Crime and Punishment - Arizona Style

[Ant P]

I hope you are all joking. This man is a well-known maniac and panders to the lowest common denominator - the string them all up brigade. And just remember that the prison is full of pre-trial inmates as well. Doesn't innocent until proven guilty mean anything to anybody?

A few choice extracts from the Amnesty International report on his facility

"One example is the case of Richard Post, a paraplegic who was admitted to the jail in a wheelchair in March 1996 and alleges that he was placed in an isolation cell for an hour without medical attention, despite asking for a catheter so that he could empty his bladder. He tried to seek attention by banging on the cell window and eventually blocked the toilet in the cell, causing water to seep under the door. Detention officers then removed him from his wheelchair and strapped him into a four-point restraint chair, with his arms pulled down towards his ankles and padlocked, and his legs secured in metal shackles. He claims that straps attached to the chair behind his shoulders were tightened round his chest and neck so that his shoulders were strained backwards, and that one guard placed his foot on the chair and deliberately yanked on the strap as hard as he could. It is further alleged that an officer threatened him with a stun gun while he was immobilized in the chair, while other officers looked on. For the first hour that he was in the chair he was denied the gel cushion he had with him, with the result that severe decubitus ulcers developed around his anus. The manner of his restraint is reported to have caused compression of his spine and nerve damage to his spinal cord and neck, resulting in significant loss of upper body mobility."

And one of the guy who died in his care:
"Scott Norberg died of asphyxia in Madison Street Jail on 1 June 1996, after being tackled by 14 detention officers and placed in a restraint chair with a towel over his face. Although Norberg was reportedly uncooperative and engaged in bizarre behaviour, his behaviour and initial "passive resistance" does not appear to have warranted the extreme degree of force used, especially as he was already had his hands handcuffed behind his back and was lying on his stomach on the ground when dragged by officers from his cell. The autopsy report showed that he sustained numerous contusions and lacerations to his head, face, neck, and limbs, as well as burn marks indicating that he was stunned numerous times with a stun gun on different parts of his body. There appears to have been no attempt to have used alternative measures to extreme physical force, nor any examination of his mental condition despite his disturbed behaviour. The decision to place him in the restraint chair rather than, for example, isolating him if his behaviour disrupted other inmates, appears particularly questionable. The organization is concerned that he was placed in the restraint chair while already handcuffed behind his back, with his hands pulled upwards over the back of the chair rather than at the sides as indicated in the manufacturer’s design, a position which would place great stress on the thorax. His face was then pushed downwards into a position likely to have further restricted his breathing without the additional use of a towel."

The full report is here
http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/ENGAMR510511997

So please think before you promote idiots like this. The US is full of people who think nothing of executing mentally ill people convicted on extremely dodgy evidence.

Cheers, Ant

[Janos]

Just on a serious note. In cell TV is one of the greatest inventions for prisons ever. Putting my lilly livered liberal sandals on for a moment - the main punishment of prison is loss of liberty, and shouldn't be about loss of dignity. I used to work for the Prison Service, and if someone had said to me before I joined: "Janos, you're going to have to spend three nights in a cell just to experience it" I would have said: "Fine, no problem, I can cope with that" Having seen the inside of many jails now. No way.

Taking off my lilly-livered sandals and putting on my hard-man economist hat:

It's a lot cheaper and safer if you have in-cell TV. Basically prisoners are less likely to riot if they're not bored shitless, and also it provides a useful control mechanism for Prison Officers "Stop that or I'll take your telly away"

Removing in-cell TVs would only put up the cost of keeping someone in jail, and hence your (and my) taxes

Sorry to be boring.
Janos

PS - I think in the UK one prisoners food costs around £1.40 per day for all three meals.

[markg]

if he's that bad how come he keeps getting elected then ?

[Mark Davies]

Originally Posted by markg

if he's that bad how come he keeps getting elected then ?

After they voted back George Bush you honestly have to ask that question?

[markg]

Originally Posted by Mark Davies

After they voted back George Bush you honestly have to ask that question?

sorry wasn't thinking

on second thoughts they could do worse and have someone like our tony(soft on crime, tough on the victims of crime) blair

[Skeletor]

if he's that bad how come he keeps getting elected then ?

The phrase 'redneck trailer trash' springs to mind.

[Dominic]

After they voted back George Bush you honestly have to ask that question?

But they apologised for re-electing Bush

[DecoWarrior]

sorry but i dont call musical instruments playstations 2 s stereos a form of punishment, and tvs are not allowed to be iused as a tool for the officers at all, you cannot interfere with someones tv as it disrupts there contact with the outside world due to human rights, the whole system is quite frnakly bollocks, and any one who thinks its such a harsh punishment is sadly mistaken, tell me if it is so harsh why is there such a que for people to go back!!!!!! hardly a deterent when you thinkk that the prison population is the highest its ever been is it??

oh and i forgot to mention sky tv and dvds every night !!!!!!!

[Janos]

Originally Posted by DecoWarrior

and tvs are not allowed to be iused as a tool for the officers at all, you cannot interfere with someones tv as it disrupts there contact with the outside world due to human rights, the whole system is quite frnakly bollocks,

I'm afraid that's not true. I think there are still a few wings without electricity. Certainly there were a couple of years ago. Human right has nothing to do with it.

Originally Posted by DecoWarrior

and any one who thinks its such a harsh punishment is sadly mistaken, tell me if it is so harsh why is there such a que for people to go back!!!!!!

I wouldn't say that I used to have exactly the same views as you, but I did think that prison couldn't be that bad. Having seen the inside of many prisons in this country, there is no way on earth that you can say that anyone would like to go back to prison.

Originally Posted by DecoWarrior

hardly a deterent when you thinkk that the prison population is the highest its ever been is it??

The only problem is that most people don't think they'll get caught. And US prisons are worse than ours, but they have a far higher prison population then us.

Laters,
Janos

[Moray]

Why is it always from one extreme to the next? There is very wide middle road between this type of Arizona hell camp and the "country club" incarceration facility.

I do not believe in brutalization, but on the other hand, it seems a bit strange that prisoners moan about the heat: there are plenty of "normal" people, living normal lives, that do not have aircon and have to deal with it! Sorry, but 138 F is normal in Arizona!

Beyond that, this sheriff should himself be imprisoned for a while, and learn the meaning of it.