Punishment in jail should not involve abuse

Punishment in jail should not involve abuse

By Joseph Budd,

Native Sun News Today Staff Writer

When you get handed a hot topic, you’d like to know everything you can on a given topic. Case in point, a call came in regarding a Charles Pulliam, an incarcerated young man, currently in the Rapid City Jail. Talking with his grandmother, she had mentioned the start of a problem, improper touching, first happened the previous year in January by a corrections officer.

The grandson, tried to follow normal procedures, and as well, tried to get his information out. However, given the Jail and the difficulty in getting information in and out, it is a story that needs to be told.

A call came into us from Arlene Morrison, the Grandmother, who by her own words, has tried to raise her grandson to the point, he’s referred to as son, and her, mom. Issues within the Jail, started back in January 2021, with a case of inappropriate touching, when a corrections officer, later had grabbed Pulliam inappropriately. Pulliam, in response, reported the incident through the proper channels.

“He told me that Andrews later told him, he was talked to by an official, but was still working for the Jail.” Morrison related. It also started its own chain of questionable episodes, as first Morrison would visit to the jail herself, only to discover the report in question, had vanished.

She would also ask Sargent Davies, who had done an investigation, and rejected the complaint, would state “it’s not against the law to do that to an inmate. This did raise some eyebrows, as if a person were to do that in a workplace environment, you could at the least expect a meeting with HR, or at the worst, being terminated for improper sexual advances.

For Pulliam however, things would get worse as the corrections officer seemed to single out Pulliam, telling him “things could have been different, but then you had to talk to someone”. This was about the time that Pulliam also discovered, letters out were being intercepted. One effort he had to contact a lawyer on the subject never left, or to that matter, even when finding a lawyer, the issues of either it being hard to take on the police department or the issue, as with WAVI, is the case falls outside of their jurisdiction.

While these events continued, Morrison would mention other issues started happening, making communications more difficult. She would hear people listening in on the calls, finding certain numbers like cell phone numbers becoming blocked, and even their home number blocked. With being able to call out impossible, letters being blocked and the most recent episode being placed in lockdown, one does have to wonder what decade we are living in, in Rapid City.

It also makes one wonder, given other inmates, had been in contact with Pulliam, and had similar stories to his treatment.

For Pulliam, at 27 years of age, is due to be moved to therapy to prepare him to return to society. It is up in the air if these recent episodes will change the timeline for his release. Originally his record showed a couple charges, possession, stealing a car and escape. We will be following up this story in the next few months as well, so stay tuned to the Native Sun News Today!

The post Punishment in jail should not involve abuse first appeared on Native Sun News Today.

Visit Original Source