I came across this story while I was doing the Morning Round-Up over at Pith. It’s about how the woman who kidnapped that baby a few weeks ago is reportedly suicidal. I know. Your first thought, as is mine, is “Oh, cry me a thousand tears.”
But she’s still innocent until proven guilty AND we’re not supposed to have a system of vigilante justice, where a person is thrown into terrible conditions that others, without direction from a jury, have decided that she deserves.
So, why isn’t she getting her medication? Why is she in the Robertson County jail and not our jail in the first place? She allegedly kidnapped a newborn. It doesn’t take a genius to know she’s going to be incredibly unpopular with the inmates. Why is she not in protective custody?
Don’t get me wrong. I have no great love for Sheriff Hall and some of his programs. But he runs a pretty tight ship. So, why isn’t this woman in a jail where there is less likelihood of shenanigans?
Clearly, there’s something going on here. And I think we should keep our eye on it to make sure she wasn’t sent to Robertson County so that there could be shenanigans.
Tiny Cat Pants 
Alleged rapist Bruce Tuck here in Hoots has been in isolation since his arrest. Why isn’t this woman? Good question, B.
I am pretty sure that the Nashville feds keep the female pre-trial prisoners in Robertson County, by contract. The men are housed in the jail in Bowling Green.
I hear you Aunt B…. there is something here that ain’t right. Starting with why a woman would steal a newborn baby. So many layers of misunderstanding intersecting with criminality and the potential of mental health issues. At the very least I think she should be held in a psychiatric facility, not in a common jail ward.
I’m not concerned about her being held in jail. From what reports we have, she doesn’t seem to be delusional and she was able to plan and execute a rather complex kidnapping. It doesn’t seem to me like she needs constant medical attention.
She does, however, need to be provided her medications and be provided untainted food.
There should be no appearance of the ability to put a person in a certain jail in order to make things rougher for her. That’s not how our justice system works.
And I don’t think that “Oh, the Feds hold their prisoners in Robertson County,” holds any weight since the implementation of 287(g). Those folks are run through the system by a person acting as a federal agent and held in the Davidson County Jail for a federal violation.
If ever there was some distinction about where federal prisoners get held, it doesn’t exist any more.
We have plenty of people who have violated federal law sitting in jail in Davidson County right now.
And believe me, I’m no fan of Sheriff Hall but his staff and his facilities are almost certainly better equipped to handle a suicidal woman who needed medication and to be in protective custody.
I could be wrong, but I don’t think I am.
This woman is in federal custody. She is charged with a federal crime by the FBI. Her case will be in U.S. District Court, not state court. That’s a big distinction.
The feds don’t house their prisoners in the Davidson County Jail for the most part.
They have their own system, and around here, that system means their female prisoners got to Robertson County, and the men go all the way to Bowling Green, KY. The feds don’t have their own holding facility in the Middle District.
I’m not really talking about what kind of care they receive; just trying to explain why it’s Robertson County and not Davidson.
Yeah, but I think we’re talking past each other. If the feds can house inmates in Davidson County now, which they can, thanks to 287(g), if they have a prisoner who is at risk from other inmates and a risk to herself, why do they not avail themselves of a facility better able to care for her?
Does it really matter what they usually do?
Point taken!
Just trying point out that there is no federal pre-trial detention center in the Middle District, that’s all. And because there isn’t they contract with two local jails to house their criminal defendants who are awaiting trial.
Probably belaboring this, I know. Inside federal baseball.
I associate 287(g) with immigation cases and ICE, not with the typical criminal cases that the US Attorney
(Whoops)
. . . Handles with the FBI.
Maybe Davidson handles those prisoners now too.
The US Marshals could tell you.