Scores of protesters arrested last summer following Alton Sterling's fatal shooting were treated "like animals" and humiliated inside the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison, according to a scathing new report that describes the lockup's conditions as so bad as to be unconstitutional.
The demonstrators, most of whom were booked on counts of obstructing a highway, were subjected to excessive force, including the indiscriminate use of pepper spray by guards, and spent hours or days locked in overcrowded cells "caked with grime and blood," according to the report, prepared by The Promise of Justice Initiative, a New Orleans-based advocacy group.
The report, to be released Monday, accuses guards of retaliating against protesters for participating in demonstrations that went on for days following the fatal shooting of Sterling in a confrontation with police outside a convenience store.
But the report alleges the mistreatment of the protesters reflects a more systemic oppression inmates endure at the jail on a daily basis. Moreover, the report claims, the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff's Office "appears to encourage or at least tolerate abusive and humiliating conduct of guards."
"The arrest and detention of approximately 180 individuals protesting the police killing of Alton Sterling provided a distressing window into the actual conditions of East Baton Rouge Parish Prison," the report says. "Unfortunately, this report reflects the treatment of detainees in the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison when the whole world was watching." [MORE]