A reader reached out to us on our reporting on the death by suicide of Christopher Lee Franklin, 40, of Stafford, on July 26 in the Rappahannock Regional Jail, with his own harrowing tale of an impromptu 10-day stay in our very own Middle River Regional Jail.
Seems that our reporting on the Franklin case – detailing accounts from Franklin’s family about the lack of medical and mental health care, the lack of heat in the winter months and AC in the summer months, the poor food – triggered our reader, a man in his 50s from the Staunton/Augusta County area, who wrote us a lengthy account of a similar experience after being arrested and booked into MRRJ on charges from another jurisdiction that were dropped 11 days after he was put into custody.
ICYMI
Eleven days might seem like a blip, but, no, not when it’s 11 days spent not knowing if it’s going to be years, for something that you didn’t do.
“I read the story. Heartbreaking. It brought back memories of what I experienced,” our reader told us, beginning his story with the day he was arrested and processed at MRRJ.
He’d just gotten home from work – “it was evening, so I hadn’t eaten since morning. I asked for something to eat and drink, and got nothing until the next morning.”
Welcome to MRRJ, right?
After breakfast, he met with a jail nurse, and told her that he was on three medications – “one for severe depression, one for thyroids, the other for sleep.”
“The nurse said no to all three. Not on their list.”
“Not on their list”?
The list doesn’t include meds for depression and thyroids?
Seems like those are life-preserving.
Maybe revisit the list.
Next indignity:
“I’ve had three knee surgeries. I ask for a bottom bunk. Nope, didn’t happen. Plus, they put me on the second floor of the pod, so, steps.”
This is just the staff being jerks.
Let’s keep a running tally here – no meds, top bunk and steps to climb with a bum knee.
“You only got a cup to get water out of your cell sink, right above the toilet, of course.”
Who, we should ask here, is responsible for that clever design?
Haha, let’s make ‘em drink water from the toilet.
“The food at MRRJ is beyond anything I had ever seen, and I’m not a picky eater, by any stretch. I can’t begin to describe how disgusting the food was. Always cold, no condiments to even make it eatable. We had meat one time. I guess it was meat, lol. They would give you a piece of bologna, but it had chunks of black and green hard stuff in it, hard as rocks. Only liquid ever was your cup to get water out of your cell, unless you had money on your commissary to get a soda or regular water.”
More in terms of what comes across to me as cruel and unusual punishment: “no toilet paper.”
That’s something we all take for granted, right?
Not at MRRJ.
“I ran out, asked one of guards, this went on for two days, then one guard came in with five rolls and threw them into the crowd of like 50 off us on that pod. Luckily, I caught one.”
Running tally: no meds, no accounting for the bum knee, awful food, water basically from the toilet, no toilet paper.
“The guys that had done time in other places said MRRJ was the worst place ever. The food, no rec time, basic supplies, their medicines, and it is filthy in there. You look from outside, it looks new, modern, but it’s a filthy disaster inside.”
“Basically, at MRRJ, you’re treated as an animal.”
When our guy was finally transported to the jurisdiction where he was facing the charge that landed him in jail, he was only there one night, but it was night and day, in terms of the experience, he told us.
“The guards treated you like humans, and answered questions if they could help. And the food was served in like a takeout container from a restaurant. You could get salt, ketchup, etc. and the food was hot, variety, and I must say, really good. Plus, they would give you a juice box with your meal.”
“I understand it’s jail, but people should be treated like people, not go without phone calls, toilet paper, I had same towel the whole 10 days at MRRJ, gross I wouldn’t even call it food there, no meds, on and on.”
It’s jail, indeed – and in the case of the vast majority of the population on the inside, they haven’t been convicted of a crime yet, as was the case with our guy, who was released on his own recognizance after his night in jail in the other jurisdiction, and saw his charges eventually dropped.
Even if you are eventually found guilty, should we be treating people like animals – awful food, fighting for a roll of toilet paper, subsistence food, water basically from the toilet, living in filth?
Be careful how you answer – the old saw about there but for the grace of God go I would seem to apply here.
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Chris Graham
