner ahead of him in line. Defendant Orange Crush officers ordered the prisoners to stand in such a way that one man’s genitals were in direct contact with the buttocks of the man ahead of him in line – referred to by defendant Orange Crush officers as ‘nuts to butts.’ … Defendant Orange Crush officers then shoved their batons in between each prisoner’s legs and jerked upwards, forcing the prisoner to straighten his legs while keeping his back bent over at a 90-degree angle onto the prisoner in front of him. This had the effect of forcing the men to place their genitals directly against the buttocks of the men in front of them.”
Bent over and squashed against each other so that no light was visible between each man, the inmates were forced to march from housing units to a gymnasium, a trek described in court papers as “long and painful.” If someone’s head rose from the back of the inmate in front of him, officers would slam it back down. Some inmates were pulled out of line, choked, and pulled to the ground while being jabbed with batons.
Once in the gymnasium, the men, still handcuffed, were ordered to stand face-first against a wall with their heads down. They remained that way for several hours while many of the officers returned to housing areas.
“This is punishment for all your sins!” yelled an officer who remained behind, the plaintiffs say. That same officer told inmates that neither medical attention nor water would be provided, nor could they use restroom facilities. If cuffs were too tight, the officer said, they should “be a man and take it or get dragged to seg,” according to the lawsuit.
When the officers who had gone to housing areas eventually returned, the inmates were forced into the same formation that they’d been in during the trip to the gymnasium. They were then marched back to housing areas.
“Just as before, if a prisoner broke the line by lifting his head off the back of the person in front of him, defendant Orange Crush officers reacted with violence,” lawyers for inmates write in the lawsuit. “Defendant Orange Crush officers laughed at and taunted the prisoners throughout the entire march to and from the gym.”
The same scenario, plaintiffs say, played out in at least three other prisons last year. Mills says that other prisons may also have been targeted. Noting that inmates from the four prisons named in the lawsuit wrote similar letters of complaint to his group as well as Loevy and Loevy, a private Chicago law firm that is representing inmates, Mills said that he believes inmates are being truthful.
“The chances of everyone coordinating this kind of stuff and doing some kind of mass letter-writing campaign, not only to us but to Loevy and Loevy, sounds very strange,” Mills said. “That would require a high level of sophistication in letter writing.”
Contact Bruce Rushton at [email protected].
