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."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Read the full story at Democracy Now!.
-
Texas is trying to become America’s next financial hubIn the Spotlight The Lone Star State could soon have three major stock exchanges
-
Trump pardons Texas Democratic congressmanspeed read Rep. Henry Cuellar was charged with accepting foreign bribes tied to Azerbaijan and Mexico
-
The Week contest: Primate peckPuzzles and Quizzes
-
Death toll from Southeast Asia storms tops 1,000speed read Catastrophic floods and landslides have struck Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia
-
Hurricane Melissa slams Jamaica as Category 5 stormSpeed Read The year’s most powerful storm is also expected to be the strongest ever recorded in Jamaica
-
Renewables top coal as Trump seeks reversalSpeed Read For the first time, renewable energy sources generated more power than coal, said a new report
-
China vows first emissions cut, sidelining USSpeed Read The US, the world’s No. 2 emitter, did not attend the New York summit
-
At least 800 dead in Afghanistan earthquakespeed read A magnitude 6.0 earthquake hit a mountainous region of eastern Afghanistan
-
Massive earthquake sends tsunami across PacificSpeed Read Hundreds of thousands of people in Japan and Hawaii were told to evacuate to higher ground
-
FEMA Urban Search and Rescue chief resignsSpeed Read Ken Pagurek has left the organization, citing 'chaos'
-
Wildfires destroy historic Grand Canyon lodgeSpeed Read Dozens of structures on the North Rim have succumbed to the Dragon Bravo Fire
