Inmates at Genesee County Jail in Flint, Michigan allegedly were not given the same warning as the rest of the city's residents about the dangers of drinking Flint's contaminated tap water, Democracy Now! reports. While the rest of the city began avoiding the water in October, when Flint's mayor declared a state of emergency over the water's high lead levels, inmates — including pregnant women — say that they were bathing in, drinking, and eating food made with the contaminated water until Jan. 23.
Former inmate Jody Cramer says the jail only heeded the state of emergency for five days before the sheriff said that a water quality test showed the water was safe and the jail switched back over to tap. "Many inmates made complaints due to the fact that the deputies would not drink from the faucets — they all carried bottled water," Cramer told Democracy Now!. "We were consistently told that the water in the jail was good."
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