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Judges Junk Jailcam

Posted by michael on from the panopticon-foiled-for-now dept.

theodp writes "With one dissenting opinion, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that an AZ sheriff's use of Webcams to broadcast prisoners being booked and held in cells constituted a profoundly undesirable level of humiliation, rejecting the sheriff's argument that the Webcasts deterred crime and showed the public how jails work." The Village Voice has a good article from a few years ago detailing how the jailcams work.

2 of 447 comments (clear)

  1. It's not only the cams by The+Bungi · · Score: 5, Interesting
    It's the chain gangs and the pink underwear and the striped black 'n white uniforms and the 120F tent cities he runs.

    I don't think Joe Arpaio (the sheriff's name here for those of you who don't live in Maricopa county, Phoenix or points south) has really done much to lower crime with his "tough ways". Sometimes I think he's more of a joke than anything else.

    But he's quite powerful in the political sense. And taking down the cams ain't gonna make much difference. The guy needs to go. Well, hopefully this coming election.

  2. Too Scary by blooba · · Score: 5, Interesting
    A friend of mine was recently arrested. After booking, he was thrown into a large holding cell that has 30 bunk beds. At the time, the cell contained almost 70 suspects. Soon after he entered the cell, a riot broke out inside it, and he was forced to fight for his life. He witnessed suspects bashing each other's skulls against the wall and against the floor. A few of his fellow inmates could not handle the terrifying stress, and began sobbing. These delicate souls were then sexually abused by other suspects.

    During that same weekend in incarceration, my friend witnessed the brutal beating of a suspect by three armed guards. The suspect had not assaulted anyone, but was being verbally abusive to the guards. The suspect lost consciousness, a lot of blood from a nasty head wound, and had to be carted to the infirmary.

    Where did all this happen? Good ole NYC.

    All of this happened in front of multiple surveillance cameras. I would surely like to review those tapes myself, but the general public is not allowed access to them.

    What do you all suggest we do? Perhaps a public oversight committee that reviews the prison/jail surveillance tapes? This committe might be comprised of responsible citizens, selected via a process similar to jury duty selection.