No matter how cynical you've grown about the American justice system -- let's say, from watching a few too many episodes of The Wire -- there are still stories coming out of Miami's prison system that will make your jaw drop.
Today, through a federal indictment, comes a tale of casual civil rights abuses that sounds right out of a David Simon script.
Three guards at Florida City's Dade Correctional Institute allegedly planned beat-downs inside the jail courtesy their personal inmate enforcer, a 28-year-old prisoner named Larry T. Williams but appropriately nicknamed "Monster."
The indictment names three guards: 22-year-old Cordell J. White, 21-year-old Christopher W. Bonnet, and 30-year-old DCI Sgt. Obe D. L'Bert (winner of Riptide's coveted Best Named Criminal of the Week award).
On November 1, 2007, according to the indictment, White and Bonnet helped Monster beat up another prisoner, identified as F.H., and then moved F.H. to their enforcer's cell, where F.H. was seriously injured.
(No one wants to share a cell with a guy named "Monster.")
Last October, L'Bert and White allegedly did the same thing with another inmate, identified as D.T.
The guards face three felony civil rights charges, each carrying a maximum ten-year sentence.
