One thing everyone has to keep firmly in mind is there are prisoners (and probably guards as well) in the county jail you wouldn’t have over as guests for Thanksgiving dinner. The facility most likely has the largest number of individuals with a mental illness congregated together in one building than any place else in the entire county. And some of them are really batshit crazy.
Add to that mix a goodly number of prisoners that are simply pissed off they are behind bars and will put all kinds of shit in the game just so they can make the guards’ lives just as miserable as theirs. So it’s no wonder that, when leadership fails, the place becomes a snake pit.
One way to perhaps solve the problem is, once a new warden and administrators are in place, to appoint a three-member board of citizen monitors, comprising people such as a retired judge, someone with a law enforcement background, and a formerly incarcerated person. They should be allowed to make weekly, unannounced visits to the jail to observe how it is being run. They should be paid for the time they spend at the jail and have real power to force changes where necessary.
The simple fact that everyone in the jail knows these board members can show up at any time, and again, have real power, will keep everyone on their toes. Will some of the prisoners try to blow smoke up their asses? Of course, some people behind bars are prone to make up shit, just for the hell of it. That’s why the monitors have to be individuals with experience in this arena.
Now the county administration might not be agreeable to such an idea, and if that’s the case, a federal lawsuit should be filed, which would probably result in a federal judge ordering some type of monitoring.
Additionally, the pay scale for guards should be bumped up to attract better quality guards. While we Americans just love locking people up, we don’t want to pay anyone a decent salary to go in and watch over prisoners. Is it a job that you would want?
Also, the food should be upgraded. I’m not talking about feeding prisoners steak for dinner, but some of the food the jail now serves on occasion you wouldn’t feed to your dog.
Of course, the county administration will at first cry poverty, but the fact is, they can find money for whatever they deem important, it’s only a matter of political will. But the truth is this administration doesn’t see treating people behind bars humanely as a priority. Indeed, they see them as barely being human.
It’s a sign and consequence of the age we now live in.
From CoolCleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author at http://NeighborhoodSolutionsInc.