'You know what waterboarding is?': New York prison reportedly brutalized inmates to get info about 2 escaped murderers
"Where are they going? What did you hear? How much are they paying you to keep your mouth shut? You know what waterboarding is?" one guard reportedly asked inmate Patrick Alexander, while holding him up against a wall by his throat.
The interrogations reportedly began hours after Richard Matt, 49, and David Sweat, 35, escaped from their honor block cells on June 6, and lasted for days. More than 60 inmates have filed complaints with the prisoners' rights organization Prisoners' Legal Services, which are also being looked into by the Department of Corrections.
Mr. Alexander, whose interrogations were particularly harsh, reportedly shared a cell with Richard Matt.
"The officer jumps up and grabs me by my throat, lifts me out of the chair, slams my head into the pipe along the wall," he told the Times. "Then he starts punching me in the face. The other two get up and start hitting me also in the ribs and stomach."
It was then when the officers threatened to waterboard him.
"You know what waterboarding is?" the prisoner said he was asked.
The alleged abused came as the prison and authorities frantically search for the convicted murders.
"Must have kept you awake with all that cutting, huh?" New York governor Andrew Cuomo asked an inmate after inspecting the holes made byt he escapees.
Another inmate, Victor Aponte, recalls similar abuse, writing in his complaint that officers tied a plastic bag around his neck and tightened it until he lost consciousness.