Sound Politics: Federal investigation of King County Jail

December 06, 2006

Federal investigation of King County Jail

The U.S. Department of Justice has opened a civil-rights investigation into the King County Jail in Seattle, focusing on sexual abuse of inmates and on allegations of inadequate suicide prevention and contagious-disease control.

I doubt there's anything to look at here. Ron Sims, who is ultimately responsible for the King County Jail, is the nation's best public official, after all. Perhaps the conditions at the jail are just one of Sims' many ways for creating wealth more efficiently!

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at December 06, 2006 11:42 AM | Email This

Comments

1. The King County jail is a vault the every bank would envy.

Posted by: Michael on December 6, 2006 11:45 AM

2. One really has to feel sorry for Reed Holtgeerts, the current jails director for the county.

After an exemplary career in law enforcement and correctins, Mr. Holtgeerts walked into an existing situation when he took the job last year.

What a surprise for this poor man to face! Under Ron Sims' tenure in the county executive's office, the jails, like so many other county agencies, had been starved of the resources needed to operate smoothly while Ron's ridiculous pet projects and monuments to himself grew fat as ticks on sheep in the summer.

Now the jails are Mr. Holtgeerts' problem to clean up after the negligence of the Sims adminstration.

Posted by: Observer on December 6, 2006 11:49 AM

3. where are the Dems shouting, "The buck stops here (or wherever)!?"
only applies to conservative leaders?how "inclusive"...

will the ACLU and civil rights groups demand the head of anyone? just the sacrificial lamb losing 1 job? or a Loganesque disappearance?

elections bureaucracy redux. KC voters, great job, again!

Posted by: jimmie-howya-doin on December 6, 2006 01:03 PM

4. This is great news, but...any chance of getting an investigation of King County Elections while they are in town?

Posted by: dl on December 6, 2006 03:21 PM

5. My KC Councilperson last year mentioned to me that there had been sexual contact between inmates and jail personnel.

Hey--Where was the US DoJ when elections were being monkeyed with to phoney up a result that would get the dem party machine candidate into office??

Posted by: Misty on December 6, 2006 09:22 PM

6. Yes, you'd all be just full of praise for Mr. Sims if he'd spent our tax dollars to ensure the civil rights of prisoners. We know because of the large number of occasions upon which you've agreed with the ACLU.

I can't wait for our Justice Department to look into King County's waterboarding, illegal renditions, and deliberate infliction of pain approximating that of organ failure, because we all know how much our federal government has strongly opposed such practices over the last five years.

When Mr. Sims proposes spending enough money to correct those problems, you and Mr. Dunn will vigorously denounce it as another liberal scheme to waste our tax money. It's a reflex action, unconnected to actual thought; we all understand.

Posted by: Paddy Mac on December 7, 2006 01:03 AM

7. "Hey--Where was the US DoJ when elections were being monkeyed with to phoney up a result that would get the dem party machine candidate into office??"

They investigated all the evidence of fraud which Judge Bridges identified. Every last bit. Really, just read his ruling, and you'll see. (And they did so at a very small cost to the taxpayers. Extremely efficient.) Since he's of the same political party as our current federal administration, we should expect them to follow his lead.

Posted by: Paddy Mac on December 7, 2006 09:12 AM

8. Paddy: Just one correction, Judge John Bridges is not, I repeat not a Republican. Yes, somehow our state GOP was able to find the one Democrat Judge in Eastern Washington to rule on the Gov. race - unbelievable. When I found out that he would preside on the case I told Diane Tebilous that we would lose and backed it up with a $10 dollar bet - still waiting to get paid. And you ask me how I know? I was his brother-in-law for 20 years.

Posted by: The Duke on December 7, 2006 10:43 AM

9. Paddy, even Bill Huennekens admits they shouldn't have counted the 200 fatal pends. That was flat-out cheating. and they did it because a vote-fraud associated group (ACORN) told them to count them. What a crock. They kept "finding" ballots and people who work there said they didn't know where those were coming from. They allowed double-voting, illegal provisionals, and dead people to vote. John Kerry and the unions bought the 3rd recount, where they were able to finally undo everything and get the dem machine candidate in. It was a crock.

Posted by: Misty on December 7, 2006 01:48 PM

10. Misty, where in Judge Bridges' ruling does he recount those "facts"?

Posted by: Paddy Mac on December 7, 2006 10:17 PM