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DAN GILBERT’S GUANTANAMO BAY? Detainees in CJC Jail denied contact with lawyers & family, subjected to brutal conditions
On Sept. 10, a ground-breaking protest outside the new Wayne County Criminal Justice Center was held on behalf of Ricky Rimmer and hundreds of victims of criminal frame-ups by Detroit cops and Wayne County prosecutors. (Full video and story coming later this week.) Meanwhile, multiple articles have been published in the mainstream media about dire conditions in the CJC Jail, built by Dan Gilbert’s Bedrock firm for $670 million, mostly from public tax dollars. Demetris Knuckles-El was at the Sept. 10 protest. He and his organizations are now calling on the public to rally at the new Criminal Justice Center Friday, Sept. 20 from 12 noon to 2pm to support our detainees.
Some of more than 60 supporters of Ricky Rimmer who turned out Sept. 10 in front of the new Wayne County Criminal Justice Center at 5301 Russell in Detroit.
‘IT’S TURNED INTO A NIGHTMARE INSTEAD OF A DREAM” (excerpt)
By Andrea May Sahouri, Detroit Free Press —“While Wayne County officials tout the new Criminal Justice Center that was six years in the making as “cutting edge” and “state-of-the-art,” union officials and defense attorneys describe last week’s opening as riddled with problems.
Atty. Lillian Diallo
Among the issues include days-long lockdowns of inmates in crowded cells because there haven’t been enough deputies to cover the larger new complex, a union official and defense attorney told the Free Press. That has led to incidents of fighting and inmates breaking fire sprinklers and causing flooding in protest, said Allen Cox, President of the Wayne County Deputy Sheriff’s Association.
“The first day out, it’s fights, flooding and everything. It’s turned into a nightmare instead of a dream,” Cox said last week.
Lillian Diallo, president of the Wayne County Criminal Defense Bar Association, said inmates are protesting conditions inside the new facility by refusing to leave holding areas for their court hearings. Three days ago, Diallo said an inmate reported having to defecate and urinate in a bag because the plumbing inside cells was not working.
Atty. Brian Brown/DN photo
“It’s like “Shawshank Redemption” or something,” Diallo said, referring to the movie.
Diallo and defense attorney Brian Brown said they have been forced to wait hours before meeting with clients because there’s currently only five visiting rooms available in the new complex. In the old jail, there were two to three visiting rooms for detainees to meet with their attorneys on every floor, Brown and Diallo said.
Diallo said she and other attorneys couldn’t enter the building on Wednesday; she said deputies told her it was because of staffing shortages. And on Saturday, Diallo said jail staff never brought her client in for a visit through video call. She said she waited on the call for her client for two hours.
RELATED:
https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20210218-exposing-life-inside-the-worlds-most-notorious-prison
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