“In a sequence caught on surveillance video, two of the guards had pushed down hard on Messier’s back as he sat in handcuffs and leg irons on the bed, forcing his chest toward his knees. The tactic, sometimes called “suitcasing,†is banned in Massachusetts prisons because it can cause suffocation, especially for those like Joshua Messier, who had grown overweight from taking antipsychotic medications. A state medical examiner called Messier’s death a homicide, concluding that his heart stopped during the guards’ effort to strap him down. The autopsy also found injuries consistent with a beating, including internal bleeding on Messier’s brain, and blunt force injuries to his neck, torso, arms, and legs. Yet, nearly five years after his death, no one at Bridgewater State Hospital has been prosecuted or even punished, and all but one of the guards still works for the Department of Correction. Officially, the department maintains that no excessive force was used and that everything the guards and nurses did that night was ‘done in accordance with standard procedure.'”
What does that tell you about the domming standard procedure?
Abolish prisons.
Abolish coercive psychiatry.
Anticopyright.