Weaponized compliance: Tear gas in women’s prisons

Weaponized compliance: Tear gas in women’s prisons

The first time they gassed us, I was reading in my cell. It was 2009, and I had just arrived in prison.  There was no warning, no incident—just the sudden hiss of oleoresin capsicum, better known as pepper spray, deployed because the guards said someone “refused to comply.” This refusal was defined as not returning to their assigned cell fast enough during count time, when security staff documents our presence at designated times.  Within second…