The Public Eye: Guards accused of cruelty, racism

By Charles Piller, Sacbee

First of two parts

Jason Brannigan's eyes widened as he relived the day he says prison guards pepper-sprayed his face at point-blank range, then pulled him through the cellblock naked, his hands and feet shackled.

"I can't breathe! I can't breathe!" Brannigan recalled gasping in pain and humiliation during the March 2007 incident.

"They're walking me on the chain and it felt just like … slaves again," said the African American inmate, interviewed at the Sacramento County jail. "Like I just stepped off an auction block."

Brannigan, 33, said the incident occurred in the behavior modification unit at High Desert State Prison in Susanville, where he was serving time for armed assault. He is one of more than 1,500 inmates who have passed through such units in six California prisons...

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