Inmates sue over jail conditions

Associated Press

Twenty current and former inmates at a troubled county jail in Cleveland say in a lawsuit that they repeatedly have been denied medication or mental-health treatment and subjected to inhumane and dangerous conditions.

Some of the inmates described seeing bugs swarming their food and showers, broken and overflowing toilets and being forced to sleep on the floor because of overcrowding.

Thirteen additional inmates this week joined the lawsuit first filed against Cuyahoga County officials at the end of last year.

The new complaints come after seven guards and an associate warden at the jail were indicted on a variety of charges earlier this month, including an allegation that a corrections officer stropped a nurse from caring for a prisoner beaten by another guard.

Some of the allegations in the inmates’ lawsuit are similar to those outlined in a report by inspectors from the U.S. Marshals Service, which concluded in November that conditions were inhumane and unsafe for prisoners and staff.