Missouri prisoners say beatings worse than shown on videotape
Associated Press

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) Missouri officials agreed Wednesday to
investigate prisoners' claims that they suffered beatings worse than those
shown in a videotape that led to their being removed from a Texas jail.

Corrections Director Dora Schriro said she had not heard those allegations
before they were reported Wednesday by The Kansas City Star.

Inmates told the newspaper that guards at the Brazoria County Detention
Center used cattle prods and other forms of intimidation to win respect
and force prisoners to say, ``I love Texas.''

``What you saw on tape wasn't a fraction of what happened that day,'' said
inmate Lewis Watkins, referring to the videotaped cellblock raid of Sept.
18, 1996. ``I've never seen anything like that in the movies.''

The tape shows guards dragging inmates, forcing some to crawl naked on the
floor, and a German shepherd biting one inmate's leg.

A private company, Capital Correctional Resources Inc., handled overflow
Missouri inmates at the jail near Houston.

Dennis Walker, CCRI's vice president for security, denied that guards
routinely abused prisoners, and suggested that inmates were embellishing
their stories.

After Schriro viewed the videotape two weeks ago, she canceled the
contract with Brazoria County and brought all 415 inmates back to already
overcrowded Missouri prisons. About 400 others are being brought back from
two other Texas counties where CCRI handled Missouri inmates.

Missouri sued the Brazoria County jail Monday, accusing it of breaking its
contract by hiding the abuse of prisoners.

At a hearing Wednesday, state Judge Byron Kinder ordered Brazoria County
officials to hand over within 10 days numerous documents on inmate
grievances and injuries and guards' use of force.

Hank Prejean, the Brazoria County civil district attorney, said he
thought Missouri officials already had received all of the requested
documents. But Schriro said, ``I'm concerned that records have been
withheld from us.'' © Copyright 1997 Globe Newspaper Company