Prison Abuse

A disturbing and infuriating video has surfaced showing a group of Texas jail guards piling on top of an inmate who repeatedly tells them he can’t breathe, only for him to be found dead in his cell the following morning.
Nineteen times in nine minutes is how many times Michael Sabbie told the guards, “I can’t breathe,” only for them to pepper spray him and tell him to stop resisting when the video shows him not to be resisting.

The federal Department of Justice just made a landmark filing declaring that bail systems which don’t take into account the suspect’s ability to repay are unconstitutional.
The motion seeks to end the practice of jailing people who cannot afford bail if they are not an actual flight risk.
It’s also a major blow against the parasitic bail bonds industry which privileges a few private companies to pocket bond money from poor people who cannot afford high bail for minor offenses.

The Department of Justice released a memo today announcing the end of federal contracts for all private prisons within the next five years.
Today, there are 14,000 federal inmates held in private prisons run by three corporations.
Last week, the Department of Justice released an inspector general’s report on private prisons that found for-profit detention centers to be substantially more dangerous for both the inmates and for the correctional officers, something it should have known all along.

A Texas cop has stepped forward about the Sandra Bland investigation and lobbed serious accusations  at the Waller County District Attorney’s office for excluding his testimony from the grand jury hearing in the criminal case against Texas DPS Officer Brian Encinia, who beat up Sandra Bland, ultimately leading to her untimely death in jail three days later.

Two Los Angeles sheriff’s deputies were convicted this week for beating a mentally ill male inmate to “teach him a lesson” after he had mouthed off to jailers in March 2010.
Bryan Brunsting, 31, and Jason Branum, 35, were both convicted on counts of conspiracy, falsifying records and violating the inmate’s civil rights, marking a total of 21 Los Angeles sheriffs deputies to have been convicted of crimes since the federal government began investigating the largest jail system in the country in 2011.

Surveillance video is sending a New Mexico jail guard to criminal court for knocking out a handcuffed prisoner, body slamming him on a concrete floor in a detention area when he wasn’t posing any threat to the safety of officers.
Inmate Timothy K. Black ended up losing consciousness in the November 2015 incident, according to the Las Cruces Sun-News.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice developed a new policy that would punish inmates for having a social media presence, even if that presence is maintained by their family on their behalf.
Updated on April 1, the new Offender Orientation Handbook rule prohibits Texas inmates from “maintaining active social media accounts for the purposes of soliciting, updating, or engaging others.”

A South Carolina woman convicted of stealing $20 worth of beer and candy bars from a convenience store was “deprived of water” and died in jail last summer due to profuse vomiting after checking into a hospital where she was then hauled off to jail over unpaid fines related to that 2011 arrest.
Joyce Curnell, 50, had been seeking urgent medical care for a stomach flu when it was discovered she had a bench warrant for her arrest because she had stopped making payments towards her $1,148.90 fine.

The Georgia Department of Corrections announced today that 46 current and former prison guards have been arrested for smuggling contraband such as drugs and cellphones into seven state-run prisons.
The FBI setup a sting operation to ensnare the sworn officers, some of whom merely provided protection, while others actually transported banned items into the jails.

The US Attorney’s office accepted a plea deal from former LASD head man Lee Baca, for lying to Federal investigators about his involvement in a prison abuse scandal, which has already claimed 18 prosecutions in Operation Pandora’s Box.
Baca served as the elected Sheriff of Los Angeles County, California for 16 years.