You've asked for it...Dueller's Great Nola Central Lockup Adventure of 2010

[livi]

Hahahaha! Touché!

[red-beard]

Hope all is well Markus!

[livi]

Absolutely, thanks! You too, James.

[Dueller]

I think you mean "soap," Livi. LOL

Gonna be tied up this morning so I give you a little background reading assignment:

New Orleans jail rapes discussed in testimony before federal panel



By Jonathan Tilove, The Times-Picayune
on September 15, 2011 at 10:45 PM

The Justice Department Review Panel on Prison Rape heard testimony Thursday about sexual violence in the Orleans Parish Prison system and the failure of the Sheriff's Office to protect inmates or respond to grievances. "I remember one time when I tried to give a grievance to a guard who I had not seen before, and he said to me, 'A fagg* t raped in prison -- imagine that,'" said Adam Keith, a former inmate at New Orleans' Central Lockup and House of Detention, whose written testimony was read to the panel by Cynthia Totten of Just Detention, an advocacy group dedicated to ending prison rape.

Keith, now an inmate at the Eastern Mississippi Correctional Facility in Meridian, Miss., said in his statement that in 2009 he was gang-raped by other inmates "so many times I lost count," but despite filing at least six grievances and more than 25 slips asking for medical help, "not one person tried to help me in any way."

But representatives of the Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office presented the panel with a different image of the parish prison.

Sheriff Marlin Gusman, who was at a conference in Singapore, wrote a letter to the panel that was read at the hearing by one of his deputies, Col. Jerry Ursin, one of four officials from his office who appeared in his stead.

'Zero tolerance'

Gusman said his office has "zero tolerance" for sexual violence and that all incidents are "reported and documented ... fully investigated and charged criminally, if substantiated."

He said staff is trained on the issue and that videos are shown daily to inmates on the zero tolerance policy and "how to report and avoid sexual victimization."

The panel, with members appointed by the U.S. attorney general, was created by Congress in the Prison Rape Elimination Act of 2003 to track the problem and report to Congress.

The Sheriff's Office was called to testify because its South White Street Jail -- a female lockup that has since closed -- had, at 7.5 percent, an exceptionally high rate of reported inmate-on-inmate violence, according to the most recent National Inmate Survey conducted by the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

That percentage was based on 10 alleged incidents, and the parish officials said that singling out one jail for female prisoners. who nationally have higher rates of inmate-on-inmate sexual victimization, was unfair. Gusman also complained that inmates completed the Justice Department questionnaire "after being promised a bag of cookies."

"Aside from the obvious problems with offering a reward for responses, it provides a great opportunity to seek retribution against the Sheriff's Office or individual employees," Gusman wrote.

But Allen Beck, the Justice Department statistician who led the survey, testified that there was no statistical difference between responses where inmates were offered cookies, and where they weren't.

Beyond that, Gusman's subordinates testified they had never heard of any complaints of sexual victimization at South White Street during the time in question.

"At South White Street, there was an almost motherly feeling for some of the staff toward a lot of the inmates," said Dr. Samuel Gore, medical director for the parish prisons. "We clearly don't know where this was coming from."

Crowding, pay problems

The more appalling claims of inmate victimization came from the related testimony of Keith and others, who were not identified, as delivered by Elizabeth Cumming, a New Orleans attorney who has been collecting evidence of inmate abuse in the parish jails, and Wesley Ware, the director of BreakOUT!, which advocates on behalf of non-heterosexual victims of sexual violence in the Orleans Parish Prison.

Both Cumming and Ware made the case that crowding is a contributing factor and that New Orleans leads the nation in per capita incarceration because, as Ware said, "New Orleans is also the only major U.S. city funding its jail on a per diem system, which creates a financial incentive to fill jail cells in order to cover fixed operational costs."

"The per diem funding structure, and the enormous jail population that flows from it, all create the foundation for the jail's rampant sexual assault and violence rate," Cumming said. Ware also read the testimony of "Robert," a "22-year-old gender-nonconforming, gay white male," who described his own rape in the House of Detention last year, but said he "never received a response to my grievances."

In his testimony, Maj. Michael Laughlin, commander of special operations for the Sheriff's Office, said that in a case matching the one described, the person filing the complaint was found guilty of filing false police reports.

But Ursin and Laughlin acknowledged that in another case their office had "dropped the ball" as grievances lay unnoticed in a warden's inbox after he switched locations.

Ursin also said the office was hobbled because, "the pay we offer is a problem and turnover is 30 percent every year."

[livi]

Oh dear. Thats disturbing reading.

Yes, of course. Although, technically, bending over for the SOUP (for what ever reason) would probably risk similar consequences..

[genrex]

[QUOTE] Sheriff Marlin Gusman, who was at a conference in Singapore


No doubt he wants to make his dreams come true... a Central Jail that's exactly like the one in Singapore. Rampant rape and violence... insects, spiders, and rodents crawling over people day and night... a sadist's dream come true.

_

[rusnak]

Oh my. A disturbing turn. Now I have a visual of you sitting on a cell bench with a big sweaty toothless fat man looking down at you and sayin' "Yer mouth sure do look purdy!".

[Zeke]

^^^That is far from cool. I didn't quote you for an obvious reason.

[matt f]

"Gender non-conforming, gay white male," REALLY!
Male gender non-conforming=think I'm a woman/tranny.
Gay=prefer same sex.
Soooooo... The guy is kinda of a girl that likes guys? Is that really gay?
Spent way too much time trying to figure out that statement.
Thank God it's almost happy hour.

[pete3799]

So the other inmates offer you cookies? (i'm hoping)

[genrex]

I'm thinkin' word gets around fast, and when you arrive, everyone is going to be yelling at you really loud all at the same time, asking for legal advice.

[RWebb]

at least you got a nice new facility to stay in

and a free tour of NoLa that not every tourist is awarded

[ZOA NOM]

reminds me of a joke:

Scrawny white guy gets tossed in the cell with Bubba. After a sufficient awkward silence, Buba sez "So, you wanna be the mommy or the daddy?"... Scrawny sees a glimmer of hope, and puffs out "I'll be the daddy." Bubba sez "Great, now get over here and start suckin Mama's d*ck!"

[Gooch1971]

Nothing from Dueller since Friday morning. NOLA LEOs must have seen where this thread was going.

[porsche4life]

Nah... If I know Jim, he's out with some busty blonde for the weekend.... We'll see him again tomorrow or Monday....

[speeder]

Am I the only one who thinks that this is just a drunk driving arrest story?

[pwd72s]

Originally Posted by speeder

Am I the only one who thinks that this is just a drunk driving arrest story?

Hope you're right...

[porsche4life]

Yes it is.... But it's a well told one, with the twist of Jim being a bit mouthy and an attorney. We've been waiting to hear it for two years now.


Besides, he's the most interesting man in Mississippi, we've got to listen.

[speeder]

OK, I just wish that he'd get to the interesting part. I have limited time here on earth.

[Laneco]

I'm done being patient!

DUELLER!

DEBAUCHERY! NOW!!!!!

angela

edit - unless your Saturday night went very badly, and they will only allow you a phonecall right now...