Prison officer bashes inmate after being spat on

A state-wide review of Corrective Services has been launched after shocking video of a prison officer bashing an inmate has surfaced.

Reports say the violence was sparked when the 45-year-old inmate spat at the officer's face.
The security camera video from inside the cell shows the gate opened and the initial punch thrown by an officer.

After which, the inmate is seen to be repeatedly punched by the guard, while the other officers do nothing to stop the bashing.

Additional security camera video taken from outside the cell shows how the inmate spat from behind the bars, his saliva splattering the guard in the face.

The inmate had been brought to the Newcastle court complex on domestic violence charges, reports say.

Occurring last October, the bashing was reported by another officer who witnessed the incident.

The corrective services union says the guard involved is facing charges, a possible jail sentence of two years, and is living in fear of contracting hepatitis C.

"It's probably the second worst thing a prison officer can face is having an inmate spit on them, especially when they had information that the inmate had hepatitis C." Matt Bindley, from Public Service Association says.

Disturbing video shows prison officer bashing inmate

I watched the video and was rather shocked by the excessive force used by the officer. There is no doubt that he went completely overboard and his colleagues should have restrained him. On the other hand however, how would YOU react if a hepatitis C positive person spat in your face while you were going about doing your job?

I would have no problem with the guard beating this scum to death. If the inmate is hard enough to spit in a guys face he should be ready for the reaction. He only did it because he assumed that he would be protected by the other guards or protected by the fact that the guy that got spat on wants to keep his job. Why do we protect criminal's?

And why dont we bring back the dual? People should be able to work out their own problems. People should be able to protect their honour. We should not be forced to live like scared helpless little rats. If a guy spits in your face he should expect to be beaten to a pulp at the very least. Instead the hepC criminal will probably be compensated by the government. Its insane.

Anyone who thinks this is ok has a skewed sense of justice.

When you decide to work as a prison guard, police officer, astronaut, pest control, etc, you are accepting that there are certain risks involved with the job. This prison guard had no right to do what he did and those that sat back and watched are just as guilty.

Yeah, it sucks knowing a guy with hepC just spat in your face, but you're a prison guard and you've agreed to work in a situation where spit and much worse is going to get flung in your direction. If you can't handle it, get a job doing something that suits your caveman philosophies.

Cop should see some time in jail where he's not protected by walls and bars.

reply to post by TinkerHaus


If there was simply a system of unwarranted brutality then you may well have a point. However, in this particular instance, the prisoner was looking for (and got) a reaction based on his actions. Tough luck if he didn't like it, he shouldn't have spat in the guards face.

To put it another way, i know a few long standing Police Officers in a local town (Leeds). One of them serves now in a very s***** area, full of heroin addicts, etc. He has always been someone that does everything by the book and i do mean everything. However, recently he was telling a few of us in the pub about a local smack head they had arrested. The smack head in question thought it would be a good idea to attack the arresting officers with a dirty syringe. The result? Thrown in the back of the van and set about with truncheons, a la 1970's policing. Not one of us could criticise the guy for owning up to this or for being involved in the first place. Some actions provoke reactions and the prisoner in question here got what he asked for.

Originally posted by Flavian
reply to post by TinkerHaus

 

If there was simply a system of unwarranted brutality then you may well have a point. However, in this particular instance, the prisoner was looking for (and got) a reaction based on his actions. Tough luck if he didn't like it, he shouldn't have spat in the guards face.

To put it another way, i know a few long standing Police Officers in a local town (Leeds). One of them serves now in a very s***** area, full of heroin addicts, etc. He has always been someone that does everything by the book and i do mean everything. However, recently he was telling a few of us in the pub about a local smack head they had arrested. The smack head in question thought it would be a good idea to attack the arresting officers with a dirty syringe. The result? Thrown in the back of the van and set about with truncheons, a la 1970's policing. Not one of us could criticise the guy for owning up to this or for being involved in the first place. Some actions provoke reactions and the prisoner in question here got what he asked for.

You know - in a normal situation I can understand retaliation.

This was a guard tasked with the safety and well-being of these prisoners. His job is security and prisoner welfare. If he can't handle the job without flipping out and beating people he needs to be removed from duty.

Guy needs to be fired.

reply to post by TinkerHaus


He was fired, as well as the two officers that stood and watched. His trial is next month where he faces jail time for assault and can face up to two years in prison. (That's what they are reporting on the news on TV anyway.)

The attack was totally unacceptable. Those guards represent law and order. Attacking an inmate like that is neither lawful nor orderly. All four guards should be facing charges and dismissed from duty.

Well, your in a prison. People in prison are there for a reason. I mean, if you commit murder, you wouldn't have a problem spitting in someones face would you? Besides, thats bound to happen in that environment. What he should have did was get some of his buddies later on that night so no one would see. That would have shown em.

reply to post by TinkerHaus


So you are saying that officer's should just take it cause it is part of their job???? How would you react if everyday you were being chunked on? Chunked on means an inmate prepares for a couple of weeks a jar full of urine,feces, sperm,,,etc... and then when officer's walk by they throw it on them. This happens daily, this officer just reached his breaking point. I can tell you, officer's are leaving in droves because no one backs them up and they get frustrated. How will you feel when there is no one watching the inmates and they are released into society and one kills a family member you are close to, or rapes your daughter? The system now gives everything to the inmate and the officer's are at risk from rank and inmates all day long. An officer at any one time is surrounded and out numbered 50-150 to one at most times. If he gets spit on and does not react he keeps getting spit on. You have to stand on the ground and defend yourself or you are just a punk in a uniform. I will tell you this officer could walk back on that cell block and no-one is even thinking of spitting on him.
Prison is rough let the man do his job. For every action is an opposite reaction. The inmate knew the risks ,and he accepted them. There are alot of unknowns like:
The inmate a was trying to get siolitary to prevent getting raped of beaten by another inmate.
The Boss was dirty and he was calling him out
The officer might have been late getting his mail to him
Don't blindly take the inmates nor the officer's side, because there is often 2 sides to the story.

I have a really close friend who was until recently a prison guard. He quit not long after being viciously attacked in a stairwell by an inmate.

From all that he told me during the years that he worked at the prison, the guards who responded with such violence described by the OP were the ones treated with respect and obeyed by the inmates. The guards who refused to participate in such actions were viewed as being weak by the inmates, and were inevitably attacked by the inmates sooner or later.

My friend refused to abuse inmates and was rewarded with an extended hospital stay after being shanked and nearly beaten to death. It took several months of rehab to get back to almost normal.

It is sad to say, but sometimes it is necessary to be brutal because if you are not in certain situations (such as a prison environment) it is viewed as weakness which will be exploited. I don't condone such actions, but I at least have some sort of understanding about why it is the way it is.

reply to post by hanyak69


What you are condoning is a brutal and barbaric prison system.

Let me turn this around on you - What are you going to say when your teenager goes to jail for something petty, like drugs, and gets beat down and abused because society has determined it's ok for correctional officers to blow off steam by beating prisoners?

If we allow these types of acts as retaliation they will spread and become common for even the smallest of offenses. There are very few circumstances where a prison guard should get physical - and when the prisoner is in their cell behind bars and the guard is not in physical danger is not one of those times. If you can't see this then you should NEVER be a cop or prison guard, because you would be the type to give the whole lot a bad name.

This is 2012, not 1780. The guard was not in any immediate physical danger, even the LAW sides with me here. He should have walked away and sought medical attention, instead of acting like a child and attacking his prisoner.

You can try to justify it all you want but the reality of the situation is this "little man" of a cop attacked a defenseless man in a cell while his buddies held the guy down and/or watched. He's a POS of the highest degree, and he will see jail time.

Guess what happens to prison guards that go to jail?

To quote Dave Chappelle "Nighty night! Keep your butthole tight!"

Originally posted by Germanicus
I would have no problem with the guard beating this scum to death. If the inmate is hard enough to spit in a guys face he should be ready for the reaction. He only did it because he assumed that he would be protected by the other guards or protected by the fact that the guy that got spat on wants to keep his job. Why do we protect criminal's?

And why dont we bring back the dual? People should be able to work out their own problems. People should be able to protect their honour. We should not be forced to live like scared helpless little rats. If a guy spits in your face he should expect to be beaten to a pulp at the very least. Instead the hepC criminal will probably be compensated by the government. Its insane.

That's not really fair!

You assume that this fellow is guilty and deserves this beating...what was he arrested for...and doesn't there seem to be a trial involved before sentencing?

Why do we protect criminals?

Well first of all...who says this fellow is a criminal...maybe he did nothing and was arrested under false pretenses and if that is the case then he should throw a little spit around!

Do you think that because there is a badge attached to that officers chest...he is the always right?

That the problem with society right now...we are starting to see ultimate authority in a person as common as ourselves...with a bright shiny star!

You guys know that Hepatitis C cannot be spread through saliva right? The film Pineapple Express didn't exactly help, when one of the main characters spit on someone who shouted "Ah! Herpes!" but Hepatitis is a virus. A virus needs living cells in order to spread (such as blood) and cannot be spread by spitting.

Allow me to lightly touch upon the reason for such brutality. In the 1970's, an experiment was done that gives credibility to the idea of behavior being manipulated by the situation, i believe it is known as the stanford prison experiment

Simply put:

There was a two week experiment into prison life, where normal, everyday civilians took the role of either a guard or prisoner.

The experiment only lasted 6 days because the guards took their role too seriously.

Prisoners started behaving pathologically, they started to get depress and rebel.

I found a wiki page explaining the experiment

....it seemed that the situation, rather than their individual personalities, caused the participants' behavior. Under this interpretation, the results are compatible with the results of the Milgram experiment, in which ordinary people fulfilled orders to administer what appeared to be agonizing and dangerous electric shocks to a confederate of the experimenter.

en.wikipedia.org...

Originally posted by questforevidence
You guys know that Hepatitis C cannot be spread through saliva right? The film Pineapple Express didn't exactly help, when one of the main characters spit on someone who shouted "Ah! Herpes!" but Hepatitis is a virus. A virus needs living cells in order to spread (such as blood) and cannot be spread by spitting.

Good point!

www.bettertoknowc.com...

reply to post by BeforeTheHangmansNoose


Here is a bit of the documentary from that experiment:



Only further proving that in human nature...people in power (or the illusion of power) can do the unthinkable!

The prisoner was an absolute moron. If you spit at people, especially when they know (or think) you have Hep-C, expect to be bashed. The prisoner holds some of the responsibility for what happened to him. No sympathy. However with that said, obviously assaulting an inmate is wrong - if an inmate spits at a guard they should be punished accordingly rather than with vigilante justice. Additionally I think we should attempt to rehabilitate lessor criminals rather than simply punish them extremely severely, from my understanding this has better results when they enter society again anyway.

Therefore:

Punish the inmate for spitting.

I'm not sure if the guard should be thrown in prison, because I can easily see how he would of lost it and bashed the inmate. I can't say that I would of necessarily acted differently if I had been having a bad day. At the very least fire the guard. Maybe throw him in a minimum security prison or something too taking into consideration that the attack was provoked. Not sure.

I think the dude got what he deserved. The guy just got arrested for domestic assault which in turn shows he is a nothing but a bitch ass bully anyways. He probably thought he could get away with spitting. I don't think it was quite overdone on the guards part but it was getting close. You can still get your point across before it becomes excessive.

reply to post by HawkeyeNation

I think the dude got what he deserved. The guy just got arrested for domestic assault which in turn shows he is a nothing but a bitch ass bully anyways.

I was arrested for domestic assult for not letting my ex-wife take my car!

Not letting her have the keys to MY car was unlawful restraint...not a single hand laid on anyone!

Of course I was found not guilty...and such goes the story!

Because he was arrested for...does not mean he is guilty of...either way...it is not for a jailer to decide...that is for a judge and/or a jury!

Common notion here on ATS...if the fellow is in cuffs...he must be guilty!

reply to post by TinkerHaus


The situation you are describing there would be totally wrong. But......it would also be totally different from this particular incident. In this case, the prisoner spat in the guards face.

Like it or not, most prison guards would respond far more professionally to the threat of violence from an inmate than from from being spat at.

For a different spin on it, i have a very close these days who, in the past, was once a category AA prisoner over here in blighty. He has seen the inside of some very nasty places for things he did when he was younger - he doesn't try to hide it and accepts he was way into crazy territory for a good while. Most things prison related,he has an interesting take on (whether pro or anti prisoner) and on this particular issue he is totally behind the prison guard. That said, he is also pleased the prison guard is being forced to face up to his actions. I actually think my friend has it right on this. The guard cannot be blamed for his reaction in such a high pressure job for such provocation. That said, what he did cannot be condoned either so he should (and is) facing the consequences of his actions.

Put it this way, at his worst in prison, he has admitted to doing similar and to throwing the slops bucket at the weakest guard in order to get a reaction. He also accepted the kicking he got from the riot response team (standard in most prisons) for his actions as totally justified given the circumstances!