Judges Junk Jailcam

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.

Comments

Hey! I liked that camera!

[slughead]

My friend got arrested for [something :P] and I had a field day watching him sit in his cell downtown.

I asked him later "hey what did that bum want who talked to you?" he was so pissed.

I would feel safer if...

[BrokenStructure]

I ever ended up in jail and I knew there was a jail cam. It's like putting a mirror next to an item that's commonly stolen in a store. If a person feels like they're being watched, they're a lot less likely to try anything 'funny'.

Re:I would feel safer if...

[kfg]

As one of the respondents so graphically notes the issue is not the recording of jailhouse events, but the public broadcast of same.

Do you really want yourself, unjustly accused in the first place (and what social value is served by public humiliation of the unjustly accused?), publicly becoming Bubba's bitch? Recorded for all time?

The only possible real value of this to the public is actually to place the law officers on their best behavior.

To gain maximum value from this we would need to live in a society that does not equate accusation with guilt, but, unfortunately, we do not.

KFG

The problem is with *who* the cams are on...

[Rude Turnip]

Since we have this notion of someone being "innocent until proven guilty," I can see why having a webcam on while someone is being *booked* can be a problem. If (theoretically) everyone in the world can see John Doe getting booked for a crime which he may or may not have committed, how can he ever get a fair jury?

Re:The problem is with *who* the cams are on...

[Saige]

Joe Arpaio has made a career of mistreating people that are being held for crimes they are not yet even found guilty of. He's been in trouble before for various activities of his before, including feeding those under his charge food that has been known to be bad - such as moldy bologna sandwiches.

That's right, all you have to do to enter Arpaio's 'House of Cruelty and Being Treated as an Animal' is be arrested for a crime. The police could be wrong, which is not uncommon, but you've already been treated as if you were guilty by that bastard.

Not only have I wished Arpaio would lose the office, but I've wished that he would be arrested and found guilty of thousands of counts of cruelty.

Maybe not before proven guilty...

[blogtim]

I can see the point that this is no different than celebrities or politicians being booked and the media showing up. How about if it were done after one is proven guilty - sort of as an extra punishment.

It's not only the cams

[The Bungi]

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.

Having been there before...

[Zaranne]

from the been-there-done-that department

Humilation is one thing. Great, show it to grade school kids and they might think twice in the future. But I for one, do not want my "adventures in the drunk tank" broadcast for all to see. Barfing on the cop at the scene of my accident was enough.

Re:WTF?!

[Kenja]

"How is this going to effect my "lifetime" subscription to www.hornywomenbehindbars.com?!"

Well, it means we're going to have to kill you. You realy should have read the license agreement before selecting the "lifetime" subscription option.

If I was in prison I would WANT jailcam

[Forge]

If I was in prison I would WANT jailcam all over the prison and in my cell.

Ordinary security cameras protect you from your fellow prisoners by alerting guards to misconduct. broadcasting this on the web and archiving images on the same site protects you from misconduct by guards. Trust me... No guard wants his mother to see him beating a prisoner to a bloody pulp and then sodomizing him.

of course to work right you need lots of cameras protected from abuse and positioned so you can see who tampers with them. My only loss as a prisoner in such a facility is that I have to be more cautious in my masturbation.
Prison is about taking away some freedoms of a person convicted of a crime. I prefer to louse my privacy than my religious or sexual preference. Never mind life and limb.

A good start, a long way to go.

[deacon]

Good, someone that realizes that people in custody are human beings.

Next, a realization that prison rape is not "funny", is a violation of basic human rights, and that /. comments about "bubba the love bunny" deserve a -1, flamebait mod, not a +1 funny.

In a civilized society, prisoners are sentenced to time in jail.

They should not be subject to torture at the hands of other inmates, and it is the duty of the State to prevent such abuses.

Re:Sheriff Joe Loses AGAIN! :)

[tootlemonde]

His jailhouse tactics have cost the county millions in legal fees and settlements...

An article in Harper's from April, 2001, says: "So far, the total bill for jury awards and settlements is approximately $15 million."

The article notes:

Arpaio has reduced neither the crime rate nor the rate of recidivism in Phoenix. He has had no discernible effect whatsoever. He serves only to con the public into thinking that something is being done about crime. Phoenix is bucking the national trend: as crime falls nationwide, it increases here. Especially violent crime. In 1992, 136 people were murdered in the city; in 1999, 214. There were more murders, rapes, and car theft in 1999 than in the previous year. Arpaio's defenders can argue that the population is increasing, so the statistics are misleading. But this is disingenuous. Most homicides--which have increased by nearly two thirds since 1992 while the population has grown only by a quarter--are not committed by opportunistic yuppies coming here to work dot-corn jobs. The reality is indisputable: in Phoenix, your chance of getting killed is better since Arpaio took office.

However, Arpaio has a high approval rating, is regularly re-elected and his endorsement is sought by nearly all politicians.

Oh joy. Sheriff Joe again.

[72beetle]

Just in case you're interested on what the aforementioned sheriff is up to THESE days, take a look at the latest New Times.

-72

Too Scary

[blooba]

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.

Deterrence

[blooba]

The concept of deterrence is just pure B.S. Deterrence simply does not work. It never has, and it never will. Why? Because most felons commit their crimes without first stopping to consider the consequences. The ability to consider the consequences requires an informed, sane and sober mind, and few felons possess all three qualities at the time during which they commit their crimes.

Idiots like Sherriff Arpaio know that deterrence does not work. They do it because they want to mete out further punishment, beyond the convict's actual sentence. They feel, quite incorrectly, that they have the right and/or duty to make prisons and jails living hells for the inmates.

We need to do something to stop this. Most people are indifferent because they have no family members or loved ones behind bars. But take it from me: it can happen to you; it can happen to anyone. When you least expect it, someone you know will screw up and get thrown in prison. You won't feel so indifferent then.

Men getting raped..

[taxevader]

...is seen as funny by society at large. Why is this? Its because a) they are criminals b) they are men If there was any place where women knowingly got raped there would be an outcry, investigation etc etc. But as it is, it is an accepted, and even condoned by society. After all, these are criminals, they should pay their debt. Rape is rape, no matter who it happens to.