Riot Prevented At Jail In Jonesborough
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Riot Prevented At Jail In Jonesborough
35 members of the Washington County Sheriff's Office, inlcuding the department's SWAT and SORt teams, prevented a riot Tuesday morning at the Washington County Detention Center in Jonesborough, Tennes...
Nate Morabito/11 Connects
A team of 35 officers diffused a potential jail riot before it happened this morning at the Washington County Detention Center in Jonesborough.
According to Sheriff Ed Graybeal, Inmates grew angry after being forced to spend the night in three holding cells. Jailers moved the 17 inmates to the holding cells after they flooded a jail pod by stuffing fabric into toilets, Graybeal said.
While jail employees cleaned their pod, Sheriff Graybeal said the inmates began threatening guards. That prompted the sheriff to send a SWAT team, Special Operations Response Team, deputies, and detention officers into the facility to surround one of the holding cells filled with nine inmates who’d been making threats.
“We opened the door, all of the guys had their SWAT gear on, their helmets, their vests,“ Graybeal said. “We had the (tear) gas with us, so we opened up the door where you put the food in and told them to comply, leave their hands down, and get on their knees.“
According to Graybeal, the inmates quickly surrendered before the officers needed to activate the tear gas.
“When you show that force, that’s what it takes,“ Graybeal said. “It’s just having enough people to say, ‘Hey, you got 17, we got 35, we got the keys and you don’t.“
No one was hurt during Monday’s exchange.
Sheriff Graybeal called it the worst jail violence since 1997 when a riot happened at the Washington County Detention Center. Once returned to their pods Monday morning, detention officers locked down the inmates who made the threats and stripped them of some of their privileges.
“When everything was done, I had a talk with all of them,“ Graybeal said. “I explained to them that we’re just not going to tolerate that. We can’t.‘“
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Reader Reactions
Still need to bite your tongue. Check the facts sometimes it takes days or even weeks for these cleanups to be completed.
Granted there is a suspicion that these individuals were involved in activities they should not have been involved in and some are actually guilty, but if the pound treated stray dogs and cats like this people would be outraged.
Again I have to raise the question: is this Christian behavior.
And before your tongue begins to flap all around your head. I have done a lot of research and know what I am talking about. I am a credentialed Sociologist specializing in Criminal Behavior.
Well I may have misread your comment and for that I apologize there Earth Angel, but it states they were moved there so the pod they flooded could be cleaned, and they made threats as the pods were being cleaned so it’s not like they were there for any more than a few hours. I mean common sense would tell you it doesn’t take days to clean a cell so the TEMPORARY amount of time they were there really holds no merit. They still did it to themselves.
Unbitten tongue maybe you should open your eyes and bite your tongue. I did not say they were living there. I posed the question how long were they there.
Earth Angel you should go back and read again because you making an argument and spitting out the facts backwards. It doesn’t say 17 inmates were living in 3 cells it says they were being held there temporarily because they had flooded other pods by stuffing things into the toilet. They made their bed and had to sleep in it. Big deal.
Anyone who thinks the detainees are getting just treatment should reconsider their values and faith in God.
This is a holding facility. These individuals have not been tried and sentenced. Even if they have and you think they deserve to live knee deep in human waste what about the jail personnel who are exposed to the bacteria and germs, who carry it out to the outside?
Are they not sentenced to repay society? Does the Bible not teach us to FORGIVE AND FORGET?
But the real question is why are these inmates put three in a cell which is built for two. And why were there 17 in 3 cells and for how long?
Maybe there should be a study to see what conditions these men and women are really living under.
Please remember some are there because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time or there is circumstantial evidence which will later be dismissed. Some will be found innocent but had to spend months in horendous conditions because no one was able to post bail. Do they deserve this?
Why were jail employees cleaning up the mess? Prisoners made the mess, let them clean it, or live in it. Prisoners are coddled to much as it is.
This type of situation will only get worse as the economy tanks and more and more otherwise decent citizens resort to illegal activity to survive. I wonder how many of the people in jail in Washington County are there because they have lost their jobs and can’t pay fines or child support or are in jail because they smoked a little Marijuana?
Another example of the Police State failure and our terrible economy no doubt
When the jail population expands it means our society is crumbling. Piece by piece. Soon we will look like communist Cuba or Russia half the population will be working to support the other half out of work or in jail.
Pathetic
Since they clogged up the toilet,let them use an outhouse,but make them dig
it.
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