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Tuesday, April 06, 2010

Another Serious Problem At The Wicomico County Detention Center

Hi Joe,

My son is an inmate at the county detention center, and he made me aware of a huge problem yesterday when I talked to him. His cell block was locked down on Tuesday of last week for a shakedown and they turned off the water to keep people from flushing things down the toilets. He said that they didn't turn the water back on until YESTERDAY. For 6 days all those men were without any running water in their cells. They couldn't use the bathroom, they couldn't drink any water and they had to wait until after the Easter weekend to get it turned back on.

My son told me that they made repeated requests to the officers on duty, and submitted complaint forms to the warden's staff but didn't get no replies. I tried calling the detention center about it but was told nobody was available to take my call. I am at a loss for what to do, so I wanted to bring it to your attention to maybe see if you could bring this some attention.

I know these are inmates, but my son is a good boy, just made a mistake and is now paying for that mistake. These men shouldn't have been kept without running water for almost a week. Its got to be some kind of human rights violation or something.

Thank you for your attention in this. Your the guy I know I can turn to when everyone in the government keeps ignoring me.

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

sorry about their luck don't commit a crime and you won't be there I am sorry for being that way Im sure in your eyes your son is a good boy but to others he may not

Anonymous said...

hopefully when your son gets out he will not want to go back after this. It is jail by the way.

Anonymous said...

That's just ignorant.

Anonymous said...

Yeah this story falls on my deaf ears as well. I can not feel bad for the people who commit crimes and serve time. This is almost the way it should be and maybe people wouldn't want to go back.

Reap what you sew said...

the system was broken by inmates SHOVING THINGS DOWN THE TOILET. It took time to fix it. Cr** happens. There are consequences to every action, and this is one of them.

Anonymous said...

Somebody dig a trench so this person and their son can cry me a river of sorrow! If you can't handle the time, don't do the crime!

If this is the worst that these criminals have to endure, it's not harsh enough. Do you really think that next time they will stop and be like "No, I can't rob these people because then I might not have running water!" Obviously this deturrant is not enough.

There are plenty of good, honest people who are hard on their luck, homeless, and don't have the luxury of running water OR a roof. The fact that these scumbags are complaining about he lack of water is laughable.

Anonymous said...

Call a lawyer and sue them. That is all the police understand. Until their abuses of power end, they will continue to abuse.

Anonymous said...

Hate to pass judgement but you sound like an enabler that will actually help push your son to committ more crime. Your response to your son's complaints should have been along the lines of the majority of the previous comments.

Anonymous said...

Oh those poor criminals. How can they be mistreated so?

Anonymous said...

Hate to tell you, but inmates give up their rights when they are incarcerated. I'm quite sure that they don't drink that water anyway. Shakedowns are done for a reason and the water should have been turned off. I'm sure that there are some vital details that we have not been given, so I'll just stop at that.

10001110101 said...

Sorry but I disagree with all of these above posts. While most of the criminals are serving their time, we are talking about an infection control issue here that could possibly affect cellmates and employees only increasing the detention center's health care costs.

Anonymous said...

First of all the state nor the country give you rights, God does.

And no, when someone goes to jail they do NOT give up their rights.

Read a book.

Anonymous said...

Thank you 10:25, I can't believe joe would post this before getting the facts. This person is getting their information from their son who is "a good boy" that is locked up for "making a mistake". wonder if that mistake is a felony. I'm sure he was able to go to the bathroom during the 6 days,

joealbero said...

anonymous 11:51, (probably JT) it's a Letter to the Editor. Each and every individual has every right to put such information out there. It's because of people like YOU that I choose to keep their names off their messages.

Anonymous said...

You know sometimes good people do bad things. Maybe her son did make a big mistake. I agree that they are criminals and they should do the time--but they are still humans. They deserve a functioning toilet, if for no other reason sanitary.

Anonymous said...

I do not believe for one minute these inmates did not have a place to use a toilet. The cells may not have been working correctly but the rest of the story is hard to believe. You make it sound as if you want us to feel sorry for your son and I do feel sorry for him. I feel sorry for him in respect to his upbringing and you did not teach him better so he would not end up in a detention center. If he committed a crime and it's evident he did then he is where he belongs and maybe he will not end up being one of the statistics that ends up right back in the system when he gets out. You as the parent can use this and drill this event into his head as a good reason to fly the straight path when he is released. I have personally worked as a private contractor in that facility and others on the shore and can say from the bottom of my heart that place is one nasty hole to be caged up in to start with. But the reason it's so nasty is the inmates in there to start with are nasty people that have been given light punishment for their crimes. Lets also not forget these guards are not police officers as portrayed by another commenter they are in fact high priced babysitters because of all of the regulations we the people have put on them. Until you have gone and worked in these places and seen how the inmates treat the guards be real careful how you blame them.Being spat on and cussed at all the time is not much fun.

Anonymous said...

Lady, ya get what ya pay for! You're probably one of the ones that don't give a shit about the pay or benefits for the Officers and tell them to "be lucky you got a job" types. Oh well...keep the water off.

Anonymous said...

its jail/prison what do you expect?if you ask me any other time theyre treated better than people who dont break the law.if it was like this all the time maybe people would stay out of jail.i can recall one of the first deployments to afghanastan after 9-11 several groups of soldiers and airmen were in place for over 30 days with no water what they had they used for drinking water.and they volunteered to do a good thing!

Anonymous said...

Can't comment on a story full of baised accusations. It seems there is way more to the story and she more than likely could have gotten the rest of the story by simply calling to speak with someone in a civil manner.

Personal opinion her son and those also in there did not think about others "rights" as citizens when they were robbing, stealing, raping, murdering, assaulting, dealing drugs, drinking and driving, etc soooo they should not be entitled to being so high up the totem pole when they themselves had no respect for anyone else.

Anonymous said...

Did Wicomico just hire James Henderson to run the jail? Or is he a consultant?

Anonymous said...

12:32 these "humans" are the ones that are raping people, robbing banks and killin people, driving drunk and killing innocent people and using and selling drugs which leads to other crimes. These "good boys" do not get locked up for missing Sunday School ..... they are criminals!!!Your good boy might have made a little mistake but guess what there is a reason he is there. You may even need to take some of the responsibility for what he did! instead of worrying about the water.

Anonymous said...

look, its jail. get over it. yeah they shut off water, they have to. that way the cos` can find and get the contraband being brought in by you or another officer being paid from an outside source. if it was that bad then they would have been moved to the gym and taken to booking for a shower, there is a rest room in the gym area. you never siad was the block with out water, was the pod your son was in witout water or was it his cell. there are many ways to fix and handle the prob. sounds like you didnt know who to call...