August 24, 2010 in City

Jail captain says inmates clogged, flushed toilets

Sheriff plans to seek charges in flooding

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Spokane County Jail inmates will start returning today to cells they flooded with toilet water Saturday evening.

Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich plans to seek felony charges against those who were responsible if an assessment confirms the damage was as costly as county officials expect.

Capt. John McGrath, the jail commander, said inmates in the jail annex clogged toilets with a couple of jumpsuits, several towels and a blanket. Then they flushed their toilets until floor drains were overwhelmed.

Pipes were so badly clogged that plumbers couldn’t unplug them over the weekend. They had to come back Monday with a bigger rooter, McGrath said.

He said the vandalism was a coordinated effort among 20 to 30 inmates in two cell blocks.

“We haven’t had anything like this in the last few years, but we’ve had issues like this in the past,” McGrath said.

Because the “annex” is actually an older lockup on the second floor of the Public Safety Building, the flooding damaged offices used by detectives, administrators and the police records section.

In addition to water from above, the ground-floor offices were damaged when their own toilets began overflowing, McGrath said.

He said annex inmates were moved to the main jail and kept in isolation so they couldn’t “get a story together” while officers interviewed them in search of ringleaders.

The Spokesman-Review learned of Saturday’s incident in an e-mail from an inmate’s mother. She complained that inmates were forced to clean up the mess in their bare feet and that some of them later suffered diarrhea and respiratory illnesses.

“They had no problems standing in it when they were flooding their cells,” Knezovich said.

“I’m sure we used inmate labor to clean it up,” McGrath said.

Although the water came from toilets, “it wasn’t soiled in any way,” he said.

McGrath said inmates were allowed to shower if they wished. He said he hadn’t heard of any illnesses or requests for medical service.

Six comments on this story so far. Add yours!

• 

  Orange on August 24 at 6:11 a.m.

  Oh boo hoo they had to stand in the same water they flooded their own cells with. Leave them in there. They won’t do it again. To emailing mom, your law abiding perfect example of a son deserved it. Tell him to quit complaining and start mopping.

• 

  lewis8457 on August 24 at 6:31 a.m.

  inmates were moved to the main jail and kept in isolation so they couldn’t “get a story together”

  a tactic most likely learned from watching the SPD.

• 

  misjustice on August 24 at 8:44 a.m.

  “…the vandalism was a coordinated effort among 20 to 30 inmates in two cell blocks.”

  Just what, pray tell, were these Einsteins protesting? What was the point of their efforts?

  Not only should they have been made to clean up the mess that they caused, they should all be charged with destruction of public property and assessed fines to pay for the damages.

• 

  liarsinnews on August 24 at 8:46 a.m.

  Obviously the officials that work in the slammer were sleeping on the job and someone from the outside had to report the problem. Let the 20 or 30 that clogged the toilets in the first place, be isolated in a area with no toilets for the next 30 days. I`ll wager they may think about it the next time they try a stunt like this one.

• 

  JayNW on August 24 at 8:46 a.m.

  Lewis- you support the imates destroying public property- property that you pay for with your taxes (assuming you even have a job).

  Its a good tactic used every day by agencies all over our country. You separate the parties so you get an individual story. Not sure what the problem is here- its not unethical nor illegal. SPD has nothing to do with it.

• 

  west on August 24 at 9:58 a.m.

  LOL…only in Spokane…..