Sunday, February 19, 2006

Calming jail riots, the old school way

Los Angeles Officials Defend Effort to Calm Jails - New York Times: "Sheriff's officials are defending recent tactics used in hopes of quelling two weeks of violence in the Los Angeles County jail system, including taking mattresses away from inmates and ordering them to strip.

More than 100 inmates at Pitchess Detention Center spent much of Feb. 9 naked, without their mattresses and with only blankets to cover themselves. The punishment was an effort to calm inmates who had repeatedly attacked each other, even after privileges like access to mail, television and phones were taken away, said Sammy Jones, chief of the custody division.
...
The violence began Feb. 4 with a riot at a jail in northern Los Angeles County that left a black inmate dead. Another black inmate collapsed and died last Sunday after a small fight at a downtown jail.
...
Mr. Jones said the harsh treatment of inmates had worked. In the three dorms where the measures had been taken, there was no new violence. Inmates were given clothing the next day.

Mark Rosenbaum, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, said the revelations about safety concerns in the dorms, as well as the stripping of inmates as punishment, pointed to a 'huge systemic problem' in the jail system, which holds about 19,000 inmates."

Looks like it worked. We had the Mexican Gangs going after the mostly Black Gangs from LA for about 4 days, so the inmates were segregated. In addition, they most violent had they're clothes and mattress privliages taken away.

Yeah, thats really rough alright. Compared to having a limb removed, I think it's soft.

2 comments:

Matthew Celestine said...

Not a bad idea.

I thought there were some constitutional restrictions to the power to strip inmates?

God Bless

Matthew

RobertDWood said...

I don't think there are constitutional rights for prisoners, aside from due process in a court of law.

We don't torture them or anything. Acctually, I think we have way to many ammenities as it is. Cable TV, 3 meals a day, bottled water doesn't sound as bad as it should. It's prison, for crying out loud.

Besides, it's also expensive.