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StroFun
Repeater

Registered: 07/11/06
Posts: 977
Loc: Mycotopia.net
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Search and Seizure Approaches Torture Level
#5908366 - 07/28/06 08:59 AM (17 years, 6 months ago) |
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http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/446/colorado-prison-shackling-drug-search.shtml
Search and Seizure: Five-Day Shackling in Colorado Prison to Find Swallowed Drugs Approaches Torture Level 7/28/06 http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/446/colorado-prison-shackling-drug-search.shtml Authorities at the Colorado state prison in Buena Vista kept an inmate shackled to a chair for 5 1/2 days without sleep or exercise, never turned off the lights, and strip-searched and cavity-searched him 17 times even though he was under the constant watch of a guard. Prison officials suspected inmate Brian Willert, 29, of swallowing bags of heroin and wanted to collect the evidence.
They eventually did, but the judge hearing the case, Chaffee County District Court Judge Charles Barton, threw out the evidence, saying that prison authorities could have achieved the same goal in a few hours by obtaining a court order to administer a laxative. What prison officials did to Willert was an unreasonable search, Barton held.
"Forcing a shackled inmate to sit in a chair for over five days posed, in the court's opinion, an unreasonable risk to the life and health of the inmate," Barton said in his July 14 ruling. "It is difficult for the court to imagine a more intrusive procedure. Defendant was watched every minute for over five days. He was not permitted to meet the basic human need to lie down and sleep."
Barton also questioned what the repeated strip searches had to do with security and criticized prison officials for failing to check on Willert's health after he tested positive for methamphetamine on day four, suggesting a balloon had broken. But Barton rejected Public Defender Patrick Murphy's contention that what was done to Willert constituted cruel and unusual punishment.
Willert was placed in a "dry cell" without a sink or toilet after his girlfriend told prison authorities she had passed balloons of what she thought was heroin to him during a visit. That is standard procedure for the Colorado Department of Corrections, director of prisons Gary Golder told the Rocky Mountain News. But "dry cell" stays rarely last more than a day, he said. Still, Golden said, the department's inspector general will investigate. "Did the staff violate the policies or do something inappropriate?" he asked.
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fastfred
Old Hand



Registered: 05/17/04
Posts: 6,899
Loc: Dark side of the moon
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Re: Search and Seizure Approaches Torture Level [Re: StroFun]
#5909579 - 07/28/06 05:20 PM (17 years, 6 months ago) |
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> what was done to Willert constituted cruel and unusual punishment.
No, it's the kind of standard, humane treatement that is every US citizens right.
-------------------- It drinks the alcohol and abstains from the weed or else it gets the hose again. -Chemy The difference between the substances doesn't matter. This is a war on consciousness, on our right to the very essence of what we are. With no control over that, we have no need to speak of freedom or a free society. -fireseed "If we are going to have a war on marijuana, the least we can do is pull the sick and the dying off the battlefield." -Neal Levine (MPP) I find the whole "my drug should be legal but yours should be illegal" mindset disgusting and hypocritical. It's what George Bush and company do when they drink a cocktail and debate the best way to imprison marijuana users. -Diploid
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Papaver
Madmin Emeritus?

Registered: 06/01/02
Posts: 26,880
Loc: Radio Free Tibet!
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Re: Search and Seizure Approaches Torture Level [Re: StroFun]
#5909778 - 07/28/06 06:51 PM (17 years, 6 months ago) |
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Does that make Colorado Prison sort of the Abu Ghraib of the War on Drugs? Did they take demeaning photos of him, and threaten him with dogs too?
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Capless
Student


Registered: 06/25/06
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Re: Search and Seizure Approaches Torture Level [Re: Papaver]
#5909796 - 07/28/06 07:05 PM (17 years, 6 months ago) |
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Some people would call the acts that were administered to him "sexual exploration" not torture.
Either way the guy was violated, even if he was/is an inmate, hes still a person. Also 17 cavity searches... wtf some on?
-------------------- http://www.toolband.com/ "... This body holding me reminds me of my own mortality. Embrace this moment. Remember, We are eternal. all this pain is an illusion...."
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truekimbo2
Cya later, friends.


Registered: 12/08/02
Posts: 9,234
Loc: ny
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Re: Search and Seizure Approaches Torture Level [Re: Capless]
#5909861 - 07/28/06 07:47 PM (17 years, 6 months ago) |
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nothing like being shackled to a chair in a room that never darkens for 5 days when the balloon of meth in your stomache breaks...
-------------------- You can check the last post in my journal for contact info.
Edited by truekimbo2 (07/28/06 07:48 PM)
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Organic
Lloyd

Registered: 04/14/02
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Re: Search and Seizure Approaches Torture Level [Re: truekimbo2]
#5911147 - 07/29/06 04:00 AM (17 years, 6 months ago) |
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From experience?
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76degrees
Apprentice

Registered: 06/08/06
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Re: Search and Seizure Approaches Torture Level [Re: Organic]
#5911784 - 07/29/06 11:32 AM (17 years, 6 months ago) |
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That's sick. He got raped -but at least he got off in the end, lol.
-------------------- The world is changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it.
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bzflag
Stranger


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Re: Search and Seizure Approaches Torture Level [Re: 76degrees]
#5915462 - 07/30/06 04:11 PM (17 years, 6 months ago) |
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Quote:
76degrees said: That's sick. He got raped -but at least he got off in the end, lol.
Not really. He's still in jail. Hooray.
-------------------- It is my eyes which see, and the sight of my eyes grants beauty to the earth. It is my ears which hear, and the hearing of my ears gives its song to the world. It is my mind which thinks, and the judgment of my mind is the only searchlight that can find the truth. It is my will which chooses, and the choice of my will is the only edict I must respect. -Ayn Rand, Anthem
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