Letter to Department of Justice: End Tear Gas in Prisons

Sent twice to the Department of Justice in December & January via email & email & telephone

Deputy Attorney General Sally Q. Yates                                                                  
Associate Deputy Attorney General Heather Childs                                                
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001

 

 
Dear Deputy Attorney General Yates,

We write you on behalf of 13,000 Americans, who signed our “End Tear Gas Use in Prisons” petition, to strongly urge you to take action against human-rights abuses on prisoners involving teargas weapons nationwide. Across the United States, the use of chemical weapons—most of them banned in war under the Geneva Protocol—against those confined in jails and prisons has become disturbingly common, and is a yet another example of how militarization is deepening violence on all levels of society. Given the Department of Justice’s recent recommendations to constrain solitary confinement, and to discontinue renewal of private prison contracts, this issue should command your attention as well.

We have over a hundred letters received since 2013 from prisoners across twenty-one states, of stories of having teargas or pepper spray used against them. The harrowing experiences they described sound like nothing less than torture,  “They didn’t hit me with the gas until the fight was over and I was already in handcuffs and shackles. The captain sprayed me directly in the face. I immediately began to choke, snot, tears, and saliva spewing from my face. It felt like I was breathing fire. A couple minutes later I began to vomit…. I was not allowed to wash the chemical off until three days later. So for those three days the chemicals continued to burn my flesh.” –A woman imprisoned by the Colorado Department of Corrections, 2014.

We firmly believe with full investigations and recommendations, we can find justice for those being gassed in prison. Prisoners in the United States are protected by the Constitution's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment (see Amendment VIII). We ask of the Department to abide by the Constitution and protect prisoners today.

We beseech the Department to immediately order investigations, make recommendations concerning, and take action against human rights abuses on prisoners involving tear gas/chemical weapons on both state and federal levels to the fullest extent.

 

Tara Tabassi
National Office
War Resisters League