Jail practices reveal racism, disregard for safety

Capital Times ^ | 2/02/2008 | Joel McNally

[SJackson]

It's hard to know which is worse -- to be accused of total indifference toward the lives of 400 people locked in a building with no fire protection or to be accused of continuing the racist tactics of Southern sheriff Bull Connor of setting dogs on human beings.

Both of those ugly verdicts were included in a critical review of Milwaukee County's incarceration practices by the National Institute of Corrections under contract with the U.S. Justice Department.

County Executive Scott Walker has ordered Ron Malone, superintendent of the House of Corrections, to fix all the problems pointed out in the report within 90 days or be fired.

However, many of the worst problems go back for decades.

And the continuing deterioration of a firetrap being used to hold work release prisoners can be tied directly to Walker's own failure to budget enough funds to maintain county buildings.

The federal report said both the House of Correction in Franklin and the downtown work release center had serious fire safety hazards, but the most stunningly deficient was the downtown Community Corrections Center, which Walker has described as "a dive, a total dive."

The aging building is a roach-infested former hospital that has been the subject of complaints for years about mold, the aroma of raw sewage, dangerous wiring and generally unsanitary conditions.

Now the National Institute of Corrections points out it is also a fiery inferno waiting to happen for up to 400 people locked inside. The building houses prisoners on five floors with no sprinklers and a broken alarm system.

It could go up in flames very quickly, with stairwells engulfed in fire, heat or smoke before upper floors could be evacuated, the report said.

There will always be some cruel people who are indifferent to what happens to anyone accused of breaking the law, but it should be pointed out that prisoners housed at the CCC are those convicted of the least offenses.

By definition, those housed at the work release center are not considered a threat to the community. They are released into the community every day to go to work and return at night to sleep.

To Walker's credit, he wants to demolish the CCC and put those offenders on a GPS monitoring system. Sheriff David Clarke has objected, attempting to stir fears that GPS wouldn't provide enough protection for the community.

It's difficult to understand the sheriff's argument, since work release prisoners are already in the community unsupervised every day.

While locking prisoners inside a dilapidated building with no fire protection could produce the greatest human tragedy, the use of dogs to control human beings at the House of Correction inflames emotions.

The National Institute of Corrections report said the K-9 unit at the Franklin facility is unusually large -- 14 dogs and handlers -- and the practice outdated. Dogs are rarely used in medium-security facilities these days.

The report also raised the question of using German shepherds to control a predominantly African-American inmate population as a throwback to a racist image of law enforcement "evoking Bull Connor and civil rights marches in the South."

The House budgets $930,000 a year for the 14-dog unit.

Assistant Superintendent Jeffrey Mayer made it clear the dogs were not only used for sniffing out drugs, but to intimidate inmates.

The dogs are trained to respond only to commands in German, but that doesn't mean their handlers are all crew-cut, blond Aryans.

All races and both sexes are trained as dog handlers. The German language is used to prevent anyone else shouting commands in English -- "Stop!" -- from confusing the dog.

A former corrections officer, who is African-American, told me it's not only black prisoners who are intimidated by the dogs. She said she found them intimidating herself. The elimination of contact visiting has eliminated much of the rationale for drug-sniffing dogs, she said.

Since drugs within a corrections facility often are provided by employees, maybe we should use dogs on guards instead of on inmates.

The federal report said the county relies on the dogs instead of creating more modern security methods. Six dogs could easily cover three shifts, it said.

Dogs are not in a union that would prevent them from working longer than eight hours with mandated bone and nap breaks.

House management's claim that dogs are needed to quell constant inmate disturbances is contradicted by the population of the facility.

It includes people awaiting trial, who haven't been convicted of anything, and people who have been convicted of mostly nonviolent offenses resulting in sentences of a year or less. By far, the most common conviction is operating a vehicle after revocation.

If such low-level offenders are continually rioting, requiring dogs to be set upon them, everyone involved in the management of county incarceration needs to explain why.

Otherwise, call off the dogs.

[SJackson]

All races and both sexes are trained as dog handlers...A former corrections officer, who is African-American, told me it's not only black prisoners who are intimidated by the dogs. She said she found them intimidating herself.

So much for the racism angle, which certainly doesn't mean it shouldn't be highlighted in the headline.

If a conservative were to imply, as McNally does, that prison inmates are all racial minorities, the same McNally would eat them alive.

[LouD]

So, the jail is unpleasant. Highly unpleasant, in fact.

I fail to see the problem with this. The residents of the jail are there because they deserve to be there. Let's make it as unpleasant as possible, and maybe they won't want to end up there.