The entire incident last year at the Anchorage Correctional Complex in Alaska lasted just a few minutes, according to interviews with three of the detainees and sworn statements that a dozen of them provided to the ACLU of Alaska.
When some detainees refused to return to their cells, insisting on their rights to access their belongings, guards rapidly escalated the conflict, rather than de-escalating or consulting with supervisors, as ICE rules require, said Cindy Woods, an attorney with the ACLU of Alaska who visited the facility after the incident and spoke to many of the people involved.
As the chemical haze still hung in the air, all of the detainees were confined to locked cells for at least two days, unable to change their soiled clothes or take a shower, several of the men said in statements and interviews.