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Sheriff: Prison Reform Advocate Planted Guns for Jail Break
Tennessee authorities say a longtime prison reform advocate was preparing to stage a jail break when he hid loaded guns and ammunition in a new jail that was under construction.
By Associated Press, Wire Service Content Feb. 19, 2020, at 4:43 p.m.NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A longtime prison reform advocate was preparing to stage a jail break when he hid loaded guns and ammunition in a new jail that was under construction, Tennessee authorities said Wednesday.
Alex Friedmann, a former prisoner turned crusader against private prisons and a longtime editor at Prison Legal News, was charged last month with attempted burglary. He was accused of gaining access to the new jail by dressing as a construction worker and stealing keys.
As the investigation continued, “it was discovered that Mr. Friedmann, over many months, had developed and implemented an extremely deliberate and, in my opinion, evil plan,” Nashville Sheriff Daron Hall said during a Wednesday news conference announcing Friedmann’s re-arrest on upgraded charges.
Friedmann is now charged with vandalism of $250,000 or more, with his bond set at $2.5 million.
Friedmann's attorney, Ben Raybin, issued a statement late Wednesday.
“I am currently unable to comment on any of the factual allegations,” Raybin said. “Mr. Friedmann is presumed innocent and will respond through the appropriate legal processes.”
Hall said he believes Friedmann was designing a massive jail break that would endanger “every inmate, every visitor and our entire community.”
“Virtually everything I’m telling you is on video” Hall said, noting that investigators have poured through hundreds of hours of video to identify the areas of the building that were compromised.
Hall currently serves as president of the National Sheriff’s Association and said no one there has ever seen anything like this before.
“It will forever change how correctional facilities are built,” he said.
Prison Legal News is a project of the nonprofit Human Rights Defense Center. Friedmann resigned as editor after his earlier arrest in January, executive director Paul Wright said in a telephone interview.
[ED: What this AP story doesn’t mention is that this celebrated “prison reform advocate” had spent ten years in a Tennessee prison for attempted murder, armed robbery, and attempted aggravated robbery.]
Don't you just love those liberal activists? Is it necessary to state the obvious? Non-violent, non-dangerous offenders locked up for weeks or months for being bad don't even WANT weapons. It would only be dangerous, violent offenders who are looking for weapons.
And, I almost missed the romanticized side of things. Attempted murder, armed robbery, and attempted aggravated robbery - much the same thing that Patty Hearst was involved in. Awwww, to bad he's not an heir to some rich old bastard, huh?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday February 20 2020, @03:04AM (8 children)
One person being both a) for prison reform and b) essentially a domestic terrorist doesn't make prison reform wrong. I see the shit you're trying to pull here and it's the same thing you tried to do in your last journal.
Why not take people on a case by case basis? You scream bloody murder every time someone dares lump you in with domestic terrorists, despite parroting their mannerisms, slogans, and ideologies.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 20 2020, @03:12AM (4 children)
Simply put, Runaway1956 is trying to twist this incident as an excuse to turn liberals and conservatives against each other. I will criticize Trump when he deserves it. In order to be taken seriously, I have to acknowledge when he does something right. Trump deserves credit for his efforts to advance criminal justice reform. That also shows this issue doesn't divide cleanly along party lines. While the individual who plotted this act of terror was an advocate for criminal justice reform, it is not even certain that he's a liberal. And an evil act by a single individual cannot be extrapolated to an entire population, just as you said. This is another attempt by Runaway1956 to try to further polarize people, and he's being intellectually dishonest. I was considerably harsher than you in my response to this journal, but he deserves it.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by Runaway1956 on Thursday February 20 2020, @04:22PM (3 children)
Maybe you haven't been keeping up with news out of Virginia. Libbies counted coup, of sorts, over more conservative people. They won a majority at the capital, and promised to take away people's guns. The people came to the capital, and told the libbies, "Oh no you're not!"
There is every reason to suspect that the culprit in this case was planning some kind of false-flag thing, to move along the libbie objective of confiscating all the guns. Just because the sheriff and the media assume a prison break, is no reason to stop looking for explanations at a prison break.
Hail to the Nibbler in Chief.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday February 20 2020, @06:51PM (2 children)
The people who won the elections voted against the bill. Representative democracy in action.
Shouldn't you be applauding the Democrats that voted against the bill?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 20 2020, @09:07PM
But that would ruin his narrative! Gotta keep that 2 minutes of hate every day!
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by Runaway1956 on Friday February 21 2020, @12:52AM
Applause for everyone who voted against the bill. But, the party will keep trying.
Hail to the Nibbler in Chief.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday February 20 2020, @03:53PM
How wonderful that you catch all of that nuance, and can even make an attempt to explain the subtleties of the issue.
But, you might look back, and find all the places where I have condemned the entire prison-for-profit system. In fact, I have equated it to slavery. "We cain't work dem darkies in de fields no more, so we can just throw their black asses in prison, and gubbermint will pay us to keep 'em locked up!"
Prison reform is a good thing. Librul activists are never a good thing.
Hail to the Nibbler in Chief.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday February 20 2020, @06:49PM
1: ALLEGEDLY!!! funny how innocent until proven guilty only counts for certain people....
2: He's currently charged with VANDALISM. That sounds to me like they're not even going to try to prove the terror plot which makes me think the evidence may be thin.
(Score: 2) by barbara hudson on Friday February 21 2020, @02:13AM
More likely he was stashing the weapons so he could sell their whereabouts to contacts of people inside. After all, follow the money. There's no money in a massive jailbreak, but a gun in a prison would be almost priceless. Even the less violent inmates would like one for their own personal protection.
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