Who Cares They Are Just Criminals 

Aren’t they? 

Part I 

What happens when your life is turned upside down by an arrest?  In one city, Indianapolis, Indiana the world crushes down effectively destroying life as you know it.  It is alleged that the drug task force in this city arrests innocent men and women carting them off to jail to begin a new life.  The Police Complaint Center received additional allegations that these officers work you over leaving injuries that may be life threatening.  Dragging you kicking and screaming these officers haul you off to jail disregarding your protests of innocence.  Spin the gun chamber, if you are lucky you land in Marion County Jail I, a county run facility, where you “may” have your injuries treated and documented by jail personnel.  But what happens if you’re luck runs out and you land inside Marion County Jail II (CCA) privately owned and operated by Corrections Corporation of America? 

After the hoopla of being fingerprinted, photographed, stripped search and totally removed of all personal items jail personnel march you off to the Katrina Room.  Demoralized and robbed of all your dignity, daring to breathe a heavy sigh of relief you find yourself thinking the worst is over.  You think to yourself this nightmare will end as soon as the cops realize I am innocent.  As you arrive to the Katrina Room expecting a hotel type atmosphere you find the nightmare has only begun.  As the door opens, eyes open wide with horror taking in the untold number of bodies already held captive, milling around like lost cattle.  Thinking aloud to yourself, the rumors flying across America are misunderstandings, lies and embellishments fed to the gullible public by the press and government entities.  What you see before you is far from the vacation and life of leisure you’ve always heard the government provided for criminals picked up off the street.   

For the sixty some men milling around there is one toilet.  Thirsty?  Sorry running water does not exist.  Tired?  Grab a piece of the floor and pray someone doesn’t fall over you in their rush to be the next in line to use the toilet.  Hungry?  That too will pass if you are given the opportunity to eat.  It’s alleged that the food coming from the jail kitchen is swarming with fruit flies.  Your hunger will pass quickly as your eyes feast on these critters crawling over and into your food.   

With total disbelief you say to yourself, where are all the amenities we are supposed to be provided?  This is America, land of the free with the best and most effective criminal justice system in the world.  Innocent until proven guilty is the American motto. 

Crying about your civil rights will get you no where because no one cares what goes on inside this privately run jail or any others.  In the eyes and minds of the public, your fellow peers, at the moment of arrest you became a convicted criminal.  With heart wrenching sadness you remember that before your arrest, you, like many others held tight to a staunch unbendable belief that the punishing treatment inside jails and prisons was rightly deserved.  The fact the cops arrested you makes you guilty and a criminal deserving nothing less than inhumane treatment. It made you furious that your hard earned money went to taxes that placed criminals inside vacation resorts called jails.   

Wait a minute you say, I am innocent of the crimes charged.  Motioning for the guard you attempt to explain your situation but the guard shrugs his shoulders, with a half smile and says “buddy, that’s what they all say”, with finger pointing to the far side of the room he tells you “go sit down I don’t want to hear any more of your whining.”   

A new and terrifying chapter of your life has begun.  The education you are about to receive at the hands of the CCA employees is one you will carry with you for the remainder of your life. 

Written by: 

Leslie Sourwine, Administrative Services Director