A jail’s operational standards provide information about how they’re running things inside.
However, some jails are being secretive about what goes on. For Black people, this is a BIG risk.
With Black people disproportionately arrested and incarcerated, the issue is this: if jails keep their operations secret, they can easily harm us while we’re locked up.
Some jails even have COPYRIGHTED standards that they keep hidden like a family secret.
Organizations like the ACLU have sued jails and prisons to get this information when inmates have died.
Think about Black people like Sandra Bland, Lamekia Dockery, and Evan Lyndell Parker, who died under suspicious circumstances in jail.
After a series of jail deaths in Utah, there was debate over the secretive protocols some jails have. Turns out, former jail boss Gary Deland has made a career out of writing policy in several states that jails use to operate. That's a huge problem.
Everything, from food to healthcare and more, is controlled by the written rules of people who don’t have to experience the confinement of a cell.
Since Black people are vulnerable to being locked up, we need to know what the standards are so we’re not placed in even MORE danger!