The continual unfolding of the goings on at the Jefferson County jail has been one horror after another.
There are the internal investigation documents that The Pine Bluff Commercial obtained through a series of Freedom of Information requests. Those tell an ugly tale.
In addition, there are the videos obtained and published over the past several days. If anything has pushed justice along over the years, it's a video of wrongdoing. It's one thing to write that a supervisor took what appeared to be an unprovoked swing at a detainee, striking him in the jaw, and to write that the supervisor later rammed the detainees head into a brick wall, and it's quite another to present the videos that show the details of some of that, complete with a detainee holding his head in what appears to be anguish.
Then there was the story in which reporter Eplunus Colvin talked to justices of the peace for Jefferson County who said they were upset to be seeing and hearing about the incident for the first time through the newspaper's coverage.
Some of them recoiled at seeing the images, asking aloud why such incidents had been allowed to go on inside the jail. Some said the JPs should be clued in on anything that happens in the county that might turn into a lawsuit and perhaps cost the county money. People sue for all kinds of reasons, but video evidence of a beating, well, that would appear to be something a lawyer might be interested in pursuing.
And then there's the family members of a detainee who was allegedly beaten. They claim the jail staff has lied to them and that the detainee, months after his injuries, is still suffering from his injuries.
And what has happened to Lt. Samuel Baker, the person who was terminated by a team of internal investigators? Sheriff Lafayette Woods brushed off the termination and kept Baker employed, as long as Baker takes a class. Baker is the same person who was fired not once but twice before for the same reasons. Such a pattern of excess should not be tolerated, but Woods has done just that, tolerated excess.
As one family member put it, the whole jail, where it appears one person covers for another, needs a house cleaning. If not that, the jail needs to be thoroughly investigated. If incidents such as what happened in September go by without outrage from Woods, who oversees the jail, something is seriously wrong.
To that end, we encourage the justices of the peace to call for an external review of the whole jail operation. The public has a right to know how that operation has been functioning and what, if anything else, has been going on.
And the detainees, lest it be forgotten, have rights, too. We've seen comments pointing the finger at the detainees as if to suggest that because they are being held for crime x, y or z, they just get what they get while being held. That logic does not pass muster. We live in a civilized society, and we treat people with respect and dignity. To do less is simply not acceptable.