Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility
Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility
Yes,
this is real life.
In a powerful investigative report by Dana Liebelson of Huffington Post, she revealed some deeply disturbing facts about about a Detroit teenager who is currently serving a five year prison sentence in an adult penitentiary after being cited for giving law enforcement an intimidating look.
In Detroit, a 17-year-old girl who misbehaved was sentenced to up to five years in the adult prison system. Afterwards, she tried to kill herself multiple times and was subjected to a cell extraction by prison guards that a use-of-force expert called "wrong and clearly dangerous.”
Jamie, as we’ll call her, was initially sentenced to two concurrent six-month sentences for a fight with a family friend. She was given a special youthful status that allowed her record to be scrubbed clean, as long as she met certain good behavior standards. But she was sent to an adult prison to serve her time, and while there, she lost that status and was given a longer sentence for the same crime.
You must be wondering what she did right?
Stab a guard?
Smuggle drugs?
Start a prison riot?
Get into a fist fight?
Nah, none of that.
Records and reports from the prison reveal that she was cited for giving guards an "intimidating look" and sentenced to serve up to five full years in prison after the citation.
New documents obtained through an open records request, which arrived after the initial story was published, reveal that her disciplinary record appears fairly mundane. The only misconduct tickets she received prior to the new sentence were for defying an order and giving a guard an "intimidating look," and yelling at an inmate who allegedly had slapped her on the back of the head.
"Jamie" is currently one of many teenagers suing the Michigan prison system for mistreatment, but it appears that she was failed not only by the prison, but also by the judge.
Jamie was originally sentenced in January 2012 for throwing a brick at a family friend and breaking her glass mail chute. (Jamie denied the assault and the police report notes that the brick may not have, in fact, hit the friend.)
In a wealthier county in Michigan that includes Ann Arbor, kids with this status generally do community service, like helping out at the local science museum. Jamie was sent to serve her time at the Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility, a prison that holds inmates convicted of crimes like first-degree homicide.
You have to read Dana's
full story here. A grave injustice has been done to this young lady.
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