.c The Associated Press

HOUSTON (AP) One of the jail guards seen on a videotape using stun guns,
dogs and kicks to subdue Missouri prisoners was once convicted and sentenced
for beating a state prison inmate, the Houston Chronicle reported today.

The guard, Wilton David Wallace, pleaded guilty to a federal misdemeanor for
beating a prisoner at the Darrington Unit with a riot stick in 1983. Wallace
was sentenced to five months in jail, the newspaper reported today.

Brazoria County chief deputy Charles Wagner identified Wallace when he
watched the September 1996 videotape of Missouri prison inmates being
manhandled at Brazoria County Detention Center in Angleton, said Glenn
Patton, Richwood police chief. Richwood is near Angleton, about 40 miles
south of Houston.

The tape, obtained last week by The Brazosport Facts, shows Wallace pushing
an inmate on the floor with his foot, the Chronicle reported.

The security director for Capital Correctional Resources Inc., the private
company that leased the portion of the jail in which Missouri inmates were
housed, said the sheriff's department made the decision to hire Wallace and
all other personnel employed as guards by CCRI.

``We screen and get applicants. The final approval is up to the sheriff's
office,'' said Dennis Walker, CCRI's security director.

He was unsure why Wallace was hired.

``I asked the same question. I was down there Thursday and Friday and was
unaware of (Wallace's history in the Texas penal system),'' Walker said from
CCRI's corporate headquarters in Groesbeck.

The 32minute videotape was reportedly made by a sheriff's deputy for
training purposes after a jailer said he smelled marijuana in a prisoner
housing area.

The tape surfaced as part of a lawsuit brought by one of the inmates, a
convicted burglar who was returned to Missouri months ago. He has sued for
$100,000 in damages for, among other things, being bitten by the dog.

After viewing the videotape, Missouri Corrections Director Dora Schriro on
Friday ordered all 415 inmates returned and canceled the state's contract
with Brazoria County. The inmates began returning home Monday and the rest
are scheduled to be shipped out Thursday.

Missouri started using Brazoria to house its inmates in September after 40
state inmates rioted in February 1996 at another Texas jail.

Kevin Kisling, an inmate who says he was present when the deputies manhandled
the prisoners and who filed a civil rights lawsuit against Brazoria County,
told The Brazosport Facts there were no loud celebrations on the bus during
the 14hour ride back to Missouri.

``The atmosphere was very quiet,'' Kisling said. ``Everybody was happy.
Everything is looking up for us. It feels good to be out of there after 11
months of hell.''

A few months ago, Oklahoma officials began gradually bringing home the 560
inmates it had at the Limestone County Detention Facility in Groesbeck. They
said they were concerned about the frequency with which its prisoners were
being controlled with pepper spray.

The Limestone County facility is operated by the same company that operates
part of the Brazoria County facility.

Oklahoma still has 250 to 300 prisoners in Limestone County, but officials
have said they plan to phase out the state's presence there once sufficient
space becomes available in a private prison in Oklahoma.

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