Student left in cell 4 days recalls hallucinations

[morriswalters]

Student left in cell 4 days recalls hallucinations. Modern police work, it boggles the mind.

[Diadem]

I'm generally less worried or upset by genuine fuckups than by deliberate ones. This sounds like it's a genuine mistake. Which of course doesn't mean he doesn't deserve a generous compensation. Twenty million sounds a bit excessive, but I guess at the end of the day the real figure will be more reasonable.

I had to laugh at the last sentence of the article though

He was told he would be released before he was forgotten for four days.

This really sounds like they said to him: "Well we often forget people for four days, but we promise we'll release you before we do that".

Also, I'm kind of wondering. How understaffed do they have to be to forget someone for 4 days without noticing? Surely someone should have heard him call out? Was the entire building empty for 4 days?

[addams]

Such strange news. It is a case of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing?

Why was he allowed to live? We all know that the American Police shoot and kill her people. If, we don't all know, then, we should all know, the American Police have been known to beat prisoners to death; Just for fun.

This guy somehow lived? That is amazing. The money should be put into changing the way the Police do their dirty work.

[ElWanderer]

Also, I'm kind of wondering. How understaffed do they have to be to forget someone for 4 days without noticing? Surely someone should have heard him call out? Was the entire building empty for 4 days?

According to The BBC, "Mr Chong said he heard DEA employees and other prisoners, and he screamed and kicked the door, but received no response." Pretty shocking.

Sounds like a possible "computer says no" situation - if they signed him out (to release him), the cell would show in the system as unoccupied... so all the staff had to do was ignore the evidence of their own eyes and ears.

[Iulus Cofield]

That seems rather implausible.

[Qaanol]

You know what else seems implausible?

That a nation dedicated to individual liberty and the free market would throw people in jail for choosing what to put in their own bodies, or for selling things that other people choose to imbibe.

[ElWanderer]

What I mean is that if you're starting a shift as a prison warder and want to know how many prisoners you have and in which cells, you'd almost certainly consult some kind of log. If that information is inaccurate because someone hasn't been signed in or out correctly, you might end up preparing the wrong number of meals or not checking up on a prisoner... until you discover the mistake. You'd need to be pretty poor at your job to ignore bangs and shouts coming from a cell you believe to be empty, though.

Trite imagining of the situation:
*bang* *bang* *clash*
"Is there anyone in 118, Dave?"
"No, mate, must be a ghost."

Sounds implausible, yes, but the alternatives mostly involve staff ignoring a prisoner they know is there.

[HungryHobo]

people probably bang and shout all the time.
If you're used enough to drunks screaming and shouting then you'd just phase it out and someone's not on your list just assume he's someone elses responsibility.

[Chen]

people probably bang and shout all the time.
If you're used enough to drunks screaming and shouting then you'd just phase it out and someone's not on your list just assume he's someone elses responsibility.

That and odds are the list is on a computer at the front desk away from the cells. Once you're walking in the cell area its unlikely they'd just remember "oh wait the noise coming from that cell is odd since I remember that one being empty on the list".

Now that said, after a two days or so you might start to remember "hmm I didn't put any food in that cell again today and there still seems to be banging coming from it". Of course if the people on duty repeatedly changed that might never come up either. Presumably after 2 days or so the prisoner probably didn't really have much strength to continue yelling and shouting which would just make knowing he was there worse.

I also have to wonder why doors to unused cells aren't just kept open instead of closed, though I guess it depends on the architecture of the place.

[jakovasaur]

This is such a weird story. He found some meth just sitting in his cell? He then decided to snort that meth? What?!

[Роберт]

From the article:

A federal law enforcement official familiar with DEA operations said the agency's protocols require that cells be checked each night.

Something went terribly wrong several times for him to have been in there that long. There was no water, so he had to drink his own urine. 4 days with no food or water?

[Sizik]

This is such a weird story. He found some meth just sitting in his cell? He then decided to snort that meth? What?!

Chong said he ingested a white powder that he found in the cell. Agents later identified it as methamphetamine. Chong said he ingested it to survive.

Sounds more like he ate it.

[Роберт]

This is such a weird story. He found some meth just sitting in his cell? He then decided to snort that meth? What?!

Chong said he ingested a white powder that he found in the cell. Agents later identified it as methamphetamine. Chong said he ingested it to survive.

Sounds more like he ate it.

He hadn't eaten or had water for days. He probably wasn't think clearly and had no idea it was meth.

[jakovasaur]

This is such a weird story. He found some meth just sitting in his cell? He then decided to snort that meth? What?!

Chong said he ingested a white powder that he found in the cell. Agents later identified it as methamphetamine. Chong said he ingested it to survive.

Sounds more like he ate it.

Whoops, I guess I missed the "ingested" part. I didn't realize you could eat meth.

But that still raises some weird questions. Why was there meth in his cell? Did he realize it was meth? If he did, why would he think meth would keep him alive? Wouldn't that speed up dehydration? And if he didn't know it was meth, why would he just eat some random powder? Makes no sense to me.

[Роберт]

This is such a weird story. He found some meth just sitting in his cell? He then decided to snort that meth? What?!

Chong said he ingested a white powder that he found in the cell. Agents later identified it as methamphetamine. Chong said he ingested it to survive.

Sounds more like he ate it.

Whoops, I guess I missed the "ingested" part. I didn't realize you could eat meth.

But that still raises some weird questions. Why was there meth in his cell? Did he realize it was meth? If he did, why would he think meth would keep him alive? Wouldn't that speed up dehydration? And if he didn't know it was meth, why would he just eat some random powder? Makes no sense to me.

He was drinking his own urine and trying to set off the sprinkler system to get more water. He was thirst and hungry. I'm sure it looked edible. He was probably having mental clarity issues already.

As to why there was meth there in the first place... well this clearly is not a well-managed cell, is it?

[Heisenberg]

The DEA was negligent enough to leave him in this cell for 5 days. It's surely negligent enough to leave meth laying around.

When you haven't eaten anything, everything starts looking like a hamburger, according to cartoons. He likely also tried eating his shoe.

Meth stops you from salivating, so it may have actually been helpful?

[morriswalters]

Why did he swallow part of his broken glasses and puncture his esophagus? Might he have been banging on less than all cylinders?

[sardia]

The DEA was negligent enough to leave him in this cell for 5 days. It's surely negligent enough to leave meth laying around.

When you haven't eaten anything, everything starts looking like a hamburger, according to cartoons. He likely also tried eating his shoe.

Meth stops you from salivating, so it may have actually been helpful?

You don't want to take meth when you haven't eaten or drank in four days.

[Роберт]

You don't want to take meth when you haven't eaten or drank in four days.

Tell it to Daniel Chong. Whoops, too late.

They really should have more public service announcements about this sort of thing.

[jakovasaur]

Why did he swallow part of his broken glasses and puncture his esophagus? Might he have been banging on less than all cylinders?

Yeah, clearly went a little nuts in there. Hopefully his $20M will make him feel better.

[morriswalters]

It certainly would me. But it reminds me of why I quit using recreational pharma.

[aoeu]

If he's really getting millions out of this it might just be that someone at DEA liked a random bum a lot better than their employer.

[mike-l]

If he's really getting millions out of this it might just be that someone at DEA liked a random bum a lot better than their employer.

... There is so much wrong with this sentence.

[Diadem]

Wait a second, why wasn't there any water in his cell?

Don't cells have sinks? What if a prisoner wants to drink something? What about toilets. Surely they have toilets? It sounds extremely inefficient to have to escort prisoners around every time one of them needs to pee. And if they have such a system, with a guard on standby all the time waiting for prisoners who have to pee, that makes missing him for 4 days even more unbelievable.

I know the USA is not a first world country, but even third world nations generally manage toilets to put in their jails.

[morriswalters]

It was a holding area not a cell, no windows, no facilities period.

[Diadem]

I see. But a holding area is only for keeping people temporarily right? I mean a few hours at most. And under supervision?

[Panonadin]

I know the USA is not a first world country, but even third world nations generally manage toilets to put in their jails.

Not to derail, but what?

[Iulus Cofield]

It's cool to bash on America.

[Princess Marzipan]

Dude, don't act like we don't deserve it.

[Griffin]

I see. But a holding area is only for keeping people temporarily right? I mean a few hours at most. And under supervision?

Basically, yes. It's basically supposed to be a waiting room for people you don't want to go anywhere until you can figure out what to do with them.

[Lucrece]

Great. A bunch of negligent assholes who may or may not get fired -- but could soon enough get a job someplace else if they are-- just cost taxpayers a good chunk of money this kid wouldn't make in a lifetime. Pretty horrible experience, but it should be those directly responsible to suffer the brunt of the damages claimed. The criminal charges should eclipse the civil ones.

[CorruptUser]

You are a DEA agent.
You arrest some kid for drugs.
You have placed him in holding.
You forget, for whatever reason.
You come back for something unrelated, notice something wrong hey wai- holy shit what the hell oh my god I forgot!
Do you free the kid, or do you cover it up by removing the only witness?

Well, if you are facing several years in the prison with the very people you spent the past few decades filling said prison with, you might be tempted to make the kid disappear. Hey, no one will know; no one knew he was even in here, hell even you didn't know. Hey, you don't even have to kill him, just drug him up real good and release him in the next town over, make it look like he was just a junkie. No one will believe him, not when he's clearly out of his mind on drugs, being just some addict. That's what he is, that's why he was arrested in the first place, wasn't it? It's either that or you can spend the next few years in prison. It's you are him. Come on, it's an easy decision.

Maybe that would explain why there was meth in the holding cell.

That's why screw-ups like these are not always as easily solved as "punish the bad guys".

[Gotank]

I found it funny that he hallucinated anime characters telling him to dig for water.

In either case, I think it's a very good thing they found him when they did. If he had died in the cell, the miscarriage of justice would be unrepairable.

[Dr. Diaphanous]

OK you guys below win.
<post deleted>

[Роберт]

... I won, I guess?

[Dr. Diaphanous]

I'm just backing up the 'point' that America is not a first-world country.

[Nordic Einar]

Uh, also, why do you assume that many of the people posting in this thread aren't also concerned with solitary confinement and the current state of the Prison-Industrial Complex?

Because, like, some of us even do activism surrounding it. Just sayin'.

[Iulus Cofield]

I'm just backing up the 'point' that America is not a first-world country.

I do not think that phrase what you think that it means.

[Diadem]

I know the USA is not a first world country, but even third world nations generally manage toilets to put in their jails.

Not to derail, but what?

It was a joke of sorts. The kind of joke that's wrapped in snark.

The thing is, it's not entirely untrue. The US is certainly rich enough to be considered a first-world country. But really are an anomaly in many ways, when you compare them to other rich, first-world countries. Their justice system often resembles a third world country more than a first world one. Idem for their social security system, their medical system, their democratic system, their treatment of minorities, the list goes on.

This sort of thing is a good example. Putting someone in jail for absolutely nothing and then forgetting him for 5 days, that really could not happen in any European country, or any of the other countries that are considered 'the west'. And if it did happen, you could bet there'd be a huge outcry.

[Eyat]

I know the USA is not a first world country, but even third world nations generally manage toilets to put in their jails.

Not to derail, but what?

It was a joke of sorts. The kind of joke that's wrapped in snark.

The thing is, it's not entirely untrue. The US is certainly rich enough to be considered a first-world country. But really are an anomaly in many ways, when you compare them to other rich, first-world countries. Their justice system often resembles a third world country more than a first world one. Idem for their social security system, their medical system, their democratic system, their treatment of minorities, the list goes on.

This sort of thing is a good example. Putting someone in jail for absolutely nothing and then forgetting him for 5 days, that really could not happen in any European country, or any of the other countries that are considered 'the west'. And if it did happen, you could bet there'd be a huge outcry.

You should perhaps be careful about painting with too broad a brush. Just because the vast majority of the news you get is negative doesn't mean that the US is some third world Junta. You are from the Netherlands (or so I gather from your profile) if you are hearing about it its because there is an outcry. A HUGE mistake was made people are going to lose their jobs and the government is going to write this guy a huge check. All better? Not really. Will this happen again? Hopefully not. But to extrapolate to the rest of american society is simply unsupported. Especially with your vague comparisons to "other first world countries". Bonus points for trying treatment of minorities since both France and the UK (arguably two of the closest comparisons to the US) had race riots in their capitols in recent years. Kudos.