Outcry Missing Against Jail’s ‘Rubber Rooms’

I have waited expectantly for the flood of letters that I thought must surely follow your incredible story about the Orange County central jail’s “rubber rooms.” What has gone wrong in California, once the pride of the criminal justice system? For there is no public outcry against a medieval torture system that casts naked prisoners into rooms “that are empty except for a hole in the floor for their excrement.”

The lawsuit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, outlines conditions that are more reminiscent of Hitler’s death camps or Stalin’s Gulags than prisons in the “land of the free.”

Just think, these “rubber rooms” have no light, no heat or bedding and these naked human beings are forced to “sleep on the floor in close proximity to their own waste. Since there are no eating utensils or toilet papers . . . inmates must clean themselves and eat with their unwashed hands.” The lawsuit goes on to say: “Because of the unspeakably vile conditions of the rubber rooms, no human being should be held in such conditions for any reasons.”

That some prisoners are put in these “rubber rooms” for “crimes” no more heinous than “intoxication, combativeness, and being uncooperative or ‘bizarre’ ” should strike dread into the heart of ordinary citizens, for the everyday behavior of millions of us might well fit into this profile, as even casual observation would confirm. However, no matter what the crime, we are all degraded by lending silent consent to such barbarities.

When I repeat the conditions that you outlined in your article, it is because so many people that I spoke to hadn’t read it; they are all very busy people. These grave charges need to be repeated with follow-up stories.

Surely we need to hear again and again, for instance, that the Santa Ana prison for women puts chains around the waists of the women, shackles on their legs and handcuffs on their wrists, all at the same time. The fact that they are grossly discriminated against in comparison to the male prisoners with no visits allowed from their children while the men in the prison next door are allowed these visits, sure bears repeating until these terrible grievances are corrected.

SYLVIA EASTON

Irvine