A Louisiana man bears the
scars, pain and disabilities of a severe beating by guards
at a notorious state prison and his injuries reflect a
pattern of abuse at the facility, according to a federal
lawsuit joined Thursday by Public Justice, the
Washington-based public interest law firm.
The suit says Keith Dillon,
44, suffers hearing loss, back and knee pain, severe
shooting pain in his shoulder and bicep, frequent headaches,
blurred vision and broken teeth as the result of the beating
by corrections officers at the Jena Correctional Facility
about 250 miles north of New Orleans.
The U.S. Justice Department
shut down the Jena prison in 2000 after uncovering chronic
abuses there, but the facility was reopened to house inmates
and detainees from New Orleans-area jails devastated by
Hurricane Katrina in August 2005. At the time of his
transfer, Dillon was being held in the Jefferson Parish Jail
on a DUI charge.
The lawsuit charges that
Jena Warden T.W. Thompson, five Louisiana corrections
officers and two New York prison guards
on loan to the facility
“deliberately and maliciously assaulted and battered”
Dillon, subjected him to deplorable conditions and failed to
provide adequate medical care for his injuries.
The mistreatment began
immediately, the suit says, noting that when Dillon was
transferred from the Jefferson Parish Jail after days
without food, water, electricity or functioning restrooms,
he “was handcuffed with nylon cable tie cuffs so tight that
his wrists bled.” Other transferees were frequently slapped,
punched, beaten, stripped naked, hit with belts, and kicked
by correctional officers at Jena, the suit says.
“What happened to Keith
Dillon is a reprehensible act of violence and a
constitutional violation that our country should not
tolerate,” said Soren Gisleson, of the Herman,
Herman, Katz & Cotlar law firm in New Orleans and lead
counsel for Public Justice in the case.
Public Justice attorney
Michael Lucas
called Dillon’s treatment “unconscionable and inhumane,”
adding that “There is no place for torture chambers in
America. Everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and
respect and no one deserves what Mr. Dillon suffered.” Lucas
and Public Justice attorney Adele Kimmel are
co-counsel in the lawsuit.
Jena was shut down again
shortly after Katrina at the behest of human rights
organizations and state legislators amid renewed allegations
of widespread, gross abuse.
