Cleveland’s jail gives high-profile inmates special treatment, including liberal visiting hours, says the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Jail Commissioner Robert Taskey said Councilman Zack Reed spent his 10 days for a probation violation in a seven-bed infirmary instead of one of four dorm-style rooms. Each dorm room has as many as 65 inmates sleeping in bunks or sometimes on makeshift beds on the floor. Taskey also said Reed was per- mitted to see visitors, who included council colleagues, out side of normal visiting hours in the more-private library, in stead of a group-visitation area. Public Safety Director Martin Flask said the treatment Reed received was “not preferential, but different.”
The judge who sentenced Reed for violating probation after a drunken-driving conviction and the chairman of City Council’s Public Safety Committee said they don’t approve of the special arrangements. “We [council members] should be treated the same way everybody else should be treated,” Councilman Kevin Conwell said. “How can you learn your lesson?” Municipal Judge Joan Synenberg said: “They’re all to be treated equally, no better, no worse, with the exception of safety. I never ordered or expected Mr. Reed to be treated any differently than any other inmate. Incarceration is the great equalizer.”
Link: http://www.cleveland.com/cuyahoga/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/1147423233244900.xml&coll=2