Suit Says Ventura Jail Using Chair for Torture

A new federal lawsuit--the third of its kind in a year--alleges Ventura County sheriff’s deputies use a special chair to torture and humiliate inmates.

Eric Pratt, 25, of Oxnard filed the latest civil rights lawsuit alleging he was denied access to a bathroom for seven hours while strapped to the chair, used to control violent prisoners in the Ventura County Jail in Ventura.

“He was deprived of all decency and privacy, and endured inhumane pain, cramps, and indignity while forced to withhold voiding of urine and feces on himself,” states the suit, filed Wednesday in Los Angeles.

Pratt contends he suffered injuries to his arms, hands, ankles, legs, back and knee as a result of being strapped down in the “Pro-Straint” chair, a restraining device that has prompted several lawsuits nationwide and has caught the attention of civil rights groups such as Amnesty International and the American Civil Liberties Union.

“All of these people have talked about the excruciating pain, about begging to get out, about the tears, about defecating on themselves, urinating on themselves,” said Samuel Paz, co-attorney for all three plaintiffs. “It is just an absolutely inhumane process done absolutely without purpose except to break a person’s spirit.”

Although Sheriff’s Department authorities declined to discuss the latest case, they deny the chair is misused, emphasizing it is not used as a disciplinary measure.

“It is not used for punishment,” Capt. Keith Parks said. “It’s designed specifically as a way to safely restrain somebody who could conceivably hurt themselves or others.”

Sheriff’s deputies who work in the jail go through 24 hours of training to learn how to effectively deal with violent inmates, Parks said. As part of that training, deputies are directed in how and when to use the Pro-Straint chair.

Pratt was arrested July 27 on suspicion of drinking in public and loitering. When Pratt objected to his arrest, he was handcuffed and his feet were bound, the suit contends. It said Pratt was placed in the Pro-Straint chair as soon as he arrived at the jail.

The other two men who have filed suit against the Sheriff’s Department allege they were placed in the restraint chair naked and defecated and urinated on themselves before being released five hours later. A settlement hearing is scheduled in June for the two cases, which have been combined by the court.

Kurt Von Colln, 38, of Oxnard, who filed the first suit in June 1997, alleges he suffered a broken ankle in addition to humiliation and excruciating pain. Von Colln had been arrested for public intoxication and put in the drunk tank, where authorities said he yelled, banged his fists on the wall, stripped off his clothes and exposed himself to jail staff members.

Keith George Stringer, 55, of Ventura who filed the second case in December, says he suffered severe back pain and humiliation. Stringer had been arrested on suspicion of inflicting injury on a spouse and was put in a padded cell with a paper gown. An attorney for Stringer said because Stringer was kicking the door, he was put in the Pro-Straint chair.

“With every single one of these clients, it’s the embarrassment and humiliation that stay with them,” said Sonia Mercado, a lawyer representing the three men.

“If you were to sit in your office and have your co-workers see you naked there, you would never want to face them again,” Mercado said. “The humiliation is ongoing.”

But Cmdr. Mark Ball, who runs the Ventura facility, said inmates are only placed on the chair naked if they tear off the paper gown supplied to violent or suicidal prisoners. Once restrained in the chair, they are covered with a paper gown, he said.

“Our desire is not to parade or punish them in any way shape or form--it is to stop the violence,” Ball said.

He said a supervisor must assess the situation to approve use of the chair and medical staff members are alerted immediately to monitor circulation and heart rate. Ball said he knows of only one situation where an inmate had defecated and urinated on himself.

“Inmates who truly need to relieve themselves will decide it’s time to cooperate,” Ball said. “Is there an occasion where an individual is acting so bizarre that we had to hold him there longer? Well, certainly.”

Inmates restrained in the chair are there for an average of two hours, he said. “When individuals are in the chair from five to eight hours, it’s probably the extreme cases.”

Makers of the Pro-Straint chair, manufactured since 1988 by AedecInternational of Beaverton, Ore., say it is designed as a humane alternative to more forceful means of restraining dangerous inmates.

Company owner Dan Corcoran recommends jailers be trained to use the chair, but provides no guidelines for how long someone should be restrained.

“What arbitrary number do you want to come up with at the expense of someone’s life?” he asked.

About 200 inmates die each year from positional asphyxia after being hogtied and chained to a grate in the floor, Corcoran said.

“This is a very humane thing to put them in a chair,” he said. “This thing saves lives and there’s not anybody that disputes that.

“It can be possibly misused, but in there we make a claim that it is not for punishment in any extent,” Corcoran said. “It’s to protect them from hurting themselves or others. My intent was to save lives.”

The three Ventura County cases are among several in the nation. A suit pending in Utah contends that an inmate died at the Utah State Prison at Draper. The prisoner died after being in the chair for 16 hours, the suit states.

Amnesty International has decided to examine the Sacramento Sheriff’s Department’s use of the chair, which has resulted in one death and five lawsuits, attorneys say. There are also suits in Georgia and Florida alleging misuse, attorneys say.