http://news.msn.com/crime-justice/five-star-lockups-inmates-review-jails-on-yelp
Yelp isn't just for restaurant reviews anymore. Many jails are now featured on the site, where users complain about conditions or, believe it or not, praise the food.
How's the food? What about the decor? Was the staff helpful?
While most would associate these questions with a $100-a-head eatery, they also apply to jail and prison reviews on Yelp, where former inmates, current employees, visitors and even lawyers are chiming in and grading lock-ups.
The content of the reviews ranges from playful laments about the quality of the grub to serious accusations of mistreatment and abuse.
One former inmate at California's San Quentin State Prison took issue with the food on most days, but noted that he particularly enjoys Friday and Sunday, which bring "chicken on the bone day" and "microwaveable-like grand slam breakfast," respectively.
He also tackled more serious subjects, detailing which gangs hang out in which areas and the disposition of the guards at the prison. "The violence is high to low depending on where your [sic] housed ... mostly stabbings happen In … reception," he said.
Manhattan Central Booking in New York, also known as The Tombs, earned a three-star rating on Yelp. Most common among the complaints about The Tombs is the quality of the food.
"Their menu needs work," one Yelper wrote. "The Kool-Aid helps the nasty water taste a little bit better, but their sandwiches are awful. The bread is reminiscent of styrofoam and the bologna is rough around the edges."
Amid the gastronomic critiques, a Georgia man wrote last summer that he was beaten by a team of guards at Los Angeles County Jail for their personal pleasure. Another user called that jail "hellish."
Orleans Parish Prison in New Orleans — which made headlines earlier this month when video footage emerged of prisoners openly using drugs and brandishing guns — earned a two-star rating on Yelp. One reviewer, who said he spent a night there for a public intoxication charge, said he witnessed "crack being smoked/sold openly," a holding room "full of vomit/feces/urine where we were held for 4 hours with no running water" and "a crackhead projectile vomit in a room where 30 of us were packed in to a space designed for no more than 12."
While the online reviews can be lighthearted at times, civil liberty advocates say they underscore a glaring lack of internal scrutiny and recourse for inmates inside of American jails. According to the Washington Post, only two states, New York and Texas, have independent inspectors who monitor lockup conditions.
In the other 48 states, inmates seeking redress are left largely to their own devices. Oftentimes, their complaints barely get off the ground. In accordance with a 1996 law, inmates cannot sue over prison conditions until they've exhausted administrative procedures, which can take years, go nowhere and invite retaliation from unscrupulous prison officials.
"We teach them, inside of prison, that the rule of law is not effective," Jack Beck, who runs the legislatively sanctioned Correctional Association of New York, told the Washington Post. "There is no redress .... Most people survive by keeping their heads down."
David Fathi, director of the National Prison Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, told the Post that his group receives 300 to 400 written complaints each month about prison conditions, a figure which does not include phone calls and e-mails to the ACLU's state branches. With so few avenues of grievance available to inmates, Fathi said online reviews can actually be an invaluable resource for prisoners and reformers.
"Prisons and jails are closed institutions, and the lack of outside scrutiny and oversight sometimes facilitates mistreatment and abuse," Fathi told the Post. "So anything that increases public awareness of prison conditions is a positive thing."
