During Katrina: During the storm and for several days afterwards, several thousand men, women, and children as young as ten — many of them being held in pre-trial detention on minor offenses — were effectively abandoned as floodwaters rose and the power went out, plunging the cells into darkness. As deputies fled their posts, prisoners were left standing up to their chests in sewage-contaminated floodwaters, without food, drinking water, or ventilation. (200801_ISS_KatrinaHumanRights)
Present Day: Galveston Sheriff leaves inmates, deputies, in hurricane’s path – Galveston Island residents were told to flee Hurricane Ike or face “certain death,” but the Sheriff has inexplicably decided not to evacuate 1,000 prisoners from the county jail, even though serious flooding has already begun. (Grits For Breakfast)
Posted by Al Swearengen in Words