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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.

5 of 447 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Besides... by kunudo · · Score: 0, Redundant

    It's Abu Ghraib.

  2. What about the flip side? by the_skywise · · Score: 1, Redundant

    Doesn't this also protect the incarcerated person from potential police abuse? (How about webcams that aren't broadcasted but still record everything to a "citizen's committee"?)

  3. Re:Huh? by CatLord42 · · Score: 0, Redundant

    I think it was a perfectly ACCEPTABLE level of humiliation for prisoners.

    Yes, of course, because no one was ever put in a booking cell by accident. I'm sure everyone who has ever gone into a booking cell was then booked, in due process, and later found guilty of whatever it was they were accused of doing.

    Because, as everyone knows, law enforcement officials, whether elected, appointed or hired, are human and never make mistakes. Oh, yeah, and witnesses always see everything clearly and never forget any details or confuse one dark-haired, tall male wearing a denim jacket for any other dark-haired, tall male wearing a denim jacket.

    MSACRAS

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  4. Re:Bad example by Le+Marteau · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Yeah, ever wondered why some faces of the suspects were blurred out, and not others?

    I believe they have to blur out faces, unless the party is found guilty, pleads guilty, or signs a waiver. In other words, if you see a face, he's guilty, or signed a waiver.

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  5. Re:More on Joe Arpaio by ericandgina · · Score: 1, Redundant
    That's pretty sick. It's actually pretty amazing he can get away with it. Not from a legal point of view, but from a prisoners point of view. The reason why most prisoners are given rights like cable TV, weights, good meals, etc... is to keep them under control. You'd think with that kind of treatment that they would have some kind of riot. My guess is it's because it's a jail rather than a prison that total hell doesn't break loose.
    We do things different here since I became the sheriff. I just got reelected to a third term, and now everybody thinks I'm running for governor. All the polls show me leading for governor, but I haven't decided whether I'm running next year.
    This part really scares me, but doesn't surprise me. My parents think this kind of thing is OK. They think that once you're a prisoner, you give up your rights as a human being. Even still, these people aren't even proven guilty, and we're treating them worse than dogs! But as long as people seem to forget about that part in the constitution about "Cruel and Unusual punishment", this kind of thing, people will turn their backs to.