The war on marijuana smokers played a role in the videotaped September 18, 1996, beating of Missouri prisoners by Texas deputies, charged NORML Chairman Dan Viets, Esq.
The taped incident, which surfaced earlier this week, shows deputies donned in riot gear and at least one private guard kicking crawling inmates, allowing a dog to bite an inmate, and using a stun gun. Jail officials said that suspicion of marijuana smoking among inmates prompted the show of force.
Viets, a Columbia, Missouri attorney and member of NORML’s Legal Committee, called the incident “shocking,” and charged that state policies cracking down on non-violent drug offenders were partly to blame. “Missouri jails are operating well over 100 percent capacity and forcing state inmates to be housed in other states like Texas,” said Viets. “This overcrowding is because 80 percent of inmates entering the Missouri Department of Corrections are non-violent offenders, many of them convicted on marijuana charges.” Viets added that he personally had clients serving time in Texas jails for marijuana violations at the time of the videotaped incident.
Have suspected marijuana users been demonized to the point where we allow them to be beaten, stunned, and bitten?”Viets asked in reference to the deputies’ explanation for the assault.
The emergence of the videotaped led Missouri to terminate its $6 million contract to house inmates in the Brazoria Texas County Detention Center.
For more information, please contact Attorney Dan Viets at (573) 443-6866.