Thursday, November 19, 2009
Court Order Lifted at Jail
Posted By Mary Cashiola on Thu, Nov 19, 2009 at 12:22 PM
This escaped my notice for a little while, but I thought it was still important to post.
When I came to the Flyer a million and a half year ago, one of the "big" stories was conditions at 201 Poplar.
After being raped by three gang members while in jail, an inmate filed a federal lawsuit in 1995. The lawsuit led to a court-ordered evaluation of the jail, which found overcrowding, unsanitary conditions, and a slow processing system, conditions that violated the constitutional rights of inmates, and federal oversight of the facility.
Earlier this month, federal judge Bernice Donald lifted the more than 10-year-old order, saying oversight at the jail was "finally and unconditionally dismissed."
At the time, Shelby County sheriff Mark Luttrell had this to say:
“From my first day as Sheriff, it’s been my goal to remove the federal government from our daily operations. As an elected official, I need to be accountable for what goes on at the jail without the intervention of the federal government."
For a little look down memory lane, here is a story about problems at the jail and one about early solutions to try and address them.
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