GARFIELD COUNTY, CO - Prisoners in the Garfield County Jail are subjected to a pattern of excessive force carried out by deputies' misuse and abuse of pepperball guns, restraint chairs, Tasers, pepper spray and electroshock belts, the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado alleged today.

"The deputies are enthralled by these nifty devices, said Mark Silverstein, ACLU legal director.

"Some of them may have a legitimate use in a detention facility, but only in strictly limited circumstances and under carefully crafted guidelines designed to control the potential for abuse and the serious risk...to prisoners' health and safety."
The class-action lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Denver.

But Garfield County Sheriff Lou Vallario, who oversees the jail, called the allegations "absolutely baseless, unwarranted, unsubstantiated and frivolous.

"We have specific policies and procedures regarding treatment of inmates including how the prisoners are classified and the use of force," Vallario said. "And absolutely, we've had to use those devices. Actually those nifty devices are put into the market and have been successful across the country in law enforcement to avoid injuring people."

Vallario said the capacity of the jail, located in Glenwood Springs, is 212, but that the average daily inmate population is well below that, numbering about 170 inmates.

The lawsuit says that prisoners shot with pepperballs or drenched with pepper spray are regularly strapped into a restraint chair, sometimes for hours.