News Digest (Society)

US police 'dumped paralysed man'
13th February 2008

Four US sheriff's deputies have been suspended after deliberately dumping a quadriplegic man out of his wheelchair to search him, officials have said.
Brian Sterner was tipped onto the floor of the Florida police station after being arrested over a driving offence.

Unable to walk since a 1994 accident, he has only partial use of his arms and no feeling below the sternum. The incident in January was caught on a CCTV camera in the jail in Hillsborough County, which incorporates Tampa.

Charlette Marshall-Jones, the deputy who actually forced the man from the chair, has been suspended without pay.

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Get prisoners into open jails, governors told as cells fill up
12th February 2008

Prison governors have been told to move as many inmates as possible to open jails as an emergency response to the latest surge in prisoner numbers, which have reached a new record of 81,681 in England and Wales.

The Prison Service has had to declare the system "house full" for the first time since last June in the face of a population rise of more than 400 since the start of this month as a result of a sudden increase in short-sentence and remand prisoners.

Prison Service managers last week crowded 375 prisoners into emergency police cells, with dozens more held overnight in court cells pressed into service in London and Mansfield for three nights. Conditions in the west London court cells have been criticised by Anne Owers, the chief inspector of prisons.

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