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Inmates at Pine Hills Correctional Facility file lawsuit
Posted by Brigitte Thimiakis to South Dakota Prisoners Support Group
By Ruth Steinberger Lakota Journal Correspondent
MILES CITY, Mont. - A lawsuit has been filed in Eighth District Court in
Cascade County, Montana on behalf of 24 former inmates of the Montana
juvenile corrections facility, Pine Hills.
Originally there were 21 plaintiffs, but three more former inmates have
joined the suit. The suit alleges that the treatment the youth received
while at the facility located in Miles City, Montana included repeated abuse
by cruel and excessive use of pepper spray, receiving illegal substances in
exchange for having sex with staff and being paid in illegal substances for
beating up other inmates.
Of the 24 named plaintiffs, 19 are Native American. More youth are expected
to join the suit and Attorney, Patrick Flaherty of Great Falls, has asked
Judge Kenneth Neill to certify the suit as a class action. Plaintiffs in the
suit had been at Pine Hills through various times from 1997 through 2001.
Department of Corrections spokesperson, Sally Highlander told Lakota
Journal, "We take all lawsuits seriously and will look into the allegations.
We plan to defend this vigorously." Allegations contained in the lawsuit
were denied by Department of Corrections Superintendent, Bill Slaughter.
Controversy regarding the use of pepper spray at Pine Hills surfaced after
five juveniles were removed from the facility in 1999, and were housed at a
local jail. At that time, the boys told Bud Heringer, a minister from
Glasgow, Montana, about the abuse that had occurred throughout the time they
had been at Pine Hills.
All had contact with Heringer for up to several years prior to telling him
what had gone on. The boys told him that they had not spoken about the abuse
until they were physically out of Pine Hills out of fear of reprisals.
Pine Hills Director, Jim Hunter, and his supervisor at the time, Bill
Slaughter and Department of Corrections Superintendent Steve Gibson denied
the allegations concerning the use of pepper spray. They also denied
information that had been included in the state records that were released
in discovery documents sent to an attorney representing one of the boys.
Documentation concerning any incident involving restraints or the use of
pepper spray was to have been completed by every staff person who witnessed
an incident, yet records named staff persons who were present, yet there was
no document from those who were named.
Documentation and protocol for the use of pepper spray was done improperly
and most of the required documentation was missing. Because of one document
that stated that a youth who had been sprayed had been shackled and another
stating that the same youth had been stripped, it became possible to verify
information from the boy who told Heringer that he had been stripped and
shackled before he was pepper sprayed.
Documents revealed that pepper spray was used after some incidents to punish
some of the boys. Instead of a small amount of the spray being used to stop
an incident while in progress, entire cans were emptied onto the boys. The
suit cites one boy who was sprayed 18 times.
The lawsuit alleges, 'The defendants have discriminated against the Native
American population by enforcing disparate and harsher treatment to the
Indian inmates when compared to the rest of the population at Pine Hills.'
The original documents of discovery released to the attorney for Dexter
Turntoes in 1991 cited 41 incidents of the use of pepper spray at Pine
Hills. Forty of those incidents targeted Indian boys.
The lawsuit alleges that one Indian youth acquired the nickname of "pizza
face," because of pepper spray damage after being sprayed in the face
repeatedly.
At Pine Hills showering became a humiliating event that violated DOC
policies regarding the aftercare of pepper spray victims. According to
official policy, 'free flowing cool water', is to be offered to pepper spray
victims and youth are supposed to be showered immediately following any
disturbance in which a chemical agent is used.
In some cases showers were denied to the youth, and according to the suit,
instead of cool water, some of the youth were forced under hot water, which
worsens the effects, specifically the pain, of the pepper spray.
According to Heringer, who has remained deeply involved with the boys and
their families, some of the youth who were released allegedly have lasting
medical problems stemming from excessive use of the spray. One boy was
sprayed directly in the mouth as he gasped for breath following being
blinded by being sprayed in the face. Pepper spray is intended to be used to
break up a disturbance when a lesser use of force is ineffective and is
intended to prevent damage to life or property.
Montana Department of Corrections Policy indicates that the substance is
considered an extremely caustic irritant and calls for the immediate follow
up medical attention. The policy states, 'Offenders who have been subjected
to chemical agents may suffer skin, eye or lung damage and should be removed
from the gaseous area as soon as possible'. [italics added]
The youth allege that showering entailed stripping and then walking to the
showers naked, in handcuffs and shackles, and showering while being viewed
by nine to fourteen staff members of both sexes. The racial component of the
staff upholds that those victimizing the juveniles, both with pepper spray
as well as through the humiliation afterward, were mostly white, while most
of the youth being victimized were Indian. One boy claimed that following
staff insistence that he took too long showering, he was re-sprayed and
placed back in his cell.
Attorney Patrick Flaherty explained that after he was retained by families
of the youth, he attempted to get their records from Pine Hills. After all
necessary releases were signed, Flaherty was told by the DOC that he could
go to Pine Hills and copy the portions of the documents that he needed.
When he made plans to go to Pine Hills he received a call telling him that
he could no longer have access to the files and that they were being shipped
to the office of the Attorney for the DOC.
That office then said that the files were being sent to the Attorney
General's Office. The Attorney General's office refused to allow Flaherty
access to the files. The lawsuit was then filed.
Bud Heringer said, "These kids were not monsters, the way they were
demonized by the DOC, they are children who were tortured." Heringer
explained that he has interviewed around 30 youth and the names of the same
employees at Pine Hills surface again and again regarding the charges of
exchanging sex with the youth for illegal substances and also regarding the
excessive use of pepper spray and the humiliating process for showering.
Regarding DOC Superintendent Slaughter's denial that the abuses had taken
place, Heringer said, "These boys aren't making the charges up, there is a
volume of information that backs up the allegations."
The suit alleges that 'The defendants have failed to provide to these youth
a constitutionally mandated education. Some of the above named youth are
eyewitnesses to being given illegal substances and pornography by staff in
exchange for favors; to being ordered to beat certain students up at the
request of a supervisor to enforce discipline.numerous youths have had
sexual relations with staff members.'
Heringer explained that boys he has interviewed over the past two years who
were formerly at Pine Hills detailed the same abuses and feels it is highly
unlikely that youth not in direct contact with each other could invent the
same detailed information, especially citing the same staff members names.
Heringer added, "These kids are being educated to become prison eligible and
not society eligible."
(c) Lakota Journal 2002
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Photograph--Alfred Bone Shirt Sr. wearing a peace medal.