TX - Sandra Bland, 28, found dead in jail cell, Waller County, 13 July 2015 #3

[Elley Mae]

I am confused as to why a trash can or a plastic bag in a trash can is an issue when a bed sheet or blanket can be used to make a noose. IDK to me if someone wants to kill themselves they will find a way. jmo idk

 

[BritsKate]

I am confused as to why a trash can or a plastic bag in a trash can is an issue when a bed sheet or blanket can be used to make a noose. IDK to me if someone wants to kill themselves they will find a way. jmo idk

There's no way to ever eliminate all risk, obviously, but does that mean we shouldn't at least look to reduce risk?

By the way, they also make special bedding - high security blankets, disposable sheets and pillowcases, rubber mattresses all designed specifically for institutional use. They do make items to reduce risk - but paying for it is of course another issue.

 

[Deleted member 39678]

There's no way to ever eliminate all risk, obviously, but does that mean we shouldn't at least look to reduce risk?

By the way, they also make special bedding - high security blankets, disposable sheets and pillowcases, rubber mattresses all designed specifically for institutional use. They do make items to reduce risk - but paying for it is of course another issue.

BBM

I found a link to disposable bed sheets. They're made out of polypropylene. I don't think they would be any safer than a plastic trash bag. It appears that the idea is to save on laundry costs not to prevent suicides. JMO

http://www.fastasleep.co.uk/products/specific/disposable-sheets

 

[wendiesan]

FWIW
The discussion about the legitimacy of bail, and the reality of living in a hand-to-mouth in an economy in which jobs are eliminated, has touched on Sandra Bland's case.

Sandra Bland, Rexdale W. Henry, Tevin Garcia, Kindra Chapman. Four people in three weeks who died in jail, detained not because of risk, but because of money.

Their deaths highlight an irrational and unconstitutional system of jailing based on wealth in America. For Garcia, the bail that would have saved his life was just $100. For Bland, the number was $5,000, or $500 to a local bondsman that would have kept the sum in exchange for fronting the full amount.

Who doesn’t have a few hundred dollars to bond out? More than you think: Nearly half of Americans don’t have the savings to afford a $400 emergency of any kind.

And yet, across the country, cash bail has become so ingrained in our national consciousness that hearing people couldn’t get out for want of a few hundred dollars ceases to shock or surprise us. It should.

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/sandra-bland-death-shows-why-our-cash-bail-system-unconscionable

Bland had two options to get out of jail. The court set a $5,000 bond. If she had the money, which she didn't, she could have posted it and gotten it back when she appeared for trial. Alternately, she could have paid a bail bondsman a 10 percent fee to post bond for her—$500 that she or her family would not get back. Her family's attorney has said that they were working on trying to secure the fee to have her released.

This system, in which people either stay locked up or pay money to a private company to get out, is almost entirely unique to the United States. The Philippines is the only other country with something similar. In Canada, acting as a bail bondsman can earn you two years in prison on a charge equivalent to bribing a juror. "We don't have a system currently that does a decent job of separating who is dangerous and who isn't," Tim Murray, director of the Pretrial Justice Institute, told me when I wrote about the commercial bail industry. "We only have a system that separates those who have cash and those who don't."

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/07/sandra-bland-bail-bond-system

 

[bwt42]

The point being made is that there are alternatives that could potentially reduce risk to both staff and inmates. I don't understand why anyone wouldn't want to reduce risk as much as possible to prevent more deaths. Texas prisons already disallow in-cell trash cans - inmates are required to dispose of their rubbish themselves in trash cans located in common areas. Plainly, they're trusted to throw their own trash away, but with added risk reduction that they don't have unsupervised access to a plastic bag in the process. In the case of ad-seg or row prisoners, their trash is collected by a janitor.

But the sad fact of the matter is that Sandra wasn't the first, and likely won't be the last, to hang herself using a plastic bag in a Texas jail cell while others justify allowing inmates access to such bags.

Yep. Have no problem giving them access to plastic bags.

 

[wendiesan]

Gee. Sherrif Glenn Smith, who was fired from his position as Chief of Police of Hempstead, Texas in 2008, (http://mic.com/articles/122418/r-glenn-smith-sandra-bland-death) has no fear of controversy.

An United Method Church pastor in Texas said on Monday that the Waller County sheriff told her to “go back to the church of Satan” while she was keeping vigil outside the jail where Sandra Bland died....Cell phone video uploaded by Bonner shows Smith walking by and asking if she needs his business card, presumably so he can be correctly identified.

“Why don’t you go back to the church of Satan that you run?” Smith asks as he walks into the jail.

https://www.rawstory.com/2015/08/sh...ra-bland-died-go-back-to-the-church-of-satan/

 

[bluesneakers]

Gee. Sherrif Glenn Smith, who was fired from his position as Chief of Police of Hempstead, Texas in 2008, (http://mic.com/articles/122418/r-glenn-smith-sandra-bland-death) has no fear of controversy.


https://www.rawstory.com/2015/08/sh...ra-bland-died-go-back-to-the-church-of-satan/

He looks quite pleased with himself, like he thinks he said something very clever. :facepalm:

 

[kimlynn]

Gee. Sherrif Glenn Smith, who was fired from his position as Chief of Police of Hempstead, Texas in 2008, (http://mic.com/articles/122418/r-glenn-smith-sandra-bland-death) has no fear of controversy.


https://www.rawstory.com/2015/08/sh...ra-bland-died-go-back-to-the-church-of-satan/

What an odd thing to say. Church of Satan because they care about civil rights?
I'm glad they are there and still drawing attention to what happened to SB.

And bwt42...you might feel differently if it were someone close to you.

IMO

 

[human]

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=201128359

This is a study on hiw whites think blacks feel less pain.

Short.

 

[katydid23]

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=201128359

This is a study on hiw whites think blacks feel less pain.

Short.

THat^^^ is what you took away from this study? That 'whites' think blacks feel less pain? Because here is what the summary is according to the researcher:

"And what these researchers found was that all of the participants, white, black, nurses, nursing students, all assumed that black people felt less pain than white people.

And what they said was, well, it doesn't really make sense to say that racial prejudice or animosity is entirely to blame here. It may be something else. And when they pressed on this, they started to see that it had a lot to do with whether or not participants assumed that black people in the study had faced more hardship or more adversity."

 

[bluesneakers]

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=201128359

This is a study on hiw whites think blacks feel less pain.

Short.

Interesting. I looked up the interviewee and this is a link to his longer article in Slate.

I Don’t Feel Your Pain

A failure of empathy perpetuates racial disparities.

 

[Lilibet]

Bail reform urged after Sandra Bland suicide.

It's possible to read the whole article if you google it rather than try to open the link.

Harris County and the state should reform an unfair bail system that punishes the poor more harshly, according to civil rights leaders, legislative officials and criminal experts who gathered Wednesday in front of the county's criminal justice center. Reform, they argued, could prevent another tragedy like that involving Sandra Bland, who was found dead in her Waller County jail cell in July after failing to make bail.

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/new...-urged-after-Sandra-Bland-s-death-6454085.php

 

[KateB]

Proposal to rename Prairie View A&M thoroughfare 'Sandy Bland Parkway'
August 21, 2015
http://www.khou.com/story/news/loca...-take-place--prairie-view-city-hall/32113543/

The council action is the first item on the mayor's agenda. The council meeting will begin at 6 p.m. (August 25)

 

[sonjay]

Proposal to rename Prairie View A&M thoroughfare 'Sandy Bland Parkway'
August 21, 2015
http://www.khou.com/story/news/loca...-take-place--prairie-view-city-hall/32113543/

Because she got herself arrested when she refused to cooperate with a police officer's legal commands?

Because she killed herself while in jail?

Spencer Stone Parkway would be a more fitting renaming -- because that would be honoring a true hero who risked his life in a very real and immediate way to save numerous innocent people. <modsnip>

 

[kareylou]

Spencer stone got awards from the French government and a personal phone call from the President of the United States. I'm sure there's more to come, and rightfully so. He and his compatriots are true heroes and it is uplifting to know that sometimes the good prevails. Perhaps they can rename the road in France where it happened after him.
Now back to Sandra Bland. I doubt that a road will be named after her but if it is I would not complain. I think it would help to continue to focus attention on a very real problem in this country--that of the increasing polarization of police vs citizens in this country. I think what happened to Sandra Bland was an unnecessary tragedy and could have been prevented with better police screening and training.

 

[human]

I noticed that I don't always signal. And I noticed lots and lots of people do not signal when driving. I call that the Sandra Bland now everytime I see or do it.

 

[sonjay]

Spencer stone got awards from the French government and a personal phone call from the President of the United States. I'm sure there's more to come, and rightfully so. He and his compatriots are true heroes and it is uplifting to know that sometimes the good prevails. Perhaps they can rename the road in France where it happened after him.
Now back to Sandra Bland. I doubt that a road will be named after her but if it is I would not complain. I think it would help to continue to focus attention on a very real problem in this country--that of the increasing polarization of police vs citizens in this country. I think what happened to Sandra Bland was an unnecessary tragedy and could have been prevented with better police screening and training.

What happened to Sandra Bland was she didn't follow the traffic laws and she got stopped for it -- something that happens to people of all colors every single day.

Then she refused to comply with a police officer's lawful orders and she got arrested for it. Also something that happens to people of all colors every single day.

Then she killed herself while in jail. That didn't "happen to her." She did that to herself.

I can't think of one single solitary reason to name a road after her.

 

[human]

I know this has been discussed so many times but I still cannot get over it.

We are now going to have to teach in schools how to act when stopped by the police. No longer are we teaching about the friendly police officer who is your friend.

We are now going to teach how to stay alive.

I was raised with the fear of Communism and the repressive police state. I guess we accept that nowadays. The police state. I am still reeling from this

 

[bluesneakers]

I know this has been discussed so many times but I still cannot get over it.

We are now going to have to teach in schools how to act when stopped by the police. No longer are we teaching about the friendly police officer who is your friend.

We are now going to teach how to stay alive.

I was raised with the fear of Communism and the repressive police state. I guess we accept that nowadays. The police state. I am still reeling from this

Lessons in How to Stay Alive:

When you hit a patch of black ice on the highway this is what you do.
What to do when you're caught in a rip-tide.
This is what you do when your house catches fire.
This is what you do when you interact with a police officer.

I think you're right. We just agree and accept a police state and hope we don't get pulled over by a cop who's having a bad day.

 

[Betty P]

Bail reform urged after Sandra Bland suicide.

It's possible to read the whole article if you google it rather than try to open the link.



http://www.houstonchronicle.com/new...-urged-after-Sandra-Bland-s-death-6454085.php

Sounds like a good idea. When I was growing up, people didn't get thrown in jail for this kind of thing. People went to jail for getting in a fight, driving drunk, starting a fire or robbing someone. They didn't get jailed for failing to have proof of insurance or an expired license or an overdue parking ticket somewhere. For that, you used to get a summons to appear in court, period.

Unfortunately, cities and towns have become reliant on jailing for minor offenses as a way to generate revenue. It has to stop.