INMATES' SUITS TARGET WIDE RANGE OF OFFICIALS

NIXON VOWS MISSOURI WON'T PAY FOR ALLEGED ABUSE BY TEXAS JAILERS

More than 700 men, once known by Missouri as merely prisoners of the state,
are now plaintiffs - suing state officials for alleged abuse they suffered
at the hands of Texas jailers.

The lawsuits followed the 1996 videotaped jail shakedown that showed
Missouri prisoners being stomped on, bitten by attack dogs and zapped with a
stun gun in Brazoria County, Texas.

Although convicted of Missouri crimes, the prisoners were sent to Texas as
part of a rent-a-cell program because prisons here were packed.

Prisoners blame not only the Texas sheriffs deputies and the private company
that ran the jail, they blame leaders of the Missouri Department of
Corrections for allegedly ignoring their complaints until the tape surfaced
nearly a year later.

Attorney General Jay Nixon is representing the state employees against 711
prisoner-plaintiffs in 33 lawsuits.

"We're having to deal with about 2 million pages of documents in those cases
alone," Nixon said. "It is the largest paper case we've had to deal with in
a quick, short time period since I've been attorney general. "

Nixon has 26 lawyers on his staff working on the case. He also hired three
private lawyers at $100 an hour or less.

Lawsuits were filed in Texas and Missouri, in federal and state courts. Most
prisoners sued about 40 different entities, from Dora Schriro, the prisons
chief of Missouri, to the jailers and sheriffs of Brazoria and other Texas
counties that had contracts with Missouri.

The prisoners also are going after the private jail-management firm, Capital
Correctional Resources Inc.

Millions are at stake, but Nixon's chief of staff, Chuck Hatfield, said:
"The attorney general has specifically said we are not interested in paying
any money on these cases, period."

Hatfield said the prisoners' lawyers are negotiating with CCRI's insurance
company. The jail management firm had a $2 million insurance policy covering
all events that occurred in Texas.

Barring a settlement, the earliest trial date would be June 2000.

Monstrous workload

Because of the monstrous workload, Nixon rented space in an office park east
of the Capitol to use as a depository. Ninety-seven boxes and nine filing
cabinets fill two rooms. An oversized Texas fly swatter hangs on one wall;
on another wall is a map of Texas with color tabs marking seven key counties
that held Missouri prisoners.

"I think our defenses are strong," Nixon said. "We did not send our
prisoners down there to be treated inhumanely."

Nixon declined to comment on the specific allegations against Missouri
officials. Typical allegations include:

* Schriro and the Missouri Department of Corrections "knew or should have
known" of the alleged mistreatment through audits and interviews with
prisoners.

* Prisoners were abused immediately after arriving in Texas. Guards hit,
kicked, pushed and shoved the inmates, struck them with riot batons, shocked
them with stun guns and forced them to crawl on their stomachs and scream "I
love Texas" under threat of physical abuse or punishment.

* Missouri dumped violent prisoners on Texas, in violation of the contract,
by "improperly and illegally" changing the inmates' security
classifications.

* Prisoners repeatedly reported the abuse to Missouri, but officials did not
do thorough investigations.

* Missouri contends the Texas jail warden downplayed the incident and kept
the video secret. Missouri has sued Brazoria County for breach of contract.

* Missouri failed to review the hiring practices in Texas that put j ailers
with violent and criminal pasts in charge of Missouri prisoners.

Two jailers at Brazoria County were hired despite misdemeanor convictions
for abusing inmates. The head of security in CCRI's Limestone County jail
was a former deputy sheriff who was demoted for abusing a handcuffed
prisoner.

Missouri said it was not aware of their guards' troubled pasts; the hiring
was left to the company and Brazoria County.

Wilton David Wallace, a CCRI jailer, had served prison time for beating a
prisoner 13 years before he came into contact with Missouri inmates.

Wallace faces criminal charges for violating the civil rights of Missouri
inmate Clarence Fisher in 1996 by ramming Fisher's face into a wall at the
Brazoria County Detention Center. The alleged attack was not captured on
video; Fisher lost a tooth and required stitches. The criminal trial is set
for July 12.

On the video, a CCRI guard identified as Wallace steps on an inmate's back
and kicks another inmate in the groin as he crawls across the jailhouse
floor. Wallace and three deputies face federal criminal charges for their
alleged roles in the 1996 videotaped shakedown. All four have pleaded not
guilty and await trial Aug. 9 on the civil rights violation charges.

Videotape spurs litigation

Not until the tape surfaced did Missouri officials begin to take the
prisoners' allegations seriously, the suits allege. Prisoners say they
signed a complaint and sent it to Nixon. Hatfield declined to comment.

Lynn Klement, of Angleton, Texas, represents 25 prisoners in lawsuits. He
did not sue any Missouri officials. Instead, he targeted the Brazoria County
sheriff, deputies and CCRI.

"I really went after the wrongdoers, the perpetrators of the beatings,
rather than a shotgun blast where I go after everyone," Klement said.
"Missouri's involvement was more benign neglect, ignoring their pleas."

The videotape Sept. 18, 1996, was taken by a Texas deputy as part of a
training exercise. The sheriff's riot team orders prisoners to crawl into a
hallway while jailers shake down the bedding looking for drugs.

One deputy holding a black tazer, or stun gun, shocks at least three
prisoners on the back or buttocks as they crawl past him. One of the
slower-moving prisoners is a young man with a bandaged ankle, who was
dragged at times by a deputy.

Although this 32-minute video is what sparked the litigation, lawyers say
they uncovered as many as 100 videotapes of Missouri prisoners at various
jails in Texas. Some of the footage is dry, showing a monotonous stream of
prisoners eating or being unloaded from buses. One video shows inmates in
Gregg County, Texas, being hosed down as someone adds pepper spray to the
water. Klement said other tapes had been erased.

In summer 1997, Missouri had 1,091 inmates in Texas jails, a $12 million
program that relieved overcrowding at home. Shortly after the videotape
surfaced, Missouri ordered the return of all its prisoners.