Oregon prison guards get Tasers

[Joanne98]

Source: AP

SALEM, Ore. -- High-tech Tasers equipped with digital cameras are being distributed to prison guards to help control an inmate population that has reached about 13,500.

But inmates and civil rights activists say they are concerned the Tasers could be used to punish inmates, including mentally ill prisoners.

Nearly 100 corrections officers across the state are being trained on how and when to use the shock-inducing weapons, intended to help prevent injuries to both guards and inmates.

"The officers are able to quickly subdue the (inmate) versus wrestling with him for some time," said Paula Allen, Department of Corrections chief of security.




Read more: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/333806_prisontasers01.html

---

Amerikkka the evil!

[Jed Dilligan]

1. Pretty bad idea from any perspective

It's only a matter of time before one of the inmates gets one and uses it on a guard.

[High Plains]

3. Yeah, and vice versa, too!

[liberalnurse]

9. Probably only the Sergeants, Lieutenants and Captains

will carry them and not into the compound unless securing a scene is needed. Lets hope that is the case!

[Marrah_G]

2. I doubt these are going to be given to all guards

Guards generally do not carry weapons at all inside jails, unless they are in towers, outside the fences or transporting a prisoner. The reason for this is that weapons can be taken and used against the guards very easily. Especially when the inmates outnumber the guards. Maybe they will be used to break up fights or subdue a violent inmate.

[Joanne98]

6. The prison industrial complex will make sure they do!

It's all about money when it comes to the prison system. Watch Tasr stock and see what I mean. http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=tasr Up almost 4% today. It just like the contractors in Iraq. It's all about the MONEY!

[Marrah_G]

8. Unit Guards inside facilities are not armed

[High Plains]

4. Tasers kill

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/10/12/earlyshow/main648859.shtml

"TASER Danger? 70 Deaths After Use Of Stun Gun Lead To Questions Over Its Safety"

And that's a 2004 article. How many have been killed by Tasers since then? I don't know, don't have time for more than a quick Google.

[420inTN]

17. So do guns and billyclubs. n/t

[jaysunb]

5. The latest in " authoritarian joy toys."

:evilfrown:

[Alcibiades]

7. As someone who has a relative who works in corrections

this does not seem to be automatically to be a bad idea. I, too, have misgivings about giving tasers to guards in private prisons, but that's not the case here--the 100 officers being trained are employees of the state's Department of Corrections. As mentioned above, it seems foolish to have guards armed with tasers at all times, for the same reason guards don't carry pistols.

Just from the fairly small number of officers being trained, it seems likely that the officers being trained are members of the system's SORT teams. These are the officers who go into cells when inmates have problems with authority. They suit up like gladiators and subdue the inmates. In most systems, a psychologist or trained negotiator will be sent to the inmate's cell to plead with them to comply with the officers before force is necessary. In many systems, each and every one of these interventions is videotaped, for the protection of the inmates and the staff. Hopefully, that will still be the case, and tasers will only be used in crowd control situations.

I doubt that the taser would be a weapon of first resort. There have been prison takeovers in this country, but most of the prisons that have had this happen deserved it to happen. That being said, the prisoners and staff who often die or are raped in these cases don't deserve it either. If a taser is used as a weapon of last resort to deal with these kind of situations, that's reasonable.

The camera seems to be a reasonable precaution. I assume that it is to document instances when the taser is used. If that is the case, it would make excellent evidence against prison authorities in the lawsuit that would rightfully follow from an abuse of this weapon.

If the Bush Justice Department had announced that it was issuing tasers to officers, I'd be suspicious. But this is Oregon, which has a Democratic Governor, a Democratic majority in both houses of the state legislature, an overwhelmingly Democratic delegation to Congress, and its own judicial system. Can't we have some confidence in these officials to do the needed oversight?

I know that, when you mention corrections to most folks, it conjures up images of Cool Hand Luke or the HBO series OZ. Real prisons these days are nothing like that. I know there are bad apples in any system, but, by and large, the staff at most prisons are regular people who have to make some hard choices to protect us from some truly bad dudes. I know of two inmates, for example, who had a competition to kill the most staff. The winner (dead now, I'm told of natural causes) won 3 to 1, the last two being killed despite Hannibal Lectereque precautions. Like a lot of DUers, I think the war on drugs is a stupid waste of time--we could release and treat most of these offenders. At the same time, whenever I see a thread about a murder or a pedophile here, I see lots of "lock him up forever" comments. Well, when we do that, we do need to make some choices to deal with declining staff to inmate ratios. I am sure that every staff member in Oregon would prefer the hiring of additional staff rather than the issuing of tasers. If, however, it's tasers or nothing, I say give them the tasers--I trust the staff not to misuse them more than I trust the inmates not to take advantage of declining staff to inmate ratios.

[ProudDad]

10. I have personal knowledge

That this is NOT TRUE:

"when you mention corrections to most folks, it conjures up images of Cool Hand Luke or the HBO series OZ. Real prisons these days are nothing like that."

BULLSHIT!!!! THEY'RE WORSE!!!!

The reality of prisons can not be imagined by those of you who continue to believe that they aren't the useless, fucked up hell holes they are...by those of you who haven't been there...

They do NOT rehabilitate, they make things worse. They do this evil by design NOT by accident. They are designed to punish and torture not to make things better for society or those locked up in them.

The cops are not much different from the inmates; They're just a different gang dressed in different colors. The cops are (slightly) more well armed and relatively indolent. They're there to keep the lid on the torture colonies run by the most predatory inmates so the violence and hate and anger doesn't "spill out into the community" and make people uncomfortable about those fucked up places of pain and abuse.

Torture, pain and abuse done in YOUR name.

Someday, if humanity lives long enough, tourists will be amazed and horrified during their trips through the museums made of a few concentration camps in Europe and the prisons of USAmerica. Those visitors will shake their heads and say, "How could they have been such barbarians?"

[Alcibiades]

11. I certainly didn't make the claim they are designed to rehabilitate

For the most part, they are designed to warehouse. I certainly didn't claim they were there to make things better for the people in them. I don't know what your custody level was or what system you were in. There's certainly many variations in conditions across the various states, the federal system, and even between institutions, as I am sure you know. And we're certainly locking up far too many people for things which they should not be locked up.

I do submit that most people are glad that, if there are people who want to run "torture colonies" in prisons, we are at least glad that they cannot get to our families.

Except they can, of course. Most prisoners do have a release date. Maybe there are facilities as bad as those depicted in Cool Hand Luke and OZ. From what I'm told, the life of the average inmate is filled with a lot more boredom than danger, or at least not to the degree depicted in the media. I'm sure you have a lot more experience with these things than I do. I do have a relative who goes to prison every day, someone I really care about, but of course they get to walk out of the sally port every day.

When these issues come up, I would identify more with staff, you apparently more with inmates. The torture, pain and abuse you describe isn't being done in my name, or yours, however: it's being done by some really sick people, not (for the most part) the staff. If the conditions you describe are due to design, I don't think it's the design of prison staff. It's certainly not the intention of most staff I know--who wants to work in a dangerous hellhole? It's in the interest of most staff to make their institution the best and safest it can be.

[ProudDad]

12. It is in the interest of the staff to make their institution

the best and safest for THEM that it can be...

Most don't give a shit about those incarcerated...they just want to get out of the day alive...and are willing to do nearly anything to achieve that goal...


But, you are posting reasoned responses and have listened to my rants and responded respectfully.

So I address the issue again in that spirit...

I have made an extensive study of the criminal-injustice system from the outside since the 1970s and inside (unfortunately) for a time.

It is a system designed to fail because of its basic premises.

This includes the fallacy that "punishing" (torturing) dysfunctional people will make them behave when they're let out again.

This includes the fallacy that enforcing an ultra-authoritarian regime on these dysfunctional folks will make them "behave" and change their "attitudes".

This includes the fallacy that the longer the torture continues -- the longer the "sentences" -- the more likely that they will be "cured".

This includes the fallacy that the "inmates" are a different breed from "normal" people and can't and shouldn't be treated like "normal" folks.

These fallacious assumptions have been rejected in most of the Civilized world...and their outcomes are MUCH better than ours.

Damn near every jail and prison is built upon this foundation of sand, these fallacious assumptions about how to deal with "criminal" behavior. These fallacious assumptions and counter-productive "procedures" DO create an environment that is bad for everyone -- the inmates, the staff and society.

For a deeper sense of what's going on and why, pick up a copy of "Beyond Prisons"...

http://www.quakerbooks.org/beyond_prisons.php

It's the best explanation of the history of the penal system in this country and why it's so evil and must undergo a revolutionary change or it will continue to fail...


(And haven't even touched on the phony "war on drugs", the evil that supplies at least 1/2 of these "inmates" clogging our prisons and the majority of hand gun deaths in this country)

[Alcibiades]

13. An institution that is safer for staff

is likely to be safer for inmates as well. When staff confiscate a shank, for instance, it is a weapon that would probably be more likely to harm an inmate than a staff member. Many staff are also smart enough to realize that it's not a great idea to be inhumane to the inmates.

I do realize that a few tasers will not solve the problems of the criminal justice system, in Oregon or elsewhere. I responded to the OP because I objected to the tenor of the comment "Amerikkka the Evil." I don't think the staff in Oregon will go around willy nilly tasering people. Most I know (granted, in a different system) are not KKK material, nor are they evil.

I don't think most people in criminal justice today would accept the premises that, you correctly note, have been the historical rationale behind our prison system. So why do they still work there? Some really do want to help. Every prison needs doctors, nurses, etc. For others, there are other agendas. For most, I'm sure, it's a job. Most folks accept simply that many of the violent offenders cannot re-offend on the outside while they are inside. I'm sure you can think of at least one person of whom it's true that we are all a little better off because they are in prison and not outside. Ted Bundy, for example, was not a product of the prison system, and it certainly saved some women's lives when he was caught (whether his execution was warranted, of course, is another question).

I've read a few books on the subject, but certainly not nearly as many as you have. The ones I remember most were Foucault's Discipline and Punish and "The Rich get Richer, the Poor get Prison." I certainly don't disagree with your critique of the faulty rationales underlying the system of punishment. I did find that Foucault was a little too eager to reify for those folks who invented prisons as we know them a panopticonic omniscience that was a product of their own imaginings. I am certain that the prison system does function unjustly in many ways, and that there is a sense in which it is functional for the powers that be (it is certainly good at selecting out certain types of people for punishment). I also think, however, that much of the dysfunctionality inherent in the system is the result of overreaching arrogance. Our prison system is the product of both design and unintentional blundering.

I know that prisoners are our neighbors, relatives and fellow human beings. Most of them will not leave the system the better for the experience. Still, responding to the demonization of criminals and criminality with a counter-demonization of staff (not on your part, but on the part of the OP--though you do mention that most staff are indolent, and I'll take you at your word on that) ignores the fact that they, too, are our neighbors, relatives and fellow human beings.

As for the book, I never met a Quaker I didn't like, so I'm sure they publish good books. I'll see if I can get it at the local university library.

[ProudDad]

14. They are our neighbors, relatives and human beings...

Point well taken...

They are ALL our neighbors, relatives and human beings...the incarcerated and incarcerators...

I wish the system was designed to recognize that fact. The policy of punishment ubber alles would end tomorrow if there were a consciousness of that fact. With a different frame rehabilitation could become the norm instead of mindless revenge.

Are there a few folks in prison who shouldn't be allowed access to more victims? You bet. I met a couple of them. About one in 1,000 or 10,000 REALLY should be under control -- but a humane control. They are the insane ones, the sociopaths. They didn't ask to have lousy wiring in their brains but the broader society (and way too many here on DU) acts as if it were a conscious "choice" and therefore cries for their death or, even better to some, a lifetime of extreme torture and agony at the hands of the State.

Of course, there are many sociopaths around who do quite well in our corporate capitalist (sociopath) economic system. They are the "acculturated" ones, the ones with some advantages granted at birth and nurtured by the racist, class-bias of that economic system. (http://www.thecorporation.com/)

One of the MAJOR differences between the dysfunctional among us who cope and those who can't is the training and abuse inherent in the criminal-injustice system from juvenile through adult "justice".

Most of the worst who end up in the system were CREATED by the system piling on to the disadvantages they started with, again by "virtue" of birth...when, where and to whom they are born.

The system doesn't exist in a vacuum. The same set of deviant tendencies that can allow the government to invade and occupy an innocent country also allow the deviance of the prison system to exist -- a system that doesn't work any better than the invasion of Iraq has.

Another take on the milieu I'm describing is in this thread:

Don't Drop That Cake! Girl attacked by Officer; wrist broken
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x59186#59256

If this is the sort of thing that occurs in a school in front of a group of children (and presumably a few adults as well) imagine what goes on in the privacy of prison walls...

I'm rambling here.

I am grateful for your reasoned posts and thank you for allowing me to think through my (understandable but reactionary) anger.

I think this is one of those discussions that this place was meant to encourage...

I hope your relative stays safe... :hi:

[Alcibiades]

15. I hope so too

When and if their body alarm ever goes off, I know that the CO's will come running--even the ones who are jerks--because they make a point of treating everyone well. You were not being reactionary, I understand that there's a certain animus against law enforcement. I wouldn't automatically defend law enforcement--when I was young and had long hair and a crappy car I got stopped all the time by cops for no good reason, and now I'm 30-something with a late-model SUV I can drive like a bat out of hell and never get stopped. Still the same bad driver, but now it's like I have the power of some kind of Jedi mind trick.

I could tell you a lot of stories that I get to hear secondhand that would probably confirm much of what you already know about our criminal justice system. In addition to our phoney war on drugs, I'd add that our felon in possession firearms laws are also rounding up masses of pretty harmless people and putting them into the system for a very long time. Probably most people support these laws, but I sincerely doubt most of the folks arrested under these laws today are violent. Suppose Jimmy Ray Don lives on a trailer on his family's property, and there's a meth lab and a hunting rifle there. Does not matter that there's always been a rifle there, even before Jimmy Ray Don started using meth, or was even born, or that the gun was only used for hunting, or that Jimmy Ray Don surrendered peacefully even though he could have taken out at least one cop with his 30-06, etc. If the sheriff's up for election and he wants to look tough on crime, Jimmy Ray Don is doing federal time.

Now I'm ranting. :hi:

[ProudDad]

16. Hey, you're almost to 1000 posts!

Can't wait to see number 1000!

:woohoo:


I'm reminded of the last time I was caught in a phony traffic stop. I was among a dozen people getting tickets for "crossing the gore point"! I didn't do it, told the judge I didn't do it, got "convicted" anyway. Had to go to traffic school -- I was livid.

But, I went to the traffic school being taught by a CHP officer whose job was to cruise the rich neighborhoods looking for Ferrari's, etc. with Oregon Plates parked in the driveway (This in California -- lots of rich assholes avoid the Cal. Property tax by registering in Oregon for pennies)...I liked the guy.

So, he says, you can cruise along at 8-9 miles over and we will probably NEVER stop you. Now, let's say you hot foot it to 15 or 20 miles over. How much more quickly are you going to get there? 1 minute, 2 minutes, 5 minutes. Is it worth the risk?

As a habitual speeder, I thought about it hard and decided it wasn't worth the risk. Now I just relax, drive 5-8 over (if it's safe), let others in, grant the right of way and get there 3 minutes later -- relaxed and happy.

I'm glad I was forced to attend that Traffic School...blessings come in funny places sometimes.

Be safe, drive carefully. :hi:

[superconnected]

18. Isn't there a whole lot of metal in prisons?

Wouldn't it be kind of deadly to get a jolt if someone is say up against prison bars.

I would think water and metal would be two things you'd want to keep tasers away from.

Didn't they kill someone in a wheel chair with a taser a few months back...