The article City Jails Unregulated Despite Deaths, Complaints was an eye- opening. Did you know that although county jails are monitored for safety, nutrition, and care of inmates, city jails have no such standards. Often times complaints are disregarded because there is no higher authority to take the complaint to. Matt Simpson, a policy strategist, states that it is too expensive to hold city jails to the same basic standards as county jails. If city jails can’t afford to be run to standard, I don’t believe it should be running at all. Many people in city jails are locked up for fairly minor violations of the law, but in return aren’t even getting the proper medical care or safety with in the jail, but on the other hand the inmates in the county jail, with much worse infractions, are taken care of on a higher standard. Up to 40% of deaths in city jails are suicides. That leaves me with an uneasy feeling that the inmates are not properly being watched.
Many times lawmaker advocacy groups have tried to bring city jails to standard, but have been denied. Municipal jail officials contest that it is not necessary to hold jails to this standard because of the short time that inmates serve in jail and the cost of hiring the new watch. It is estimated to cost $390,000 to inspect city jails. I understand that that it may be expensive, but I do believe a standard is necessary to make sure that the jail is run in an acceptable manner.
