County Jail Inmates Petition For Better Food, Facilities
By RICK PATTERSON
Times-News Staff Writer
No one ever said being in jail was the good life. but how bad is it?
A petition signed by 35 of the inmates of the Sullivan County Jail, about half the population, has been brought to the Times-News by an interested party.
As part of his duties, he is in and out of the jail on a regular basis, and he called the conditions there “pretty bad.” For various reasons he asked to remain anonymous.
The prisoners for themselves say:
“This speaks for everybody serving time in Blountville jail. There are guys here that have been in here two to three months awaiting trial.
“Some don’t even know when their trial is or haven’t been appointed a certain date for their trial “No TV or radio is allowed in this jail when most other jails have them.
“They do not provide sheets or blankets
“We are not allowed a store order, just candy bars. They do not allow relatives to bring us food on Sunday (regular visiting hours) or any other time.
“We are fed two meals a day, breakfast and dinner. At 7 a.m. we are fed gravy, biscuits and jelly. At 4 p.m. we are fed muffins, beans and something sweet, most of the time.
The most meat we see is twice a week and that is not very much (meat when they do have it.)
“They will not let newspaper reporters in here. They are afraid because of the conditions in this jail.
“This is verified by the signing by the prisoners of this jail.”
Regarding trial dates, Carl Kirkpatrick, district attorney general, said “I can’t say that isn’t happened (waiting months without having atrial date set), but I think it is unlikely.”
Once a defendant has been indicted by the grand jury, he is brought before the court to be placed on the docket. “We get a jail list before the docket is sounded, and try to set those who haven’t made bond at the early part of the docket. Sometimes his attorney can’t go along with it,” Kirkpatrick said.
If a defendant is caught between sessions of the grand jury, he could have a long wait in jail The grand jury in the past met about every six weeks, “but it’s getting to be about every month,” because of the case load.
Defendants who have to wait in jail throughout the trial process are by law given credit for every day they spend in jail if they are convicted.
Radio and television are used in larger jails to give the prisoners something to do with their time and give them incentive to keep their cells clean. The general practice is to move the set around the hallway according to which area is cleanest so those men can see it and decide what programs to watch.
Sullivan County three or four years ago allowed inmates to have radios in their cells, according to Magistrate Bob Ammons, member of the safety committee which periodically inspects the jail.
The policy was changed because prisoners abused it. They were rewiring the radios to make hotplates, Ammons said.
The county was afraid someone would “get popped,” so to protect itself and the inmates, all electrical conduits, including lights, were removed from the cells. The cells are now lit from the hallways
Ammons was enthusiastic about using a television set to motivate the prisoners and give them something else to think about while they were waiting out their trial or sentence.
He said he would bring the idea up at the next meeting of the safety committee. Regarding the diet of the inmates, Jim Stanley, retired Air Force and head of the kitchen, said “It’s just like the military. If the men in the mess are complaining, they must be happy.”
Stanley read off the menu for the coming week: fried chicken on Sunday, ribs and sauerkraut Monday, meatloaf Tuesday, beef stew “and good beef stew. I eat it myself.” Wednesday, Thursday liver, Friday fish, and baked beans and wieners Saturday.
The food budget is set at $30,000 a year by the County Court, Stanley said, and generally because of increases in food costs, the jail goes over its budget.
By state law the menu is submitted to the County Health Department and checked for nutritional value
Only non-working inmates are fed twice a day. Those on clean-up and road crew details are fed three times a day, as are women, Juveniles and mental cases, Stanley said.
The practice of allowing visitors to bring food and snacks to the prisoners was stopped because the inmates had no place to store it except in their cells. The jail was developing a bad insect problem, Stanley said
Ammons said the prisoners were supposed to have blankets. The Safety Committee inspected the jail last Thursday, “and it was 75 degrees in there.”
Ammons added, “I cannot answer to that right now, but I’ll look into it.” Both Ammons and Stanley offered to take the media into the jail anytime. Stanley extended an invitation to dinner Ammons said, “My job is to protect both the county and the prisoners. The more we can do, the better off we will all be. But there’s only so much we can do with X-amount of dollars, what’s your priority?”
