A federal class action lawsuit has been filed against the state alleging corrections officers systematically beat restrained inmates in state prisons. The lawsuit was filed in US District Court in Valdosta and claims Georgia state prison guards and corrections officials kicked inmates with combat boots and choked them with night sticks between October 2005 and August 2007.
The lawsuit mentions more than 40 inmate cases in Georgia prisons who claim, among other abuses, that guards strapped inmates to iron beds and left them without food or water for as long as two days and banned beating victims from seeing family members or being photographed. The lawsuit names 25 guards and other officials as culprits in routine beatings and torture. It also claims they covered up the abuses by inflicting more beatings on prisoners who filed complaints. The lawsuit seeks an immediate end to the abuse and compensation for victims; the beatings are banned by the Georgia Constitution.
