Press Conference: Suing Santa Rita.

Categories:

When:
October 28, 2014 @ 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm
2014-10-28T18:00:00+00:00
2014-10-28T19:00:00+00:00
Where:
Board of Supervisors Chamber, 5th floor, just outside
1221 Oak Street
Oakland, CA 94612
USA
Contact:
Yolanda Huang, Attorney
510-329-2140
On Oct, 27, 2014, Anne Weills , noted civil rights activists, long time lawyer and resident of Oakland, and 3 other civil rights activists, Tova Fry, Alyssa Eisenberg and Mollie Costello filed a class action lawsuit against Alameda County Sheriff Gregory Ahern, alleging that Sheriff Ahern deprived plaintiff and other women who were incarcerated in Santa Rita jail “with the minimal civilized measure of life’s necessities, and have violated their basic human dignity and their right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.”

On February 13, 2014, members of the Justice 4 Alan Blueford Coalition were protesting at the State Building in Oakland.  Anne Weills was there as a legal observer from the National Lawyers’ Guild.  The protesters and Attorney Weills were arrested, driven to Santa Rita and placed in the custody of the Sheriff.

The sheriffs’ deputies demanded that the women take off their shirts in front of male deputies and other male prisoners.  When Attorney Weills refused, considering the request to be sexual harassment, she was thrown into a solitary closet, denied access to a toilet.  Then she and the other plaintiffs were then placed in severely overcrowded cells, which were filthy with feces, blood, urine, garbage and rotting food on the floors and walls.  Women who were bleeding were denied feminine hygiene supplies.

They will be at the Board of Supervisors meeting to demand that the Board end sexual harassment and improve conditions at Santa Rita Jail.

At the press conference the four plaintiffs will describe their experiences.

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