Valerie Chiang for the Marshall Mission
Marcos Santiago heard the clatter of metallic chains outdoors cell 201 subsequent door. Locked in essentially the most remoted unit at Lee federal jail in western Virginia, he knew that sound meant officers had been readying to shackle one other man to a concrete slab and go away him there for hours — as they’d performed to him weeks prior. Santiago was left with open wounds from the restraints on his ankles, and the sharp ache of a damaged rib.
Over practically 24 hours on July 4, 2022, Santiago heard muffled thuds and screams from the adjoining cell. It appeared like guards had been following the identical playbook he mentioned they’d used on him: beating him in his torso with their fists, slamming their riot shields into his physique and twisting his fingers and ft. In between guards’ visits, Santiago talked to the person by means of the air vents of their cells.
Santiago requested for his title and jail register quantity, and tried to distract him from the searing ache in his limbs. Not lengthy after that prisoner was moved out, one other individual was taken to cell 201 — a youthful man from Puerto Rico, who requested Santiago to name his mom and inform her what occurred to him.
Self-portrait supplied by Marcos Santiago.
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Santiago wrote down his title and quantity too — in code, in case officers discovered his notes. All through the summer time of 2022, even after he returned to the final jail inhabitants, Santiago saved gathering names of people that mentioned they’d been shackled and crushed, and people who had heard their screams.
Collectively, their accounts describe a pervasive tradition of racism and violence within the jail’s Particular Housing Unit, a separate tier the place persons are locked down for practically 24 hours a day. Quite a few lawsuits examined by The Marshall Mission and NPR allege that officers smashed incarcerated folks’s faces into concrete partitions and broke their teeth, floor down their ft and legs with steel-toed boots, kicked and groped their testicles, and cut off their dreadlocks and ripped off their beards. One man now requires the usage of a wheelchair because of abuse at Lee, his lawsuit mentioned.
“Once I take into consideration what they did to me it simply fills me with rage,” Santiago mentioned in a telephone name from a unique federal penitentiary, in California. He sued federal prison officials in January 2023. “I have been in jail for 22 years now. There’s abuse in each jail, however I’ve by no means witnessed something like Lee.”
In an e mail, Bureau of Prisons spokesperson Emery Nelson mentioned the company “doesn’t touch upon anecdotal accusations,” circumstances of confinement for any particular person or ongoing lawsuits. He mentioned workers could also be prosecuted if they’re discovered to make use of brutality or bodily violence. “The overwhelming majority of our workers are hardworking, moral, diligent corrections professionals, and need these participating in misconduct held accountable,” he wrote.
The president of the American Federation of Authorities Staff Native 1405, which represents officers at Lee, didn’t remark for this story.
The Marshall Mission reviewed 17 federal lawsuits filed within the final 5 years and spoke with over two dozen folks with data of Lee. 9 of these fits, together with Santiago’s, had been filed with the assistance of the Washington Attorneys’ Committee for Civil Rights and City Affairs, a D.C.-based authorized nonprofit, and D.C.-based legislation agency Gilbert LLP.
The violence on the jail has continued regardless of federal officers’ vow to crack down on mistreatment throughout all Bureau of Prisons services, attorneys representing the prisoners mentioned.
A sketch supplied by Marcos Santiago depicting the way in which he mentioned he was held in four-point restraints for over 10 hours in 2022. It was his first time being held in such restraints after over 20 years in jail, he mentioned.
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A drawing supplied by Santiago depicts how he mentioned officers assaulted him whereas he was shackled on the wrists, waist, and ankles within the Particular Housing Unit of USP Lee.
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The identical summer time Santiago and others ended up in shackles, the bureau appointed a reform-minded director, Colette Peters. In testimony earlier than the Home Judiciary Committee this July, Peters reiterated her dedication to “deal with worker misconduct” and enhance assets to analyze abuse.
The complaints at Lee mirror accounts from what was then a federal penitentiary, USP Thomson in Illinois, particularly the overuse of four-point restraints. After a 2022 investigation by The Marshall Mission and NPR uncovered vital abuse and violence in Thomson’s Particular Administration Unit, the bureau closed that unit in February 2023. The inspector normal for the Justice Division is presently investigating the usage of restraints throughout all federal prisons.
Abuse at Lee “just isn’t a well-kept secret,” mentioned Kristin McGough, who beforehand ran the prisoners’ rights workforce on the Washington Attorneys’ Committee. “They’ve a protocol,” she mentioned of the officers within the Particular Housing Unit. “There isn’t any actual try to cover what they’re doing. If something, issues are getting worse.”
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Bureau coverage says restraints are for use as a final resort to achieve management of somebody who’s a menace to themselves, others or authorities property. The policy also dictates that “an worker could not use brutality, bodily violence, or intimidation towards inmates, or use any power past that which is fairly essential to subdue an inmate.”
However contained in the Particular Housing Unit at Lee, officers appeared to observe a sample that violated these insurance policies, in accordance with dozens of testimonies and the lawsuits. Individuals had been walked backward and bent over on the waist right into a cell and wearing paper garments. In the previous couple of years, many mentioned they had been additionally given a helmet earlier than the assault started. Then they had been cuffed on the wrists and ankles and chained on the waist, and made to kneel on the cement ground going through the wall whereas officers beat them with their fists and shields. Some had been additionally put in four-point restraints, the place each limb was chained to a concrete slab.
In keeping with Nelson, the bureau spokesperson, prisoners could also be given protecting headgear “for his or her safety solely.” Paper clothes should be authorised in writing by a warden, he wrote, and ought to be issued only when a prisoner makes use of common clothes in a manner that “poses a menace.”
Former prisoners at Lee mentioned it was troublesome to talk out concerning the abuse whereas they had been there, as they felt a relentless menace of retaliation from guards. Officers typically refused to offer them with grievance types, or deliberately delayed or misplaced their paperwork, reducing them off from their solely actual likelihood at recourse, in accordance with lawsuits. A number of folks mentioned they had been solely given a pencil in solitary confinement, however the types needed to be stuffed out in pen.
Under federal law, prisoners cannot sue the bureau with out first going by means of every step of the jail’s treatment course of, beginning with submitting a grievance. That creates one other authorized hurdle for plaintiffs, who should show they had been denied entry to the grievance system on high of their different claims.
Santiago believes it was his try and file grievances and sue over different points that made him a goal for abuse within the first place. In an incident report, officers wrote that he was moved to the Particular Housing Unit after refusing to return to his housing unit, and that he was put in restraints for violently resisting. Santiago denies this.
He mentioned officers tried in a number of methods to maintain him from making a paper path of what occurred. “They do every thing of their energy to dam you,” he mentioned. He started sending copies of each type to his sister Jackie Gutierrez, in case officers destroyed his recordsdata.
An envelope of a letter from Santiago to his sister, Jackie Gutierrez, after he was transferred out of Lee.
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A handwritten letter from Marcos Santiago to his sister about his expertise at USP Lee.
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In a motion to dismiss Santiago’s lawsuit, federal attorneys representing jail employees wrote that “every of the Defendants deny the Amended Grievance’s critical and disturbing allegations.” They argued Santiago’s case didn’t observe the jail’s administrative treatment course of. The court docket has but to rule on their request.
Prisoners at Lee mentioned employees focused them for a wide range of causes. Some had been singled out due to intercourse offenses on their report, or in the event that they had been accused of masturbating in entrance of employees. However others mentioned they had been assaulted after extra innocuous encounters, like asking for medical assist or to see a psychologist.
After being denied his medicine, Ryan Amelia skilled a psychotic episode at Lee in August 2023. He hit the emergency misery button, prompting a combat along with his cellmate. According to his lawsuit, that is when officers pepper-sprayed him, pulled him out of his cell and took him to the Particular Housing Unit, the place he was locked in four-point restraints. Over the three days he was left chained to a concrete block, he went out and in of consciousness. Officers sporadically got here to slam him with their riot shields or break his toes, the criticism says.
When Amelia was lastly launched, there have been wounds on his wrists and ankles. His limbs had been so weak he could not elevate his arms or stroll, forcing him to shuffle round his cell on his knees. Medical data present he began shedding pounds and an oozing ulcer, over an inch extensive, opened on his left ankle.
Greater than two months after he was restrained, Amelia was hospitalized for extreme ache and a softball-sized bump that had developed on his hip. Docs found that the an infection in his ankle had led to septic arthritis in his joints, medical data present. Regardless of a number of surgical procedures, the an infection stays in his bone. He’ll must be on antibiotics for the remainder of his life and can by no means stroll on his personal once more, his lawsuit states.
“If it ever will get into my blood it’ll kill me,” Amelia mentioned of the an infection, in a telephone name from a unique penitentiary. He wants his cellmate to assist him with duties equivalent to placing on his footwear. He suffers fixed ache, and a physician has really useful he be transferred to a federal medical facility. “Due to what they did, and what they let go at Lee County, I will not ever be capable to get out of a wheelchair,” Amelia mentioned.
He filed his lawsuit in October. Attorneys for the Bureau of Prisons haven’t responded to the criticism.
“If any of us had been to do something near what they did, we might be sitting in jail,” Amelia mentioned of the guards. “I wish to suppose they’d be held accountable.”
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The U.S. Penitentiary Lee sits in Appalachia, close to the Virginia borders with Tennessee and Kentucky. The close by city, Pennington Hole, has a inhabitants of about 1,600. Lee County is almost 94% White.
The employees at Lee penitentiary is 98% White, in accordance with the bureau, and a number of folks mentioned that guards appeared to be particularly hostile to Black prisoners — who make up 62% of the jail’s inhabitants. “That was the one establishment I have been to the place the White employees haven’t got an issue calling a Black dude a N-word,” mentioned Cinquan Umar Muhammad, who was at Lee from 2015 to 2019. Dentavia McNair mentioned officers reduce off his dreadlocks and used the racial slur whereas kicking him and punching him within the face, as he was held in restraints in September 2023.
Dentavia McNair says he endured racism and abuse by employees whereas incarcerated at USP Lee. He was launched from jail in October and returned residence to Augusta, Georgia.
Rita Harper for the Marshall Mission
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Rita Harper for the Marshall Mission
“Lee County was the worst,” mentioned McNair, who was launched from jail in October. “That is an expertise I do not wish to see no one undergo. It is traumatizing.”
Anthony Harrell was incarcerated at Lee in the summertime of 2020, as protests over George Floyd’s homicide exploded throughout the nation. In court docket data and interviews, Harrell mentioned employees focused him after he pushed again on their determination to show off the televisions exhibiting information protection of the rising protests. As soon as he was led into the Particular Housing Unit, “They kicked me, punched me, referred to as me the N-word, mentioned, ‘F*** George Floyd,’ ‘F*** Black Lives Matter,’ ‘Are you able to breathe now?” Harrell mentioned. He was left in four-point restraints for practically 30 hours, he wrote in a lawsuit. “I puzzled in the event that they had been going to kill me.”
Harrell sued quickly after, however the swimsuit was thrown out for not following the bureau’s administrative grievance course of. He was launched from jail in 2022. “I by no means felt hate in my life earlier than that day,” he mentioned of his time in restraints. “When you will have guys you are making an attempt to rehabilitate, you do not lock them in a cage and kick them for years. That is not making society safer.”
Nelson pressured that bureau coverage forbids officers from utilizing “profane, obscene or abusive language,” or appearing in a manner that’s “demeaning” to incarcerated folks.
Many of the violence occurred in areas with out cameras, prisoners mentioned, or in rooms the place the cameras had been coated up. Underneath bureau coverage, nurses are required to report video of their medical assessments of prisoners in restraints. However folks incarcerated at Lee mentioned they had been threatened by officers and instructed to report “no accidents” on digicam when medical employees requested.
McNair bears scars on his abdomen that he says are the results of harsh restraints used on him at USP Lee. He was shackled for roughly 17 hours, he mentioned in a lawsuit.
Rita Harper for the Marshall Mission
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Rita Harper for the Marshall Mission
“They had been on a rampage that summer time, placing folks in four-points and beating their ass,” mentioned Bruce Altenburger, who was being held within the Particular Housing Unit from Might to December of 2022. He was held in restraints for practically 24 hours, he mentioned. “It felt like each evening you’d hear a person in four-points screaming.”
A few of the abuse escalated to sexual assault, in accordance with lawsuits and interviews with incarcerated folks. Two males mentioned officers put fingers or mop handles of their anus whereas they had been within the Particular Housing Unit, in accordance with letters and legal complaints. A minimum of 10 folks mentioned their genitals had been groped or injured whereas restrained.
In keeping with Bureau of Prisons data, 5 official complaints had been filed at Lee beneath the federal Jail Rape Elimination Act from 2021 to 2023. The data do not present particulars of the allegations. None had been substantiated.
Prisoners at Lee mentioned officers weren’t the one menace. Many mentioned workers ignored, and even deliberately stoked, violence between cellmates. 4 folks have died by murder at Lee within the final 5 years, in accordance with the state health worker.
After Amelia was launched from restraints, he was crushed by his cellmate for the subsequent two weeks on the urging of officers, in accordance with Amelia’s lawsuit. The cellmate smothered him with “blankets, clothes, a sheet rope, and finally, his fingers,” till Amelia misplaced consciousness. The lawsuit says the person was given “further privileges, equivalent to books and extra time on the telephone, in trade for assaulting and torturing Mr. Amelia.”
Ryan Amelia at USP Lee, earlier than abuse in 2023 that he says left him unable to stroll.
Ryan Amelia
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Ryan Amelia
Cathy Thompson was working within the bureau’s nationwide Psychology Companies department in 2022 when she began listening to regarding tales about Lee from different psychologists. Prisoners had been being transferred from Lee to different services, particularly Atlanta, and telling staffers about their mistreatment. Thompson deliberate a go to to Lee penitentiary to assessment operations, particularly concerning accounts of sexual abuse. However weeks earlier than the journey was scheduled, officers canceled the go to.
“I believe [they] phrased it like, ‘Now’s not time,'” mentioned Thompson, who retired from the bureau final 12 months. “I used to be simply livid. As a result of what I had heard was so distressing. If 25% of the allegations had been true, if even one of many allegations had been true, it was an excessive amount of.”
Nelson, the bureau spokesperson, wouldn’t touch upon Thompson’s account. He wrote {that a} web site go to was performed at Lee in October 2023, however wouldn’t present additional element.
The circumstances described at Lee have continued for years, in accordance with the Washington, D.C.-based Corrections Data Council, a watchdog for prisons the place D.C. residents are held. The group issued a report in 2019 that discovered accounts “of employees violence had been many and diverse.”
Investigators wrote, “All through the power, inmates the CIC spoke with expressed issues a couple of tradition of violence extending to facility management, and together with employees each perpetrating and inspiring violence in opposition to inmates.” Half of respondents mentioned they’d been “harassed, threatened or abused” by employees there. Many reported being afraid of retaliation in the event that they even spoke to investigators about circumstances.
Anthony Thomas was incarcerated at Lee in 2018 and labored as a custodian within the Particular Housing Unit. “You see blood. I needed to clear up urine and feces simply because they’d been in there so lengthy and so they will not allow you to use the toilet,” he mentioned of the prisoners who had been held in restraints. “In the event you’re crying, they’re gonna maintain coming in and messing with you.”
In keeping with Nelson, prisoners in restraints ought to be given the chance to make use of the bathroom each two hours until the individual is “persevering with to actively resist or turns into violent whereas being launched from the restraints.”
In a response to the D.C. group’s findings, a Justice Division official referred to as them “unsubstantiated allegations” based mostly on a “small proportion” of prisoners. The official reiterated bureau coverage on the usage of power and famous that employees acquired yearly coaching on the difficulty.
The bureau up to date its use of force policy this summer time, to specify that officers have an “affirmative obligation to intervene” and cease or forestall abuse, and that restraints is probably not used “in a fashion that causes pointless bodily ache or excessive discomfort.” Anybody who makes use of extreme power may face legal costs, the coverage states.
Additionally this July, President Joe Biden signed a law that may create an impartial ombudsman to subject complaints from federal prisoners. The statute additionally requires common inspections of bureau prisons, particularly “increased threat” services.
All through Santiago’s time at Lee, he and his sister Jackie Gutierrez continued to assemble tales of people that mentioned they’d been assaulted there. Gutierrez began calling their wives, moms and sisters. They each began writing to senators, representatives, judges and the NAACP. In complete, they gathered the names of greater than 50 individuals who had been incarcerated at Lee and mentioned they’d skilled or witnessed widespread abuse. Lots of these prisoners would go on to file lawsuits in opposition to the bureau.
“I’m making an attempt to get assist re: the torture/abuse/beatings/threats at USP Lee,” Santiago wrote in a November 2022 letter to U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, who represents Virginia. “My life is at risk and I don’t need my sister to should plan my funeral.”
A typed letter to Sen. Tim Kaine from Santiago.
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In an e mail, a spokesperson for the senator mentioned they forwarded Santiago’s letter to the Bureau of Prisons.
After Santiago sued jail officers, he was transferred out of Lee and to Victorville penitentiary in Southern California two months later. One other man at Lee who had labored with Santiago continued gathering testimonies and dealing with the Washington Attorneys’ Committee.
McGough, the previous lawyer for the committee, hopes their lawsuits may deliver an finish to the violence at Lee.
“Individuals simply wish to serve their time in peace,” she mentioned. “No person is making an attempt to get out of jail, these of us simply need this abuse to cease. There’s lasting trauma that no amount of cash on this planet can ever repay.”
NPR Correspondent Joseph Shapiro contributed to this story.
