Nikola Gligorevic

Review of Hamilton County Justice Center

Food served a dog wouldn't eat, literally dogs wou...

Food served a dog wouldn't eat, literally dogs would pass on it. Sanitary conditions are awful. Mold in the showers - just to name one, along with un-cleaned restrooms for a week at a time (that doesn't sound too bad? Well consider 55 grown men sharing that 1 restroom and ask me if it should be more than just a weekly cleanin. The CO's are divided in half. Half of them care, and will extend helping hands to help an inmate. The other half prefer to downgrade you & compare you to something like the crap on the bottom of their shoe. Things such as getting cussed out, very vulgar racial slurs, even the CO's threatening our lives and our families lives (finds out information through Facebook for example) are not uncommon. Certain units like the psyche unit needs serious equipment upgrades - along with more staff training/education. There were numerous situations witnessed weir equipment/training/education prevented a situation from being handled properly - & most of the time due to this the inmate is on the suffering end. The saturation of drugs within the jail is no exaggeration. Overdoses are not too uncommon. I do understand when COs walk around at 2AM to do their rounds, they must be able to see into the cell to make sure both people are there, but not turning the lights off at all 24/7 for 365 is unreal. Your mind starts to go crazy, to lose track, to really trick itself almost. I have seen documentaries where jails/prisons have a stress/argument relief system. For instance, a jail in New Mexico allows 2 inmates who are having disagreements or personal issues, go get into a boxing ring and box to let out stress and get their anger out. Shaking hands at the end is a must, and of course all proper protective gear is required to be worn. Consider the amount of violence such as fighting, stabbings, harassment & so on this prevents. This could be a relatively cheap tool to implement into the system that cooks real large safety benefits in the long run. This list could go on and on and on, but we will stop there. Now onto this..

I will say that these negative things are not necessarily the faults of the COs, their Sargaents, police officers or even judges. A contract signed at the time of casino building with a food company has the menu locked in place for years to come. Certain rules such as the lights being on could be state policy and for obvious positive reasons such as to prevent rape, murder, and on. I did see a very positive thing, people higher up the pay grade getting involved. Sitting down with inmates, with COs, asking what is going on. What are problems, how can we fix them? What is working and producing good results, so we can implement it facility wide? I am a firm believe it all starts from the top and works it's way down. After seeing events like these, I do see a potential bright future for HCJC.

Although the future may be bright, and I hope every day they get better and better, unfortunately with the current state being so bad - I still must give a 1 star rating. Hope nothing but the best, positive and upward growth for facility & staff, and for the inmates may your time go by quickly and easily, and prayers fo keep you on the path away from jail.