Gunning in the mega jail

[Gob]

Imagine a jail where dangerous inmates awaiting trial live 24 to a room and fight each other under a violent gladiatorial code.



This is life inside Miami's mega-jail, writes Louis Theroux.

For a bespectacled, peace-loving Englishman, there can be few places less congenial than a berth on the sixth floor of Miami main jail.

The place has to be seen to be believed. Up to 24 inmates are crowded into a single cell, living behind metal bars on steel bunks, sharing a single shower and two toilets.

Little of the bright Miami sun filters through the grilles on the windows. Visits to the yard happen twice a week for an hour. The rest of the time, inmates are holed up round the clock, eating, sleeping, and going slightly crazy.

But what is most shocking is the behaviour of the inmates themselves. For reasons that remain to some extent opaque - perhaps because of the bleak conditions they live in or because of insufficient supervision by officers, maybe because they lack other outlets for their energies, or because of their involvement with gangs on the outside, or maybe from a warped jailhouse tradition - the incarcerated here have created a brutal gladiatorial code of fighting.

They fight for respect, for food and snacks, or simply to pass the time.


BBC Louis Theroux documentary

[The Hen]

I can't see the point in this kind of incarceration.

[loCAtek]

Well duh, Louis would go to a minimum security prison, in RL. However; it's well known he engages in Gonzo style journalism AKA sensationalism;

Gonzo journalism is a style of journalism that is written without claims of objectivity, often including the reporter as part of the story via a first-person narrative. The word Gonzo was first used in 1970 to describe an article by Hunter S. Thompson, who later popularized the style. The term has since been applied to other subjective artistic endeavors.

[Sean]

So nothing to do with sensationalism then?

BTW, have you just discovered the word 'sensationalism' Lo? You seem to be using it quite a lot lately...

[The Hen]

Subjective rather than sensationalist then.

It still sounds like a place that would breach any reasonable persons view of what imprisonment should be.

[loCAtek]

What's odd is I can't find this jail named anywhere in his reports? It's only identified as 'the Miami Jail' or 'Miami Mega-Jail'. That would make it a short-term incarceration institution, and not a prison.

All of the sensational hoopla is focused on;

Most of these inmates reside at one of the two biggest facilities in the Miami jail system, large modern buildings where the cells are well-supervised and safe.

But the hardened few hundred who are either charged with particularly serious offences or have a track record of misbehaving behind bars get sent to the fifth and sixth floors of the main jail - a place with its own myth and lore

He's deliberately making a few hundred suspects of one facility, sound like the full extent of the Miami penal system. Shame.

[The Hen]

it's the Miami County Jail.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Ther ... _Mega_Jail

As for what he did in the documentary, did you watch it?

Leaving aside Lo's deep seated need to discredit Louis Theroux's work, what fascinates me about this jail is the keeping conditions (as described in the opening post).

Do you not allow your prisoners any human rights?

[loCAtek]

Nope, I've just read the posted links; such as the above link, which again is focused on just part of a 'jail'; not a 'prison' and not the prison system in it's entirety.

Did Louis in his documentary mention the new jail being built to replace the old one?

January 3, 2010
New Miami County jail opening this month

By Ken de la Bastide

PERU — Shortly after taking office as the Miami County sheriff in 2003, Ken Roland started the process of replacing the existing Miami County jail in downtown Peru.

Now, the state-of-the-art, $17 million facility is set to open this month, and it has been designed to handle the county’s correctional needs for the next several decades.

The new facility, located on the Miami County Fairgrounds, is replacing the jail constructed in 1983. The Miami County Commissioners will determine the future use of the existing facility.

Capacity for the new jail will be 220 inmates and will include a 16-bed work-release center. The new facility is actually two buildings, one for the administrative offices for the sheriff’s department and the other for the jail.

Roland said the jail will open sometime this month but the exact date is not being made public for security reasons. A public open house will take place from noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.

“I’m proud I was a part of this,” Roland said during a recent tour of the new facility. “I wish people could see the old jail to know how bad it is.”

Roland said six months after taking office a jail committee was formed that met once a month. He said there were meetings with attorneys to discuss overcrowding lawsuits that had been filed in Indiana, and with accounting firm Umbaugh and Associates to discuss financing options and architects.

“The transition team worked well together,” he said of the preparations for the move. “New standard operating procedures and policies were developed.”

The jail features seven television monitors in the lobby so inmates can visit with family members and converse by telephone.

Roland said there will be video conferencing capabilities with the courthouse to limit the number of inmates that have to be transported.

The cellblocks were pre-fabricated in Georgia and set into place. Additional pods can be added by simply putting the pre-fabricated cellblocks in place and extending the hallways. Behind each cellblock is an area where all the plumbing, electrical and heating work can be performed without requiring the relocating of the inmates.

An elevated central control room allows correctional officers to keep tabs on all the cellblocks from a central location. Each cellblock will be equipped with pay telephones and kiosks so inmates can order commissary items.

There are 105 surveillance cameras in the facility that can be monitored from a central control room in the front lobby of the jail. Three large-screen televisions hang from the ceiling and each will be able to show 16 different areas of the facility.

“The facility was designed for the future,” Roland said.

He said the kitchen and laundry were both designed to handle 440 inmates.

In the book-in area there are four holding and two padded cells, in addition to large and small drunk tanks. Roland said special flooring was installed that won’t absorb bodily fluids. Two telephones on wheeled stands can be moved to any of the holding cells for an inmate to contact an attorney.

The administration wing includes a work-out room, lab and armory.

Roland said 10 employees were hired earlier this year and underwent the necessary training to begin staffing the facility.

“We hope this is enough,” he said.

The jail is being financed through a 0.25 percent county option income tax. The tax began in July 2006 and is expected to generate $1.27 million per year.

• Ken de la Bastide is the Kokomo Tribune enterprise editor. He can be reached at 765-454-8580 or via e-mail at ken.delabastide@kokomotribune.com

[The Hen]

I don't know Lo. I haven't watched it yet. Have you?

Are they going to have the same conditions in this shiny new jail?

Or are you going to respect some tiny area of human rights for the prisoners this time?

Though I note this new jail can't replace the old one.

The old one had a capacity of 7000. This new one you are touting, as if it had anything to do with this story, only will hold 220 prisoners. Not really a replacement then is it? Not unless you are no longer going to house the rest.

But even so, will this new one hold prisoners in a similar cell block as in the opening post?

[loCAtek]

I can't watch it it hasn't aired here yet.


Researched that this is the Miami-Dade County jail; link for the reason for such long incarcerations

For dozens of inmates, Miami-Dade County jail has become a permanent home
A A A Comments (4) By Natalie O'Neill Thursday, Jan 28 2010

Chazre Davis, inmate number 00000236, is a husky 41-year-old with a Mohawk that sprouts from his skull like a potted shrub. He sleeps next to a stainless-steel sink inside private cell number 503 at the Miami-Dade County Pre-Trial Detention Center. On Saturdays, he munches Salisbury steak for dinner, lifts weights, and is allowed to rendezvous with visitors.


Ten Years and No Trial: Jail Has Become Permanent Housing in Miami-Dade

January 26, 2010
Davis is accused of suffocating his girlfriend to death with a pillow and is awaiting trial. Problem is, he's been locked in county jail — which is supposed to be temporary — for more than a decade.

The length of Davis's stay surprises even those who pore through the reams of numbers. Told about the case, Thomas Cohen, a Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) employee who has spent years compiling pretrial data, simply says, "Wow. Ten years is a long, long time."

Our man in the red jumpsuit isn't alone. There are eight others who have spent more than ten years behind bars waiting for a verdict. One of them has been there 12 years with an open case. In fact, more than 60 inmates — ranging from alleged burglars to coke dealers — have spent at least five years in county jail. By contrast, only three Broward County inmates have been housed for more than five years. And most national felony cases take less than a year to adjudicate, according to BJS studies.

And it's expensive. Miami-Dade has spent more than $4 million over the past decade to house the eight longest-staying inmates. In the past ten years, taxpayers have forked over $529,000 to keep Davis behind bars — nearly three times what it would cost the state if he were convicted and sent to prison. At $145 a day, his housing costs more than renting a posh one-bedroom, bay-view condo on the 41st floor of Icon Brickell in downtown Miami.

For the guilty, prolonging local jail time is a cushy alternative to state prison, where inmates sleep in 100-bed dorm rooms, eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches instead of steak, and report more instances of rape. For the innocent awaiting trial, it's an endless purgatory between freedom and state incarceration.

While overworked attorneys, lenient judges, and mentally incompetent defendants are often blamed for clogging the jails, Davis's story raises questions about a system that functions like an old bicycle: It works — just much too slowly.

"What the public sees is a crowded jail, and they don't understand why," says the county corrections director, Timothy Ryan.

Defense attorneys cite unique circumstances: jam-packed courts, retrials, complicated cases. Explains Coral Gables-based lawyer Eugene Zenobi: "It's one of those things you really can't control."

Prosecutors, who tend to benefit from speedy litigation, have another explanation: Judges here offer little incentive to go to trial.

"If you're guilty as sin and you can get continuances, why hurry?" says State Attorney's Office spokesperson Ed Griffith. "County jail is easier time than state prison."

[Gob]

More can be found on youtube

[The Hen]

Ah so no then.

Still just wanting to slam the messenger. How very like you.

As you were ... Keep carrying on.

Me, I'll be watching the podcast from the BBC. Maybe I'll find out more information on penetentiary breeches of human rights and how wide spread they are in America.

[loCAtek]

Beg your pardon, thought you knew I was a myth buster; I've provided more research into the subject, rather than the reporter. I recommend wider documentation before you pass judgement from a single source.

There are many documentaries and official reports already in circulation; I hope you understand the jail and prison facilities are two different parts of the penal system.

[The Hen]

Beg your pardon, thought you knew I was a myth buster; I've provided more research into the subject, rather than the reporter. I recommend wider documentation before you pass judgement from a single source.

There are many documentaries and official reports already in circulation; I hope you understand the jail and prison facilities are two different parts of the penal system.

Ummm... No you haven't provided more of anything than the reporter Lo and you have busting nothing but a bit more credibility.

Still, I am not going to engage with you further. You'll only end up a bit wound up.

See ya l8rs.

[Sean]

Most of these inmates reside at one of the two biggest facilities in the Miami jail system, large modern buildings where the cells are well-supervised and safe.

But the hardened few hundred who are either charged with particularly serious offences or have a track record of misbehaving behind bars get sent to the fifth and sixth floors of the main jail - a place with its own myth and lore

He's deliberately making a few hundred suspects of one facility, sound like the full extent of the Miami penal system. Shame.

See what I did there? I bolded the part you deliberately ignored and now your comment makes even less sense. Shame.

Beg your pardon, thought you knew I was a myth buster;

That's one way of putting it. Others might see it differently...

[loCAtek]

LOL What are you smoking sean? Posting the whole text was not ignoring it;

Most of these inmates reside at one of the two biggest facilities in the Miami jail system, large modern buildings where the cells are well-supervised and safe.

But the hardened few hundred who are either charged with particularly serious offences or have a track record of misbehaving behind bars get sent to the fifth and sixth floors of the main jail - a place with its own myth and lore

He's deliberately making a few hundred suspects of one facility, sound like the full extent of the Miami penal system. Shame.

The rest of article reads the same;

I'd come to Miami having heard that jails - with their more transient and therefore more chaotic population of new arrestees and defendants - were quite different, less settled and less domesticated. Inmates tended not to stay long enough to get comfortable or bond with officers or with each other.

Also, while prisons separate out their inmates so that the most serious cases are sent to "supermax" ultra-high security facilities, jails house the entire gamut of accused offenders.

In any case, a few documentaries have already been done on Miami-Dade, here's a good exaample;

A one-hour documentary on the Miami-Dade County jail system for MSNBC's primetime series "Lockup" - a "behind the scenes" look at America's busiest prisons and jails.

Produced and directed by Adrian Maher.



http://www.maherproductions.com/flash/m ... ions.shtml

This is one of the series on 'Lock-up' that encompasses all of the Miami Jail system, we'll see how Theroux's show compares.

[The Hen]

What do the documentaries say about the above keeping conditions?

[loCAtek]

Click the link, that's covered in the first twenty minutes.

[Sean]

So his saying that "Most of these inmates reside at one of the two biggest facilities in the Miami jail system, large modern buildings where the cells are well-supervised and safe" equates to "deliberately making a few hundred suspects of one facility, sound like the full extent of the Miami penal system."

On which planet?

[loCAtek]

Look past his but and your butt.