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Suit Being Filed Over CBCC Conditions

On April 1, 1992, Troy Talbot, a prisoner here at the Clallam Bay IMU [Intensive Management Unit], was taken to the shower handcuffed and on a doggie leash. Prison guards had left the supply closet in the shower unlocked and Troy got hold of the fire hose and hosed down the unit, including various guards. Only after being promised to be treated like a person did Troy surrender the fire hose and go back to his cell.

At the same time Troy was doing his thing, the red pod in F unit (and to a lesser degree the other two pods as well) was going off, covering all their windows and throwing, literally, shit on the tiers. The next morning these prisoners were gassed and brought to E unit.

Those of us in E unit were placed on sack lunches, breakfast wasn't served until noon and lunch a half hour after that. When the prisoners were brought to E unit they were strip searched by female guards. As result of being stripped by the female guards, six or seven men in my pod decided to block their windows and such. Two barricaded their doors. Early in the morning on April 3, 1992, they came in with the gas again, a lot of it. Everyone was gassed, some directly, others indirectly. First we were served breakfast and I'd only managed about three bites of it when they hit us with the gas. I threw up.

The first [guy on the] tier they went to was Doug Knowles. They gassed the hell out of him and in the process, the entire tier was also gassed. After they got his barricade down the guards beat him. Captain Pacholke and CUS Leahy were outside the pod observing it all. I saw them smile as Doug was dragged past them. Myself and others who were not even involved were taken to F unit and placed in strip cells. Six hours later I was given a mattress and some bedding, but I didn't get coveralls until the next day.

Bad conditions continue; mail has to be "earned;" family pictures are limited to six on an exchange basis; access to legal material is denied, or when granted cites and such are lost or misplaced; cell supplies aren't handed out until after midnight, sometimes as late as two in the morning. I have filed many grievances on these incidents and I am in the process of filing a civil rights suit.

J.D. Enquist, Clallam Bay, WA

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