4 PEPPER SPRAY, TEAR GAS, MACE AND OTHER CHEMICAL AGENTS

"Special Agent Thomas Ward oversaw the FBI Firearms Training Unit at Quantico, Virginia ... Under his direction, the Training Unit produced the 1991 'Quantico Studies,' which declared pepper spray a safe, effective weapon for police use.

"[ln 1996] Ward pled guilty to accepting $57,000 in kickbacks from Luckey Police Products, which manufactures ... pepper spray. FBI officials are trying to determine how badly Ward distorted the pepper spray studies.

"The American Civil Liberties Union ... called on Attorney General Reno to rescind all studies tainted by Special Agent Ward and to warn all police departments across the country not to rely an FBI pepper spray research." [Prison Legal News, October 1996, page 17]

RES, Arizona State Prison

"[ln] October 1996, ... corrections officers half carr[ied] and half drag[ged a prisoner] into the visitation area [where] myself and eight other inmates were being detained ... awaiting turnout for the 'Hard Labor Crew.' ... [l]t was evident he had been sprayed with a great amount of chemical agent as it was dripping from his hair and he was soaked in it, he had his hands handcuffed behind him and was being carried by his lower arms. ...[The prisoner] was crying out in pain and begging the officers to relieve the strain on his shoulders and wrist[s]. Both of [his] knees were bleeding as he had been dragged on them, and he was wearing no pants. [He] was placed in [a] small holding cell where he continued to scream and cry out in pain. [H]e had been sprayed in the area of his penis, anus and scrotum [and] was begging to be allowed to shower to remove the chemical agent. [He] was in such pain he lost control of his bowels and bladder. ... [The prisoner] was then 'escorted' to the work site where he was confined to a small pen for approximately five hours. [He] continued to scream and cry out, begging the officers for help or a chance to wash off the chemical agent." A prisoner not confined to the work pens who had seen and heard him "disobeyed a direct order ... and gave this man a waterhose to wash off the chemical agent. A corrections officer turned off the water before this man could wash off the chemical agent. ... [the prisoner] was forced to endure the pain and suffering caused by this extremely dangerous chemical agent and the exposure to the sun for the entire day. ... At one point medical personnel was called ... but refused to allow a shower. [I]nstead [he charged the prisoner] a $3 medical charge. This is the standard practice. ... [The prisoner] was forced to stand in the sun, covered with this chemical agent, with temperatures in the upper 90s for almost six hours.

"I myself was sprayed with pepper spray [also in October of 1996] and it was approximately ten hours before I was allowed to wash off the chemical agent. This resulted in burns and blisters on my arms, face, chest and feet. For the entire ten hours it felt like I was being boiled alive. When you are forced to stand in the sun, with no shelter from the sun, the sweat from your body continues to reactivate this chemical agent so that you remain in extreme pain the entire day."

YM, Northern Prison, Somers, Connecticut

~In 1994, ... at Walker Correctional Institution, I was maced with pepper spray (oleoresin capsicum) and chained to a metal bunk with metal hand cuffs and leg irons for more than eight hours a number of times."

DLM, Gander Hill Prison, Delaware

"I was sprayed with [pepper spray] starting from the left side of my face to the right side and back again I was blind for about ten or fifteen minutes and I experienced a burning in my face and I had difficulty with my breathing. This happened in an open area and I was told the inmates about 30 feet away began vomiting from the exposure. ... [and] that ... the spray was primarily cayenne pepper. My eyes were bloodshot and for the remainder of the day stayed that way. Nothing was provided to soothe my burning face nor were my eyes rinsed. I have been exposed since to a different spray that caused me to vomit and gag. The vapors coming under the door caused my cellie and myself to experience respiratory problems." LE, Telford Unit, New Boston, Texas

"Dangerous quantities of tear gas, ... [and] mace are being used ... to remove recalcitrant prisoners from 'Day Room Areas' and their cells and are used on individual [unarmed] inmates who could be removed from the areas by other means.

"When these chemical agents are used virtually every prisoner in the ... area [is] made to suffer in [his] small cell area while breathing [them]. Even the mace effects ... inmates in adjacent cells. These chemicals are painful and can cause permanent damage and even death. ... [They] are never to be used against inmates already secured in their own cells. We are also never given medical attention ... and the decontamination procedures set out in their own rules are never adhered to. The fall out from the tear gas settles in our cells, small shower areas and on our persons. ... The showers are never [cleaned of chemical agents]. We are then subject to breathe the chemicals in a shower stall with a shut door[;] the exhaust fan only sucks the fall out in. From February 3 [until] February 18, 1998, chemical agents were used [in our area] at least nine times."

BC, Amarillo, Texas

[ln] August, 1998, at 3-Building, B Pod, C Section, 17 Cell, about or between 5 and 6 pm a prisoner in neck brace and back brace, while laying on the floor, was sprayed with gas, by [a] sergeant [who is named in the prisoner's letter].