A matter of hygiene
By Brandon Astor Jones
"Inmates are offered access to toilets, sinks and showers as well as a full range of hygiene items. I am unfamiliar with where you received your information but I can assure you that all inmates in the Cobb County Adult Detention Center [CCADC] are housed in a safe, secure and humane environment." — Bill Hutson
The words that head this column were taken from Sheriff Bill Hutson's September 17, 1997, letter to David Jackson, of Elizabeth Grove, South Australia. Green Left Weekly's September 3, 1997, article entitled "Not so dandy" detailed only a few — of many — human rights abuses that I experienced during my stay at the CCADC. A letter of complaint was sent to the sheriff after Jackson read that article. Thank you, David.
The sheriff noted that he was, "somewhat perplexed" to learn that a GLW reader— half way around the world — seemed to know more about what goes on in his jail than he does.
I was not at all surprised to read his response to David's letter. I had also written the sheriff no less than two letters citing those complaints, which were published the following month in the GLW, but he never responded in any way. His letter to David implies that I am a liar.
Of course, the sheriff got other complaints that were closer to home as well. For example, in the United States, Diane L. Post called the jail repeatedly from Bethel, Vermont. She complained — and rightly so — about the sheriff's putting prisoners' food down on the floor in much the same way one would do to feed dogs. Fortunately, that practice was stopped immediately after Diane's calls. Thank you, Diane.
According to the Marietta Daily Journal, Herman Allen, of Kennesaw, Georgia, feels that Hutson "would make a dandy governor". Well, I do not agree. When I asked the sheriff's deputy, a Sergeant Ray, to kindly free one of my hands so that I could perform the most basic hygienic functions after defecation, she replied, "No".
In fact, I had to implore the Superior Court judge, Ken Nix, to order that my hands by freed to perform those functions. Thank you, Judge Nix. As I think back to the sheriff's letter to David, I wonder how familiar the sheriff is with Judge Nix as an information source?
Heaven forbid that Allen's hopes for the sheriff's political future might one day come to pass! Making a sheriff like Hutson governor would be yet another stain upon Georgia's already very regressive human rights record. Not to mention the huge and perpetual stink it would cause throughout the state's prisons — if you catch my drift.
[The writer is a prisoner on death row in the United States. He welcomes letters commenting on his columns. He can be written to at: Brandon Astor Jones, EF-122216, G3-77, Georgia Diagnostic & Classification Prison, PO Box 3877, Jackson, GA 30233, USA. Brandon and his friends are trying to raise funds to pay for a lawyer for his appeal. If you can help, please make cheques payable to the Brandon Astor Jones Defence Account and post to 41 Neutral St, North Sydney NSW 2060, or any Commonwealth Bank, account No. 2127 1003 7638.]