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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThere's an alarming number of deaths in US jails
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/27/deaths-in-jails-885-inmatesKyam Livingston begged for help. After seven hours of lying on the floor of a jail cell, the 38-year-old mother of two died, her calls unheeded by the correction officers providing security for the approximately 15 female inmates at Brooklyn "central booking" jail this past summer, according to witnesses and court documents.
Witnesses told the family that she had died in the cell among fetid conditions before she was taken to Brooklyn Hospital Health Center on 21 July 2013 where Livingston was pronounced dead at 6:58am, according to police reports. A witness, registered nurse Aleah Holland, told The Daily News, that police at Central Booking ignored her complaints of stomach pains and diarrhea. She said that when she and other inmates banged on the bars calling for help, officers told them Livingston was an alcoholic.
No one knows what happened, and no one wants to say. The NYPD told the family that she died of a seizure, but her family says she never suffered from seizures. This October the family sued the city, the NYPD, and the Department of Corrections in an effort to force systemic change and "responsibility" for her death.
Livingston was one of the few hundred jail deaths that happen across the country. In 2011, (the latest available numbers) 885 inmates died (pdf) in the custody of local jails, the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics reported. Notice I said jails. These are different from prisons. Prisons are for people who have been convicted of a crime and sentenced. There are roughly 3,000 jails nationwide and each facility is set up to process people that have been arrested before they are arraigned or go to trial. Some will serve a misdemeanor sentence (of under a year). The majority will be let go because the charges against them won't stick as they move through the legal system. Others will remain in jails while waiting to go to trial too poor to make bail yet to be convicted of anything. Regardless, they will be treated as criminals.
Bonobo
(29,257 posts)Correct me if I'm wrong but I bet I am not. So is this too a gender issue? Should it be made into one?
Live and Learn
(12,769 posts)that undoubtedly miss them and are as outraged as their fathers, bothers and male friends are at their deaths. I don't see how anyone can make this a gender specific issue and I fail to see why anyone would want to.
The fact is, people placed in jails and prisons (even those that are still deemed innocent) are seen as lesser beings and their ill treatment is basically ignored (when it is not expressly condoned and applauded).
It is a serious problem and not one that should made light of.
countryjake
(8,554 posts)Jeeze.
Solly Mack
(90,773 posts)Savannahmann
(3,891 posts)The police would not arrest them if they weren't guilty. The Prosecutors, trained and experienced to examine crime, would certainly charge them, I mean, the Police arrested them so they must be guilty. So I'm not sure that we should get wound up here. I mean, are we as a society supposed to care if the police let a obviously guilty man, or an equally obviously guilty woman, die in jail or prison? Saved the taxpayers some money and saved some poor haggard folks the need to do their civic duty as members of the jury and sit and listen to the guilty try and tap dance their way out of it.
Saved everyone all the way around right gang?
bucolic_frolic
(43,182 posts)In an age where they can find anyone anywhere anytime
one has to wonder if the obsolescence of bail is on the horizon
It's a system that has major legacy components and hasn't
changed much
libodem
(19,288 posts)Is unique to America. Another capitalist invention to get a portion of the pound of flesh. Something should be done to reform this abusive system of punishing the poor.
Vattel
(9,289 posts)I can't remain silent about this shit anymore. Fuck the criminal "justice" system. How the fuck do we let democratic party candidates get away without addressing this issue? Just fucking once I want to vote for a candidate that gives a shit about this stuff.
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)mountain grammy
(26,624 posts)That may be too strong a word, but these are thrown away and forgotten human beings. We must protest the American gulag before we end up there.
If you're not alarmed and outraged at the so called justice system and the mass imprisonment of Americans, you're brain dead.
libodem
(19,288 posts)How you doin'? I'm with you on this one. If that poor lady was an alcoholic she may have gone in to delerium tremons the DT's.
Alcohol suppresses the nervous system if you drink heavily over a period of time. Abrupt withdrawal leads to uncontrolled shaking and tremors.
It can get so bad a seizure takes place. It is life threatening. That's why they have medical detox. You keep close track of blood pressure and give some form of the 'pam' drugs in the Valium family. And taper them off. The majority of the cases take about 3 days for the worst of it.
Goddess, that is sad that someone had to die for lack of 3 days of treatment. Fuck that!
mountain grammy
(26,624 posts)and I'm with you on that too.
libodem
(19,288 posts)To take the cases that don't belong in jail. Inhumane is right!
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)nomorenomore08
(13,324 posts)bluedigger
(17,086 posts)Once is unfortunate, and twice a coincidence, but THREE? Maybe if our Sheriff was spending less time engaged in 2A political posturing and more time doing his job this wouldn't be a problem, but I'm starting to think he is the problem, and on the wrong side of the bars.
http://www.cortezjournal.com/article/20131227/NEWS01/131229889/Another-inmate-at-county-jail-reported-dead-
davidn3600
(6,342 posts)They will say, "Don't commit the crime and you wont have to worry about it."
As a people, we have become very inhumane when it comes to prisons. The 8th amendment is something we tend to ignore.
L0oniX
(31,493 posts)Should someone serving time for a misdemeanour be at risk of death? Of course not! I hope those who are negligent have to pay huge for this!
Enthusiast
(50,983 posts)nomorenomore08
(13,324 posts)I literally would not save one of these assholes from drowning.
nilesobek
(1,423 posts)Chris Christie or some other "law and order," candidate whose policies are partly responsible for creating the mess. More punishment will be the result if we let them win. In '72 Nixon won by a huge landslide trumpeting the "silent majority," and "law and order."
nomorenomore08
(13,324 posts)over-the-top post about Phil Robertson - mainly because it made me look like a homicidal psycho and also, perhaps insensitively, invoked the memory of Matthew Shepard - but when it comes to such rank bigotry and outright sociopathy, I really have no problem with "eye for an eye" sort of thinking.
nilesobek
(1,423 posts)I read my paragraph before I hit "reply." I'm glad I did because it really sounded awful. Sometimes its good to listen to the sounds of our voices.
I work graveyard as a convenience store clerk and we sell tons of Duck Dynasty swag, videos, cigarette lighters, cups, hats and other stuff. Frequently I hear children exclaim, "Dad this has Duck Dynasty on it, lets buy it!" A good number of these guys have beards just like the Duck Dynasty dudes and are really emulating that look with the camo and hunter outfits. This is a big hunting area.
Even though Duck Dynasty is incredibly popular in this area, the people are hesitating to buy the stuff anymore. We have not sold a single Duck Dynasty Christmas DVD since Phil Robertson has made his remarks. Don't give up on mankind just yet, I think the people see through those guys as the bigots they are, even if they love the hunting and the beards.
Dawson Leery
(19,348 posts)alcibiades_mystery
(36,437 posts)It really is just a holding pen - at least it is in Queens Central Booking, where I spent the better part of a weekend in the late 80's. You're in these medium sized rooms with a bunch of other people, all just arrested and waiting to see a judge for the first time. In this sense, it's not even like jail, which is pre-trial for many, but longer-term. In Central Booking, you might have two or three DUIs, a turnstile jumper, a rapist, and a graffiti writer in the pen with you. Everyone but the rapist is probably going to be out RoR in less than 48 hours. So it's not really even like jail in that sense. We always used to say "Don't get arrested on a Friday night." That would be bad, since then you'd have an off-chance of getting sent to Rikers for the weekend if Central Booking was overcrowded, and that, in the 80's, you did NOT want.