We got to draw the line somewhere. Early in July, CSP's extraction teams adopted a new procedure for forced cell entry. Prisoners say the pepper spray drifts into adjoining cells, gassing others on the same wing. Neal denies this. But the larger question, says attorney Lane, is why DOC even bothers to gas and gang-tackle men who are already trapped in solitary confinement.
Lane scoffs at the notion that the extractees pose any kind of security risk.
It's DOC's opportunity to brutalize them and have some fun. But Neal says her staff is only trying to protect prisoners from themselves as well as each other. I think we have some obligation to make the environment in prison as safe as possible, and with the opening of CSP, we have certainly affected the safety of inmates in other facilities. Donner says she's concerned that CSP's handling of the situation will only further compound the problems by provoking frustrated inmates into more desperate acts of defiance, prompting more cell extractions and longer stays in segregation. Although Roy Slagle has been subject to only two extractions so far, he sees pepper spray and more gooners in his future.