To the Editor:
You all should really take a deeper look into that jail. During the three separate times I was incarcerated in there (the only times as an adult I’ve been in trouble [1st charge less then 20g of pot and paraphernalia, 2nd charge paraphernalia, and the third trespassing]), I’ve seen people nearly die because guards don’t actually do anything to break up fights.
The suicide watch is four small cells, where they strip you down to nothing, give you a large heavy blanket to cover up with, then stick you in the small cell with five other naked dudes.
I’ve watched them accuse me of being on drugs other then pot as they assumed i was coming off something when my heart rate was 197 BPM, been throwing up any water I was trying to keep down.
Not to mention, the jail runs off starvation rations of 1,500 calories a day. The place has rats and lice and bed bugs, there’s always some form of drug available, and when I was there the second time, for 2 whole weeks there was absolutely no air conditioning in 100+ degree weather.
There’s even some guards who work there who have purposely killed inmates, one of them attempted to goad me into attacking him just so he would have an excuse to beat my ass black and blue.
That ain’t a jail, that place is a corporation running off rich folks’ money to drive the homeless population and the lower-waged groups into their system so they can charge them an arm and a leg just for being there.
When they kept me one day later then I was suppose to even be there, as the judge had already said i did my time for the charges of weed/paraphernalia, all I got was ‘Oops, thats not our fault though, so get out of our jail in 15 minutes or we will just rebook you for trespassing.’
You wanna know why the incarceration numbers have gone up over the years? Its because they find every small reason to lock anyone up. Stole a bit of food because there was no other option? Jail, permanent trespass (yeah, apparently trespasses are not 2 to 5 years max anymore, it’s permanent).
Eric Brabitz
Ocala