you are viewing a single comment's thread.

view the rest of the comments →

[–]theoffdutyninja21 625 ポイント626 ポイント

Before I even read the article I knew they must be talking about Hinds County. I just got out of the jail in Raymond this past Wednesday. It's not just the defense attorneys. The jail is run by a bunch of incompetent inadequate staff who don't do their job and are highly unqualified to do so. I was sentenced to the RID program in Greene County SMCI and upon completion I was ordered to go BACK to Hinds County for Judicial review. I was nervous I'd get stuck. And guess what... Got stuck 2 extra days AFTER being released by my judge. They just don't want to do any paperwork, let alone ANYTHING pertaining to work. 33 men in a holding cell. No exaggeration. No phone call until you're booked in which may take up to 24 hours or more and that's IF they decide to let you use it. While in booking holding cells, despite remaining possibly 2-3 weeks on filthy concrete floors before being moved to a pod in the back (once again, no exaggeration) you won't be allowed to shower. The riot that just took place that's been on the news lately where allegedly 1 inmate died...no, 4 died. But you won't hear or read about that in the news. I foresee internal affairs coming down hard on that place very soon. I understand that jail is supposed to be an unpleasant experience, but Raymond Detention Center is inhumane. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. Sheriff Tyrone Lewis isn't going to tell you what's really going on down there. He along with the majority of MDOC, more specifically the Hinds County Sheriff's Department are a bunch of incompetent crooked goons.

[–]DougDante[S] 408 ポイント409 ポイント

Action Opportunity: Urge the Government to Protect the Civil Rights of inmates at Hinds County Detention Center at Raymond, Mississippi

TO:

lel1@cdc.gov, knw9@cdc.gov, OCRMail@hhs.gov, HHSTips@oig.hhs.gov, contact@gao.gov, Daniel.Levinson@oig.hhs.gov, askdoj@usdoj.gov, askocr@ojp.usdoj.gov, kfairley@nrcdv.org, debra.murphy2@usdoj.gov, ovw.info@usdoj.gov

SUBJECT:

Incompetence and Inhumane Conditions in Hinds County Detention Center at Raymond, Mississippi violate Civil Rights of Mostly Minority Men and Boys

BODY:

CDC Office of Minority Health and Health Equity, Director, Leandris Liburd, Deputy Director (Acting), Kem Williams, HHS-OIG, US-GAO, USDOJ, USDOJ Office of Civil Rights, K.Fairley at NRCDV, GAO, Debra Murphey at DOJ, OVW-DOJ,

On the news that two prisoners who may be mentally handicapped have been awaiting trial for 6 and 7 years respectively while imprisoned at Hinds County Detention Center at Raymond, Mississippi:

http://www.allgov.com/news/controversies/two-prisoners-in-mississippi-county-still-awaiting-trial-after-6-and-7-years-140420?news=852958

Reddit user /u/theoffdutyninja21 reports:

Before I even read the article I knew they must be talking about Hinds County. I just got out of the jail in Raymond this past Wednesday. It's not just the defense attorneys. The jail is run by a bunch of incompetent inadequate staff who don't do their job and are highly unqualified to do so. I was sentenced to the RID program in Greene County SMCI and upon completion I was ordered to go BACK to Hinds County for Judicial review. I was nervous I'd get stuck. And guess what... Got stuck 2 extra days AFTER being released by my judge. They just don't want to do any paperwork, let alone ANYTHING pertaining to work. 33 men in a holding cell. No exaggeration. No phone call until you're booked in which may take up to 24 hours or more and that's IF they decide to let you use it. While in booking holding cells, despite remaining possibly 2-3 weeks on filthy concrete floors before being moved to a pod in the back (once again, no exaggeration) you won't be allowed to shower. The riot that just took place that's been on the news lately where allegedly 1 inmate died...no, 4 died. But you won't hear or read about that in the news. I foresee internal affairs coming down hard on that place very soon. I understand that jail is supposed to be an unpleasant experience, but Raymond Detention Center is inhumane. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. Sheriff Tyrone Lewis isn't going to tell you what's really going on down there. He along with the majority of MDOC, more specifically the Hinds County Sheriff's Department are a bunch of incompetent crooked goons.

There are obvious and systematic potential violations of the prisoner's rights to habeas corpus and due process here.

In addition, because these inhumane conditions apply to men and boys and apparently not women and girls, and because they likely have a disproportionate impact based on race, they may be violating the rights of prisoners under several important US civil rights laws and under the Fourteenth Amendment.

Because prisoners are not booked while imprisoned, they are effectively held as non-persons, so all of their civil rights are probably ignored. These include the right to equal access to health care, the same access provided women and girl prisoners, under the nondiscrimination provisions for all government funded health services in the Affordable Care Act, and the right to equal access to screening for and services to victims of domestic violence, the same access as women and girl prisoners, under the 2013 VAWA reauthorization.

I urge you to also investigate these issues. Until action is taken to faithfully protect the civil rights of all Americans, those whose rights are violated must hope for justice, and persevere.

[–]Dat_Gentleman 52 ポイント53 ポイント

This is a really good idea. It's so great to see someone providing a solution that may actually get something accomplished, as well as going the extra mile to make it easy enough to get others to do it. Well done.

[–]_quietmind_ 12 ポイント13 ポイント

Done

[–]AlphaWookie 16 ポイント17 ポイント

done

[–]foreelyo 4 ポイント5 ポイント

Will do. Tagging for later find.

[–]o99o99 4 ポイント5 ポイント

Done! Thanks for setting this up - it's great to see someone trying to make a difference.

Does the fact that I'm not a US citizen matter? Will they ignore me because of that, or doesn't it matter?

[–]kuilin 2 ポイント3 ポイント

They really can't technically tell because emails, but if you want to be sure use a VPN or something.

[–]kngnk 8 ポイント9 ポイント

Why to the cdc?

[–]jpaul3211 9 ポイント10 ポイント

He relates this for potential health care abuses while in custody, such as being denied medication, being denied hospitalization, or any other kind of medical care.

[–]kngnk 4 ポイント5 ポイント

I see. That still falls more under the DOJ rule

[–]jpaul3211 3 ポイント4 ポイント

Well... If there's poor health care in there then it can be thought to have problems with disease too. Who knows how bad the sanitation is in there if nobody wants to do their job at that facility?

[–]Tungsram 0 ポイント1 ポイント

Because sometimes you need to throw as much shit towards the wall just to see what sticks. You'd be surprised what can come form something as innocuous as the CDC in a case like this. All it takes is one person at the CDC who has a little time and a little interest, finding out that there was the possibility of a minor dysentery outbreak a year ago, to open a can of worms and set the dominoes in motion.

[–]kragshot 2 ポイント3 ポイント

Done that shit. Yo.

[–]taonzen80 2 ポイント3 ポイント

Done

[–]HoffAmazing 2 ポイント3 ポイント

Sent

[–]CRAZYPOULTRY 3 ポイント4 ポイント

Sent

[–]cardinal_rules 2 ポイント3 ポイント

Done

[–]space_dolphins 2 ポイント3 ポイント

tag

[–]Darkenmal 0 ポイント1 ポイント

Something that Reddit can actually do for a good cause. Get to it guys!

[–]kylelalala 0 ポイント1 ポイント

Done

[–]cutmeupandown 0 ポイント1 ポイント

done. Thank you

[–]SouthwestMuckraker 0 ポイント1 ポイント

I just wrote a letter :D

Thanks for writing this all out, I appreciate it.

[–]moosemoomintoog 0 ポイント1 ポイント

You should cc: all of the major news outlets.

[–]cb35e 0 ポイント1 ポイント

Done.

[–]tends2forgetstuff -1 ポイント0 ポイント

Not all women and girls are being treated well - look up Tutwiler in Alabama.

[–]DocGonzo420 1 ポイント2 ポイント

At first I thought you were talking about the all girls dormitory at the University of Alabama that goes by the same name... While those conditions are, well, less than favorable, here is the Tutwiler Prison for Women.

[–]tends2forgetstuff 0 ポイント1 ポイント

Sorry that is what I meant, I am not an Alabama native and do not think of University of Alabama. In fact, I of all horrors still follow my alma mater KU. It's tough down here in these parts when the locals find out.

[–]BlakDrgn 1 ポイント2 ポイント

sent.

[–]KING_TYRANT_LIZARD 28 ポイント29 ポイント

I've had friends who have spent time there. My one friend got locked up on a Tuesday, and didn't get to see a judge until the next Tuesday. He never showed up to school or band practice, we assumed he was dead. He described it as just that.

[–]the_real_xuth 13 ポイント14 ポイント

Jail should not necessarily be an unpleasant experience. A very large percentage of the people in jails have not been convicted of anything and many of those people are completely innocent.

[–]Lemontrees2 24 ポイント25 ポイント

What you just described sounds like Harris County jail in Houston, TX. The jail cops do not give 2 fucks about anyone there, and they are incredibly lazy. We watched one 14 year old girl back in 2005 get beaten by four jail guards all because she was crying and carrying on too loudly. They pulled her out of the holding cell and we could hear her screams and the actual "thuds" of her body being hit. By the time they brought her back in her clothes were torn and she was a bloody mess. There had to have been at least 25 women all huddled in a holding cell for up to 48 hours. There was partial vomit on an open toilet where the drinking fountain was on the toilet itself. No privacy open there so everyone can watch you piss. One lady had her period and no pads and bled all over the concrete bench and floor. There was no place to sit or lay and the cell was filthy to very unhealthy standards. When they brought food the jailers wouldn't even put one foot in the holding cell to give folks their food, instead they threw sandwiches at people, some falling onto the filthy floor for those who were not quick enough to catch the sandwich. I always wondered how that jail got away with these very inhumane conditions.

[–]Beehead 3 ポイント4 ポイント

If even a fraction of this is true for God's sake talk to your local media. That's just horrible.

The family of the 14 year old girl who was beaten should sue. Something tells me they were getting off on doing that. A 14 year old female is a threat to a group of guards? Sure.

[–]Holbac 31 ポイント32 ポイント

I understand that jail is supposed to be an unpleasant experience

I complained about the condition the the King County Jail in Seattle, WA. I was booked there and it was only a miracle I remembered the right phone number to call (think: how many phone numbers do you actually know now that we use contact lists for everything?) Otherwise I would have been stuck for a week awaiting arraignment.

Also a miracle I got the message through in under a minute. The calls were collect, with a free minute, but to buy collect calls you had to buy time which was a complicate process I didn't understand that would take at least a day if I were even able to do it at all.

Anyway someone told me, when I also added the caveat that 'yea I know jail should be bad, but...' that being booked in jail should not be unpleasant. You have not been convicted of anything. You are awaiting trial. You should be held in detention and be made aware of why you are in detention, for how long, and what your options are for trial (i.e. phone to call a lawyer immediately).

[–]mickeysbeer 5 ポイント6 ポイント

WOW! That's pretty complicated just for a phone call. Up here if you don't have a bell landline, like a lot of people don't, collect calls don't go through. Also, if you're set free on an ankle bracelet and the house you're staying doesn't have a bell landline you're also fucked until you get one.

[–]Holbac 8 ポイント9 ポイント

Yes I forgot to add, cell phone calls didn't work. Also if it went to voicemail, that didn't work. For some reason my brother's cell phone number, which I only remembered because I borrowed it when he traveled for a few months, worked.. and he happened to answer it at 6am on a Sunday.

I only knew one land line number and nobody answered. My arraignment was scheduled for 3 days later. When I got hold of a lawyer he told me it was unusual that I was even booked into jail at all, and that I probably was because I pissed off the officers by remaining silent the entire time in custody (like, awkwardly silent.. I just did not speak).

[–]7oby 0 ポイント1 ポイント

I've been thinking about starting some service you could pay for (unfortunately most people probably wouldn't think they'd ever need it and wouldn't pay, even if it was a one time fee like buying 'minutes') where we provide a landline number you can easily remember, you set up a list of people to notify and we take care of it for you, and you just call us, give some identifying number (maybe we use YOUR phone number? and you just type it in and we call to verify that you're not answering), and then we call people you had previously specified and relay your message. We can also e-mail.

The problem is, we have to pay people to make these phone calls/e-mails and run the infrastructure, so the issue of keeping it running is a big problem. But if it's provable that calling cell phones from prison does not work, then it could be seen as a cheaper alternative to keeping a landline...

Plus, you could put as many people as you want, maybe after a few there's a fee per line but still. Your mom, your lawyer, your employer (if you want), your girlfriend, your dad, your grandma, whoever.

[–]Cheese_Grits 4 ポイント5 ポイント

As fate would have it, I have been to both jails. Hinds county makes King county look like Disneyland. I'm not stretching the truth. Comparing them is like night and day.

[–]DrSlightlyLessDoom 9 ポイント10 ポイント

This is the state of our society. The prisons and jails are just the tools to subvert, constrain and control an entire class of people within a society. The inhumane treatment is a byproduct of this. To quote Foucault:

"It seems to me that whether the prisoners get an extra chocolate bar on Christmas or are let out to make their Easter Duty is not the real political issue. What we have to denounce is not so much the "human" side of life in prison but rather their real social function-that is, to serve as the instrument that creates a criminal milieu that the ruling classes can control."

Attack the systemic problems at hand.

[–]Astilaroth 0 ポイント1 ポイント

Ooh! Have you read 'birth of a prison' by Foucault? You'll love it.

[–]3930K_and_2_ea_7970 3 ポイント4 ポイント

Why were you in detention?

[–]7V3N 2 ポイント3 ポイント

I had a similar experience in VA. I had to go to jail for a couple nights for reckless driving, but it ended up being 4 and I waited the 2 nights without ever really being told what I was waiting for. Literally for the whole day where I expected to be released I was told "Yeah, it should be any minute now." I waited from midnight to 4 (which I only knew because I asked a patrolling guard--we didn't have clocks) without anybody ever telling me why I was still waiting, because I thought "Okay, this is it. I'm getting out soon." The next day, I asked and was told they were processing paperwork. The next morning I was then released as if nothing went wrong. I was told some paperwork went missing, but I was never apologized to. I had to wait 2 days to be told that I was being held 2 extra days for no just reason.

Edit: It was not as bad as I expected. The worst parts were boredom and hygiene, since I had to sleep on the floor with cockroaches and the shower barely worked at all (which nobody used).

[–]xX_CorpusDei_Xx 6 ポイント7 ポイント

Its the same story in Lee County. Tupelo cops regularly beat citizens and nothing is ever done about it. The detention center is even worse. Ive heard stories of severe beatings and sexual assault. I personally spent 36 hrs in a 5' x 8' holding cell with 25 other people. They brought this elderly black man in in the middle of the night. He was drunk and then pooped his pants. When the guards found out he crapped his pants they came in the cell, smacked him around a bit and then left him bruised and soiled for several hours. They later took him out and hosed him down. Its was sickening.

[–]hulivar 4 ポイント5 ポイント

hm...I thought this is how prison/jail was?

I live in Arizona though and we have the infamous sheriff Joe...so maybe these are just the worst of the worst? When I went to jail for something totally stupid/victimless crime, just like this guy I had to wait in a cell with 30 people for about 24 hours...during that time they move you from cell to cell a few times...

Around you there are tons of empty cells so god knows why they do this. Sheriff Joe actually takes pride in treating us like shit because we are filthy criminals. He takes pride in the fact that it costs more to feed the jail/police dogs than it does to feed the prisoners.

So ya, what are jails supposed to be like?

I thought they pulled this shit all the time just because they can and as a prisoner you can't do jack shit about it and for the most part, you are just glad to be the fuck out of there...

What's funny is they let you bring in prescriptions and they don't even check them.

They focus so much energy on treating us like shit, but they put no work into things like monitoring medications.

If you ever want a potential fat payday, bring in some meds that aren't prescribed to you and then pretend to O.D. or some shit, assuming they let you take them without calling your doctor or whatever

[–]AlaricTheBald 9 ポイント10 ポイント

Over here in Europe prisons are used for rehabilitation more than punishment, so if anything like this emerged here you can bet there'd be a witch-hunt until everyone involved had been tried. I'm told Scandinavia is even better about their prisons, and also has some of the lowest reoffending rates in the world. Seems a pretty clear cause and effect there.

[–]cweaver 0 ポイント1 ポイント

Just to clarify - they're not even talking about prisons here (the place you go once you've been convicted of a crime and sentenced). They're talking about 'jail' - which is just the place you go after you've been arrested and you're waiting for a trial.

[–]slapdashbr 8 ポイント9 ポイント

Sheriff Joe as you call him is a criminal, an embarrassment to Arizona and the United States, and if I had the opportunity I'd shoot him on sight.

inb4 FBI van

[–]joyous_genitals 1 ポイント2 ポイント

inb4 FBI van

Its Sheriff Joe. Federal government is probably on your side for once.

[–]slapdashbr 1 ポイント2 ポイント

I can only hope.

Philosophically, I understand that violence is almost never a good solution. But damn he is one of the few people in the world who makes me so angry I just want to go hulk-mode and smash his face in.

[–]FredFnord 1 ポイント2 ポイント

What boggles my mind is how much the locals love him. I know that there are many people in the US who are simply blind to the suffering of anyone who doesn't look exactly like them... but I wouldn't have said that it was enough to make up a majority in any place that heavily populated.

[–]drlala 2 ポイント3 ポイント

Shooting would not be painful enough.

[–]drlala 3 ポイント4 ポイント

I have no idea why he is re-elected over and over again. If you haven't read any of Shaun Attwood's book I highly recommend it, he has an amazing story.

[–]benwin88 6 ポイント7 ポイント

My 80+ year old grandmother was Miss Hinds County. I'll let her know about the problem and see if she can do anything about it.

[–]biggreencat 2 ポイント3 ポイント

if you're in Hinds, bring your gun and "I don't stop for cops" attitude, huh?

[–]Rubieroo 0 ポイント1 ポイント

Granted, one doesn't want jail to be pleasant - but if a person is sentenced to incarceration (not death), and instead is actually killed by prison conditions...that's a terrible injustice.

[–]doughboy011 -1 ポイント0 ポイント

Have you tried talking to a lawyer?

[–]GaijinSama 2 ポイント3 ポイント

Most likely he's spoken to a few along the way.