Carlo Allegri/Reuters
According to a new lawsuit filed on behalf of 25 inmates at the Sampson Correctional Institute in North Carolina, two armed officers subjected prisoners to torture and humiliation, including forcing men to rub hot sauce on their genitals. Many of the disturbing allegations stem from inmates who worked on a road crew in 2011 and 2012: one said the officers forced him to rub an “exotic-style” hot sauce on his testicles and lick the same sauce off the white line on the road; another said he was forced to dance naked on the prison bus while being filmed. All prisoners in the suit alleged the same thing: that the corrections officers forced them to participate in a ritual called “taking the sauce,” in which inmates were forced to stick their hands in a plastic bag full of extremely hot sauce and lick the sauce from their hands. When the inmates complained to prison superiors, the suit claims, they were told that the officers did no such thing.