Missouri prisoners are being subjected to torture whenever they refuse to double cell with another prisoner in isolation. In June when I arrived at Northeast Correctional Center, guards tried to put me in a cell with another prisoner in administrative segregation. When I refused, they sprayed mace in my face, kicked me, stomped me, beat me. They broke my eyeglasses, tightened the handcuffs to the breaking point then twisted them viciously. They put shackles on me, then twisted them to cause me pain.
These guards carried me to a strip cell (where a camera is mounted on the wall). They beat me, kicked me, stomped me, and twisted me some more. They kicked my right shoulder and damaged nerves in my wrist. They accused me of kicking one of them: Rule 2 assault against staff and Rule 19 creating a disturbance by refusing to accept a cell mate in Ad Seg.
I was kept in a cell with no sheets, no blankets, no mattress, lying on a cold, concrete slab for three days, when guards threatened to beat me up again if I refused to accept a cellmate in Ad Seg. My body couldn't stand another beating like that so I went into a cell with a man who was mentally ill and had full-blown TB.
When I wrote to the superintendent of that prison and told him what had happened, he had me placed on special security orders -- it's a kind of punishment, but it guaranteed me a single cell and protected me from further assaults by guards. Three months later, a specialist diagnosed nerve damage to my wrist and prescribed a splint and surgery to repair the damage.
Prisoners are being tortured by guards and given infractions when they refuse to double cell in administrative segregation 23 hours a day, every day, for months on end. In 1999, a prisoner killed his cell partner in Ad Seg at Potosi. Recently, another prisoner there was killed.
In 1987 the eighth circuit court of appeals ruled that it is cruel and unusual punishment to double cell prisoners with a history of violent behavior, 23 hours a day, for months in Ad Seg. The same court ruled that the only way it would not be cruel and unusual punishment to double cell Ad Seg prisoners is if they sign a consent form agreeing to double cell.(See Tyler v. Black, 811 F. 2d 4 24 (8th cir. 1987).) Double celling of inmates in segregation unit in small cells with solid "boxcar" type doors was cruel and unusual punishment in violation of eighth amendment. Inmates with a history of assaultive behavior were placed in closed cells for up to 23 hours a day for periods of several months. (USCA Const. Amend. 8 5. Criminal Law - 1213.10(4).) Double celling of inmates in special segregation unit was not cruel and unusual punishment, where inmates were double celled only if they signed consent form. (USCA Const. Amend. 8)
Now I have to go and have surgery for the nerve damage caused by the attack.
-- a Missouri prisoner, December 2003
MIM responds: Unfortunately, this prisoner describes the outcome of court decisions like the one that calls nonconsensual double-celling in administrative segregation cruel and unusual punishment. With minimal oversight of prison conditions, guards were able to gain this prisoner's "consent" by giving him two beatings and locking him in a bare cell for three days. This proves only that prisoners can be "convinced" to sign over their rights once their hands are tied behind their backs.