WASHINGTON - Corrections officers at U.S. Penitentiary Atwater in California and six other tension-racked federal prisons now will be armed with pepper spray, prompted in part by a 2008 murder that still haunts a California court.
Urged on by lawmakers, U.S. Bureau of Prisons officials are training selected officers to use the spray canisters that can drop a violent inmate from up to 12 feet away. Although described as a "pilot program" that will formally start in several weeks, the decision marks a policy shift for officials who until now have warned against the dangers of arming prison guards.
Under the prior no-weapons policy, Atwater guard Jose Rivera carried only a radio and body alarm when two inmates turned on him June 20, 2008. They ran Rivera down, tackled the 22-year-old Navy veteran and stabbed him repeatedly, a prison videotape shows. The two accused inmates are awaiting trial.
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"The senseless and tragic murder of Jose Rivera highlighted the dangerous risks correctional officers face on a daily basis when working in overcrowded prisons," stated Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Calif., adding that he was pleased with the new policy that he believes will "save other law enforcement officers from injury or even death."
Following Rivera's murder, Cardoza introduced legislation to direct a pepper-spray pilot program in federal prisons. Although the legislation has not moved, the version re-introduced in the current Congress has collected 61 House co-sponsors; it's the kind of congressional support that can grab an agency's attention.
Besides Atwater, which opened in California's Central Valley in 2001, the pepper spray will be distributed to guards at other high-security federal prisons in Colorado, Pennsylvania, Florida, Virginia and Louisiana. Training is under way, and the pepper spray is supposed to be deployed by August, with officials planning to study its use and effectiveness for the next year.
"I hope it helps someone not get injured, and absolutely save a life," Dale Deshotel, president of the American Federation of Government Employees' Council of Prison Locals 33, said in an interview Friday. "We hope we can (eventually) get this into all employees' hands."
Known technically as oleoresin capsicum, pepper spray incapacitates by causing retching, uncontrollable coughing, burning pain, eye swelling and more.
While state prison guards in California and a number of other states are armed with pepper spray, federal authorities until now have reasoned that the potential disadvantages outweigh the benefits.
