|
|
| Detainees' Abuse Is Detailed |
| By New York Times |
| Published: 12/19/2003 |
|
A report released yesterday by the Department of Justice's inspector general concluded that at one federal prison in Brooklyn, some staff members physically abused many illegal immigrants arrested after the Sept. 11 attacks, taunted them and illegally taped their meetings with lawyers. Hundreds of illegal immigrants in the New York area were detained after the attacks. Almost all were found to have no tangible connection to terrorism; many have been deported or have left the country, officials said. The report drew its conclusions from interviews with more than 30 detainees, dozens of prison officers and supervisors, and hundreds of videotapes. The videotapes, which investigators found after they were told by prison employees that the tapes no longer existed, showed staff members slamming chained detainees into walls and twisting their elbows, often while the detainees were in chains, handcuffs or otherwise not resisting orders, the report said. In other cases, the report said, prison officials illegally taped detainees' conversations with their lawyers. In a few cases, after talking with their lawyers through a solid partition and in the presence of prison staff members, some male detainees were needlessly stripped naked and searched in front of female employees, the report said. The report recommended that the federal Bureau of Prisons, which runs the Brooklyn detention center, discipline 10 employees whom it identified and several others whom it did not. A spokeswoman for the Bureau of Prisons did not respond to three calls for comment. A Justice Department spokesman, Mark Corallo, said the department's civil rights division and the United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York would review the report to decide whether to prosecute. |
advertise
|
privacy policy
|
add URL
|
about us
|
terms/disclaimer
|
contact us
|
join our team
|
help
Comments:
No comments have been posted for this article.
Login to let us know what you think