WASHINGTON – The Justice Department has opened an investigation into allegations of unconstitutional mistreatment of prisoners in Georgia, a major civil rights investigation that could force the state into a federally mandated overhaul.
The department also separately limited whether and how federal police officers can use tactics widely criticized by local police for their role in the deaths of blacks, including neck restraints such as strangleholds and unannounced evidence searches.
The moves announced on Tuesday broadly address issues of law enforcement violence and detention, which have become a rallying point for criminal justice advocates and sparked protests and civil unrest across the country.
The Georgia investigation was triggered by the documentation of violent acts in prisons across the state. During a social media riot last year at Ware State Prison, hundreds of inmates took over the building, started fires, and took guards hostage, causing damage and countless injuries.
At least 26 people died from confirmed or suspected homicides in Georgia prisons in 2020, and 18 homicides and numerous knife stabs and beatings were reported that year.
“Under the Eighth Amendment, those convicted of crimes and sentenced to prison terms should never be subjected to ‘cruel and unusual sentences,'” said Kristen Clarke, civil rights director for the Justice Department, when announcing the investigation during a virtual press conference.
Ms. Clarke said dangerous conditions in the state’s prisons, including “contraband weapons and overt gang activity,” appeared to be exacerbated by many systemic factors. She mentioned staff shortages and high employee turnover, political and training issues and a lack of responsibility for misconduct. However, she said the department had not drawn any conclusions about the allegations she is investigating.
The investigation will focus on prisoner violence against prisoners and will include an open investigation by the department into the sexual abuse of gay, lesbian and transgender prisoners by staff and other prisoners.
Should investigators from the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division and Georgia federal prosecutors discover that prisoners are subject to a pattern or practice of constitutional violations, the agency could subject the state’s Department of Justice to a consent decree, a federally mandated revision made by the courts and external observers.
The Justice Department recently used consent decrees to clean up state prisons in Virginia and New Jersey.
Last year, it sued Alabama over the condition of its prisons, accusing staff of violating the constitution by cultivating a systemic culture of excessive violence against inmates. Alabama has fought to be put under legislative notice.
Georgia officials on Tuesday denied systematically violating the rights of detainees, who are often the forerunners of a consent decree.
“The Georgia Department of Corrections is committed to the safety of all offenders in its care,” Lori Benoit, a department spokeswoman, said in a statement.
She added that the department’s commitment to security includes “protecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) detainees from sexual harassment, sexual abuse and assault”.
The Justice Department also announced a directive prohibiting federal law enforcement officers from using choke holds and so-called carotid arteries unless they are authorized to use lethal force. It also limited the circumstances under which federal law enforcement could conduct unannounced or so-called no-knock entries.
The guidelines apply to federal officials only, so they do not change state and local police regulations.
But they directly address practices that emerged after high-profile episodes that fueled public criticism of the police force and their use of force, including the death of a Staten Island man named Eric Garner in 2014 after a police officer strangled him while he was being strangled Arrest. Cell phone recordings of Mr. Garner gasping “I can’t breathe” catalyzed the national Black Lives Matter movement and officer Daniel Pantaleo was sacked despite the Justice Department’s refusal to bring charges against him.
Last year, Louisville police shot dead Breonna Taylor, a black medical worker, in a botched raid on her home, which helped spark months of large-scale demonstrations against racial injustice and policing. Whether the officials had reported in advance was disputed, which was the practice of raids without knocking under the microscope.
The Justice Department’s policy changes resulted from a law enforcement practice review conducted by Assistant Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco.
“It is important that law enforcement agencies across the Justice Department adhere to a consistent set of standards when it comes to ‘strangleholds’, ‘throat-slashing restrictions’ and ‘no-knock’ entries,” Monaco said in a statement. “This new policy does just that and restricts the circumstances in which these techniques can be used.”
Federal officials usually need to knock, identify themselves and their purpose, and request entry before entering a building. The Justice Department said that they could only deviate from the practice if the officers had reason to believe that a voluntary disclosure could put them at risk.
