Two Months, Two Prison Riots
"Prison riots are relatively rare occurrences" reads a letter sent today to Department of Justice Inspector General Glenn A. Fine by the ACLU's National Prison Project (NPP) and the ACLU of Texas. So two riots in a two-month period at the Reeves County Detention Center (RCDC) in Pecos, Texas is a lot.
The first riot in mid-December followed the death of a prisoner—rioters demanded adequate medical care and food. Similar demands were made at the second riot January 31. The letter details the second riot:
The disturbance involved buildings that house more than 2,000 prisoners and was not brought under control until the afternoon of February 1. GEO Group, Inc., the private prison company that operates RCDC, reports that no injuries occurred during the riot, but the Reeves County Sheriff's Office counters that at least three prisoners were hospitalized, one with a severed finger…Thousands of prisoners were forced to sleep outside on the prison yard in the days after the riot was brought under control, and hundreds still remain on the yard. According to the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, prisoners on the yard have only been fed once a day and have had extremely limited access to water and toilets.The NPP is asking IG Fine to investigate prisoners' complaints about the conditions at RCDC. An immediate investigation is necessary not just because of the recent riots but also because of the pattern of problems at RCDC that date as far back as 2006. It was then that investigators from the Office of Inspector General's (OIG) El Paso Field Office looked into problems at the facility, and ended up arresting five contract officers. In a 2006 report to Congress, the OIG said that officers were having sex with prisoners, they were accepting money from prisoners in exchange for providing them with drugs, and they were smuggling contraband into the facility.
Clearly the OIG can't play dumb — their own reports show they've known for years that RCDC is a mess. The time has long since come for them to clean it up.
Feb 6th, 2009 at 4:24am
Please help the hard working women of Lafayette College. Six women have come forth to stop sexual harassment at the college. The pervert responsible for sexually harassing these women was sentenced to 18 months probation in a plea bargain. How could such a plea bargain be available this scares me. The man accused of the harassment is basically walking away untouched. He got his rocks off for years at these women’s expense. This man was put in a position to protect the college, its employees, and its students. Below are the local newspapers links to the articles. Please help these women return to there jobs. These women were scared to come forth because the man responsible carried a gun and must have had some kind of connection with college considering he worked there for 20 years. Lafayette is trying to sweep this under the rug and its working. I hope the ACLU can help these women and make it known that these type of actions will not just be swept under the table. http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-b4_3lafayette.6769281feb04,0,27284 19.story http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/easton/index.ssf/2009/02/sixth_woman_f iles_civil_lawsui.html
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