Jail Guard Beats Inmate to Death, Fibs, and Nothing Else Happens

Angel Ramirez, 50, was an inmate in New York’s
Rikers Island jail because he failed to make bail on two
misdemeanor charges. He was delirious, experiencing withdrawal from
heroin and alcohol. He tried to punch a guard. He missed.

All that was previously known was that a guard retaliated,
punching Ramirez once in the head. The Associated Press just found
out
what happened next:

Then [Ramirez] was dragged away, beyond the view of security
cameras, and three other guards were called in. Inmates later told
investigators they heard screaming and the sickening crack of
nightsticks against bone.

One inmate claims he saw the guards in the shower beating a
handcuffed Ramirez, who had been hallucinating due to his
withdrawal.

Ramirez … died of numerous blunt-impact injuries that included a
ruptured spleen, shattered ribs and a stomach filled with blood.
When a jail investigator interviewed the guards – eight months
later – they insisted Ramirez was struck only once and only in
self-defense.

The trouncing took place more than three years ago, but the
details are just emerging now. These Rikers officers have never
faced punishment for the brutal killing of Ramirez, and they likely
never will:

The guard who struck him was brought up on disciplinary charges,
but no decision on a punishment has been reached. An administrative
judge recommended two others involved be suspended without pay for
20 days, but the correction commissioner has yet to decide their
fate.

New York magazine
points out that there’s a pattern of corrections officers
behaving like judge, jury, and executioner. In five years, there
have been three such fatal incidents in the city’s jails. The other
two ended with a total of nearly $3 million in wrongful death
settlements. 

Reason‘s Robby Soave this week
highlighted another incident at Rikers in which a 19-year-old
suffered for months from a torn artery. Authorities neglected his
injuries until he died. 

For whatever crimes these individuals committed, they deserve
appropriate punishments, but they do not deserve the fatal torture
that their jailers inflict upon them.