Re: Ever wonder how stupid the government is? Supreme Court Orders CA to Release Up to 46,000 Prisoners May 24, 2011

IC, These prisoners are awaiting their day in court because they've been indicted for a crime yet to be found whether they are guilty of it.
One young man has been waiting three years because his lawyer will decide when to take his case to court. Meanwhile he being a viewed a "weak" person and must dodge the thugs in that prison to make that day in court. Do you or anyone think that is justified or is that the way the "legal" system works in the USA? 

http://tvpixie.com/tv-news/2011/05/23/louis-theroux-miami-mega-jailLouis

Theroux continues his run of troubling documentaries with a look inside Miami's Mega Jail.

This was sobering stuff for a Sunday night - an evening that used to be reserved for cheese on toast, Bovril and half an hour's gardening respite in the company of Last of the Summer Wine. Instead of tumbling old folk in the heart of rural Yorkshire, we got a dose of crime and punishment in Florida, where over twenty prisoners are often confined to bunks in one cell, where the inmates brutally fight over trivialities, where the weak don't stand a chance and where gunning is a regular occurrence.

Yes - 'gunning'. But not 'gunning' as in 'we'll all be gunning for you'. The term refers to the practice of playing with yourself, spanking the monkey at passing guards. The specifics of this weren't quite cleared up, especially in terms of who did the clearing up, but the fact it happened all the time only went to show how miserable environment it must be to work in. The guards who spoke to camera were all reasonable enough people - no gung ho punishment slavedrivers until boot camp in episode two - but it was clear they were battle-hardened and exhausted.

Both prisoners and prison guards seemed resigned to the fact the building was cramped, decrepit and unfit for purpose - and the fact the guards had the word 'CORRECTION' on their backs only added to the grim reality of the piece. From what we saw, the only correction going on was unjust and dished out indiscriminately according to the code, from prisoner to prisoner. 'GABOS', as one inmate, awaiting a hearing for a stabbing, put it - a prison acronym for 'Game ain't got no sympathy'.

This was a pre-trial facility, meaning those within hadn't yet been found guilty of the crimes they were inside for. With the overpopulated cells constantly spilling into violence, it was no wonder innocent men or those on lesser charges would get caught up in the horror. The instinctive reaction was to think 'how would I cope?', before you quickly realised that you probably wouldn't.

It's tempting to ask Theroux to return to his own ways, finding kooks and loveable outsiders to catch on film for us. But he's probably doing better work with documentaries like Miami's Mega Jail. it's must-watch, even if it's soul-destroying.