U.S. blasts jail conditions (Chicago)

[WhiteTara]

Source: Chicago Tribune

In a scathing report released Thursday, federal authorities said that a culture exists at Cook County Jail in which inmates are systematically beaten by guards and medical care is so substandard that some inmates have died.

The Justice Department threatened legal action if steps aren't taken to ensure that inmates' basic constitutional rights aren't routinely violated.

In the 98-page report, the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago and the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division called the complex violent and pointed to a raft of problems ranging from unsanitary conditions to inadequate mental health care and suicide-prevention measures.

At a news conference, U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald called on the Cook County Board and Sheriff Tom Dart to fix a dangerous jail that is "woefully inadequate."
snip
The report detailed numerous incidents in which guards used excessive force in response to verbal insults, failures by inmates to follow instructions or violence against jail staff. Inmates have been punched, stomped, choked and struck with objects, often by multiple officers, suffering black eyes, broken jaws, loosened teeth, fractured noses and ribs, and head trauma, the report said.

Read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-cook-county-jail-web-jul18,0,3223109.story

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wow! don't get arrested in Chicago!

[flashl]

1. In Chicago?

$20M Settlement OK'd for Chicago Torture

Jan 2008

Aldermen on Wednesday approved a nearly $20 million settlement with four former death-row inmates who claim they were tortured by Chicago police.

"It was a black eye on the city of Chicago and the people who live here — just terrible — so I hope it never happens again," said Alderman Ed Smith.

The settlement ends lawsuits by Leroy Orange, Stanley Howard, Aaron Patterson and Madison Hobley. All were pardoned in January 2003 by then-Gov. George Ryan when he commuted the sentences of every death row inmate in the state.

Special prosecutors last year released a report that said Burge led a group of officers that used beatings, electric shocks and other methods to get suspects, most of them black, to confess. Prosecutors have said they can't be charged because the statute of limitations expired.

The flip side of a fair trial

"The Two-Ton Contest"

Every time there are corrupt eruptions in the criminal system, 'we' just label the exposed incidents to 'back then', accuse one person for the institutional racism, and the matter is retired to the annals of history.

Today, most jails and/or prisons medical facilities are in receivership and there is silence about instances where inmates with HIV were routinely left in warehouses to die.

[global1]

2. Jail Officials Where Hoping This Story Wouldn't Break For Another Six Months.......

apparently they were going to offer the top job at Cook County Jail to outgoing president George W. Bush. (sarcasm)




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[WhiteTara]

3. with uncle dick as his side kick?