Prostitute Dies After Being Held in Scorching Outdoor Prison Cell
I don't care if she was a serial murderer or a drug kingpin, you simply don't do that to people. The fact that she was serving a short sentence for non-violent charges, was not causing problems, and had mental illness that made her more vulnerable only makes an already unacceptable situation even more appalling.
This is an example of what Wolf Wolfensberger calls "deathmaking". When devalued people are put in situations that make them likely to die.
4 comments:
That's horrifying, the poor woman :(
You think GITMO detainees had it bad....(and they didn't but you get my point)
I am from Phoenix. This is no surprise to us - it was only a matter of time before Arpaio's "tent city" killed someone. He's appeared on TV as a Wild West kind of sherrif that we should love for taking the criminal element out of society. Pink jumpsuits for male inmates, green bologna (yes, really green), and outdoor tents in a city where the ambient temperatures average well over 100 every summer (and don't remind me of the day we hit 139 - if you've ever stuck your head in a hot oven, you might have an idea of what that's like, forget "dry" heat vs. humidity - when everything you touch is hot enough to burn you, it's freaking hot!).
Jail should not be fun. But it should be civilized and protect the health and safety of its inmates.
I can only hope this is the end of Arpaio's reign of terror and corruption (which included installing a webcam in the women's bathroom of the jail and broadcasting it live on the internet, until someone screamed loud enough for him to take it down).
Whoops! Sorry, Christina! This is why I've been a silent observer for the past few years - my knee-jerk reactions are just dumb. I guess I'm not yet fit for polite society, so I'll go quiet again.
Having looked at the article (to my credit, I do have the excuse of getting blown offline for a bit, thanks for Vista, Bill G.), I now see it wasn't tent city at all.
But it is still a human tragedy and a horrible thing to happen to anyone. Thanks for keeping your eyes on injustice for all our sakes.
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