Bad things happening in lockups

I can already anticipate the hostile reactions I’m going to get for this commentary – particularly from people who are going to argue that “jail” isn’t supposed to be a nice place to spend time.

But no matter how hard-headed one might be, I think we all ought to be able to agree that a pair of incidents involving people being detained by police are shameful enough that we ought to be trying to figure out ways to avoid a repeat – rather than trying to figure out ways to let law enforcement off the hook for what went wrong on their watch.

NEITHER OF THESE incidents involved a prison (either state or federal), and that is important to note. We’re talking about people who still had that presumption of innocence, who wound up being harmed during their time of incarceration.

In one case involving the Lake County Jail in suburban Waukegan, we’re talking about someone who wound up dead.

For as the Chicago Tribune reported, Lyvita Gomes died back in January at a hospital in Waukegan from the injuries she sustained while being held at the county jail for missing a scheduled court appearance on charges that she did not show up for jury duty.

Some might argue that for her to be facing prosecution for a jury duty incident, she must have done something severe. Then again, she was an Indian citizen whose visa status was expired. It was unlikely she could have served on a jury in any case.

THIS IS A bureaucratic nightmare that wound up with Gomes in the jail, where she started up the hunger strike that resulted in her hospitalization and ultimate death.

Her family is filing a lawsuit in U.S. District Court, claiming the county sheriff who runs the jail should have realized she was not completely mentally stable and should have taken extra precautions to deal with her.

Then again, there probably are people who want to view all types of people sitting in a cell somewhere as flawed or tainted, and not worth any extra attention. Which is a very cold attitude to have – particularly for those who haven’t been found guilty of any offense!

Anybody who thinks that having an inmate die during incarceration is somehow acceptable truly IS the problem in our society.

LAKE COUNTY OFFICIALS claim they’re going to be “vindicated” when the details of this case come out. Which means their offense is something along the lines of “bad things happen.”

Yet as much as the idea of someone who probably needed help winding up dead makes me squirm, I have to admit that another incident occurring in Chicago bothers me even more.

In that incident that WLS-TV reported occurred at the Harrison District police station, at Harrison Street and Kedzie Avenue just off the Eisenhower Expressway, a woman being held in the lockup says that a police officer offered to help her in exchange for sex.

The incident is under investigation by the Cook County state’s attorney’s office and the police Bureau of Internal Affairs. Chicago Police officials said in a statement that the officer in question, “has been relieved of police powers.”

WHICH COULD MEAN he might face criminal charges some day, or might merely face the prospect of losing his job. Or maybe it means it will be a drawn-out process that will result in some technical maneuver that many will view as no punishment at all.

Although I find it interesting that the Fraternal Order of Police is placing its distance between this officer and themselves (usually, they’d be offering to defend him; this cop has to pay for his own attorney). So maybe something will happen.

I can only hope so. It’s just that when it comes to matters involving law enforcement and criminal justice, incidents involving male police officers or corrections officers and female inmates always strike me as the most peculiar.

It is an incident where these men see a pool of women in a completely submissive position, and they try to take advantage of it for their own personal gratification.

WHICH IS SOMETHING that bothers me even more than the woman in Lake County who likely died because no one wanted to take her condition seriously.

Somehow, the concept of “they’re in jail” doesn’t seem like a high-minded defense.

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Jail stunt reminiscent of Madame Byrne

The sheriff for Lake County, Ill., had plans to be locked up in his very own county jail – supposedly to show that the place is not a deathtrap, despite the fact that two people have died there in recent weeks.

CURRAN: Not inmate material (we hope)

Although the Chicago Tribune reported Tuesday that Mark Curran changed his mind. A scheduling conflict, he claims. Although the Internet is filled with anonymous comments about how Curran decided at the last minute how he would prefer not to be sexually molested by the jail inmates.

PERSONALLY, I DOUBT that would have happened. Because I’m sure the personnel who work for Curran at the jail would have gone “by the book” and treated him the way inmates are supposed to be treated.

If anything, he would have received extra care to ensure that nothing bad happened to him – other than having to adapt to a new diet consisting of foods such as bologna and oatmeal..

Curran would have received what he described as “the realities of the exceptional treatment of the inmates at his jail.” I doubt other inmates receive similar treatment, except perhaps by accident.

But I’m really not as concerned about whether Curran’s stunt would have proven anything about the daily realities of jail life. I expect it would have proved about as much as did Jane Byrne in 1981when the then-Chicago mayor decided to show that Chicago public housing really wasn’t all that bad.

SHE DID SO by moving into the now-demolished Cabrini-Green public housing complex – the one located right next to the Gold Coast neighborhood where Byrne herself really lived.

Byrne gave the same explanation that Curran gave for her stunt – she wanted to see for herself what things were like for people who had no other options than to be in those places.

BYRNE: A Cabrini-Green resident?



No one believed it when Byrne said it just over three decades ago. I doubt anyone finds it more believable now coming from Curran’s mouth.

For the record, Byrne lived in an apartment (number 401 at 1160 Sedgwick St.) with her husband, Jay McMullen, for three weeks some 31 years ago. In her book “My Chicago,” she wrote, “Living in Cabrini was not uncomfortable, but all in all it was a sobering experience.”

SHE GOT TO see up-close an environment in which people were afraid to be seen outside near their own residences for fear they’d get caught in the street gang crossfire. She also got to experience the “eternal vigilance” against protecting one’s food supply from being infested with cockroaches.

Which, to my mindset, makes the video that exists on YouTube all the more hilarious. It was Easter Sunday that year, and Byrne arranged for a church service to be held outdoors at the complex grounds. We get to see Jane “find Jesus” along with all the other Cabrini-Green residents.

Of course, none of those residents had a Chicago Housing Authority crew do their best to clean up the apartments she used. Note, I wrote apartments – as in plural.

Because Byrne admits her mayoral security detail was living right across the hall from her. Which, in and of itself, makes her experience of sleeping nights in a Cabrini-Green apartment and going to work at City Hall during the day somewhat artificial.

ABOUT AS PHONY as any experience Curran would have had staying a couple of nights in his jail.

Which makes me think there is something inherent in the political process that makes public officials believe they can arrange for an artificial view of something and make it reality.

The Cabrini-Green of decades ago was a dismal place where too many disadvantaged people were crammed together and wound up feeding off each others’ misery. Too much like the conditions of a jail, except that the public housing residents didn’t have criminal records that put them there.

The superficial view didn’t offer up much in the way of change for public housing three decades ago. It wouldn’t give us anything better in the northern suburbs now.

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