HELL. ON. EARTH.

PRISON GUARDS WATCH INMATE ATTACK; DO NOTHING

Guards Shown Watching Inmate Attack

Nov 30, 5:44 AM (ET)

By REBECCA BOONE
BOISE, Idaho (AP) - The surveillance video from the overhead cameras shows Hanni Elabed being beaten by a fellow inmate in an Idaho prison, managing to bang on a prison guard station window, pleading for help. Behind the glass, correctional officers look on, but no one intervenes when Elabed was knocked unconscious.

No one steps into the cellblock when the attacker sits down to rest, and no one stops him when he resumes the beating.

Videos of the attack obtained by The Associated Press show officers watching the beating for several minutes. The footage is a key piece of evidence for critics who claim the privately run Idaho Correctional Center uses inmate-on-inmate violence to force prisoners to snitch on their cellmates or risk being moved to extremely violent units.

Lawsuits from inmates contend the company that runs the prison, the Corrections Corporation of America (CXW), denies prisoners medical treatment as a way of covering up the assaults. They have dubbed the Idaho lockup "gladiator school" because it is so violent.

In a frame grab from video obtained by The Associated Press, an inmate attacks fellow inmate Hanni Elabed at the privately-run Idaho Correctional Center just south of Boise, Idaho. (AP Photo)


The videos show at least three guards watching as Elabed was stomped on a dozen times. At no time during the recorded sequence did anyone try to pull away James Haver, a short, slight man.

About two minutes after Haver stopped the beating of his own accord, the metal cellblock door was unlocked. Haver was handcuffed and Elabed was examined for signs of life. He bled inside his skull and would spend three days in a coma.

In this June 15, 2010 file photo, the Idaho Correctional Center is shown south of Boise, Idaho. Lawsuits from inmates contend the company that runs the prison, the Corrections Corporation of America, denies prisoners medical treatment as a way of covering up assaults. They have dubbed the Idaho lockup "gladiator school" because it is so violent. (AP Photo/Charlie Litchfield, File)


Corrections Corporation of America, (CCA) which oversees some 75,000 inmates in more than 60 facilities under contracts with the federal government, 19 states and the District of Columbia, has faced allegations of abuse by guards elsewhere.

A year ago, CCA and another company, Dominion Correctional Services LLC, agreed to pay $1.3 million to settle a lawsuit in which the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission claimed male officers at a prison in Colorado forced female workers to perform sex acts to keep their jobs.

In January, Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear ordered some 400 female inmates transferred to a state-run prison after more than a dozen reports of sexual misconduct by male guards employed by CCA. Similar accusations were made in March at a CCA-run prison in Hawaii, and in May, agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement placed CCA on probation and launched an investigation of whether a guard at a central Texas detention facility sexually assaulted women on their way to being deported.

Before the Idaho attack, Elabed tried to get help from prison staffers, telling them that he had been threatened and giving them details about drug trafficking between inmates and staffers that he had witnessed, according to his lawsuit. He was put in solitary confinement for his protection but was later returned to the same unit with the inmates he snitched on, his lawsuit said. He was on the cellblock only six minutes before he was attacked.


If this was happening to al Qaeda terrorists or Iraqi detainees in U.S. custody - killers of Americans - this story would be on every front page and every TV screen, 24/7 for the next six months. But these are Americans, common criminals, so nobody cares. Because of the sheer horrific nature of this story, every American with a heart should read what is going on in our prison system.

Remember, our Blessed Savior was crucified between two criminals - and even though he forgave them, the sentence still had to be carried out.

I cannot post this in its entirety, to read the whole thing you can click on the link below - S.L.


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PTSD is REAL . . .

We're talking about Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder . . . and it can be DEADLY.

Fortunately, Army Reserve Staff Sergeant George Nickel survived his obvious episode of PTSD.



On February 8th, 2007, Staff Sergeant Nickel was the lone survivor from the explosion of one of the largest IEDs ever placed, outside of Karma, Iraq. The blast penetrated the armored hull and the 12 ton bomb-resistant vehicle was blown more than 10 feet in the air. Nearly every bone on the right side of his body was broken, and shrapnel from the blast tore his flesh; it was a miracle Nickel lived at all. Less than a foot away from him, the turret gunner was blown out of his hatch, dead before he hit the ground. The vehicle commander was even closer to George, and he was also killed right away. The driver lived long enough to be medevac'ed by chopper to the field hospital in Fallujah, but he died of his wounds en route.

The war doesn't end for a vet when he comes home; it's worse if you come back in pieces. Nickel was sent from Iraq to the Army Medical Center in Landstuhl, Germany. His destination in the States was Walter Reed - a grim place on a good day; George Nickel was lucky enough to arrive at the height of the neglect scandal.

Due to his condition, and the situation back home, George couldn't be sent home for rehabilitation therapy. Back in Idaho he was an hour from the nearest VA rehab facility, and his house in the woods was not handicap accessible. So the Army warehoused him in an old hotel near Walter Reed. The conditions in these places are deplorable. George Nickle finally arrived home to Boise on July 4th, 2008.

What happened this week: George Nickel lost his dog. For whatever reason he took along a handgun, his AR-15 rifle and was wearing a tactical vest with as many as 90 rounds of ammunition when he went to look for it. Police say Nickel shot his way into two apartments before they arrived, clearing rooms CQB-style as he searched for his pup.

He developed situational awareness fast, apparently; Nickel surrendered to police without returning a shot as four officers fired some 12 rounds in a confrontation in the stairwell of Nickel's apartment. No one was struck by any of the gunfire, thank God.

Charges:
George Nickel Jr., 38, is being held in the Ada County Jail on a $500,000 bond for four felony charges of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, unlawful discharge of a gun into an inhabited building, and felony use of a gun in the commission of a felony.

I'm not a lawyer or a politician, and I don't know what can be done or said on SSG Nickel's behalf, but I've seen amazing results from the Internet's ability to blast out info in all directions. Maybe somebody out there is in a better position than I am to do or say something on SSG Nickel's behalf: a preliminary hearing on the charges is scheduled for August 13th in front of 4th District Magistrate Kevin Swain.

Here's more on what happened, and the hell that SGT Nickel went through downrange.