Dispatch from Torture Nation

Correctional officers at an Alabama jail used giant snakes as a “means of torture, harassment, control and intimidation against the inmates,” according to a federal lawsuit filed Monday.

Plaintiff Trawick Redding Jr. says he was heading to the Dale County Jail kitchen when he saw two jail staffers, Zeneth Glenn and Ryan Mittelbach, bring a 6- or 7-foot-long yellow Burmese python into the jail and told them he was afraid of snakes. When he went back to his bunk and fell asleep, Glenn allegedly snuck in with the snake and held it within an inch of his face. Redding woke up, screamed, and hit his head. Afterward, he was reportedly treated for depression and post-traumatic stress and remained in the jail for a year.

Dale County Sheriff Wally Olson told WFSA that Glenn and Mittelbach were fired less than half an hour after he learned about the snake incident. But Redding says he still gets nightmares and experiences intense anxiety after his stint in jail. He is seeking $3 million in damages against the two officers, the sheriff, the jailer, and Dale County.

The complaint also alleges that the jail ignored his mental distress after being confronted with a snake, and refused to give him the proper psychiatric care. Redding says his heart issues and diabetes became worse since leaving the jail.

Jail and prison guards frequently take advantage of the power they hold over inmates, and Alabama jails are among the most notorious in the nation. Last month, correctional offers at Pickens County Jail were indicted for forcing female inmates to dance naked for them in exchange for doughnuts. Madison County Jail, meanwhile, is facing three federal lawsuits over the deaths of inmates from treatable conditions: a broken bone, gangrene, and constipation. And federal investigators recently turned their sights to Jefferson County Jail in Birmingham, where teenage inmates say they are being kept in solitary confinement for long stretches of time.