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Show Iron County Jail Grand jury investigation requested He also said that if a prisoner wants law materials, all he need do is ask, and the jail personnel will get them for him. PAROWAN - A Salt Lake City attorney at-torney has requested that a grand jury be empaneled to inquire into the conditions con-ditions and management of the Iron County Jail. Brian M. Barnard requested the grand jury investigation in a July 15 letter to Fifth District Court Judge J. Harlan Burns. According to Iron County Attorney James L. Shumate, Burns will now review the request and determine if a grand jury should be called. If it is called, the members of the jury will investigate and make recommendations recom-mendations to thejudge. In his letter to Burns, Barnard said: "from information that I have received from inmates that have been incarcerated in-carcerated in the Iron County Jail, I understand that various conditions exist that would warrant an inquiry." Among the grievances, Barnard said that intoxicated inmates are stripped and placed in the same cells as clothed and sober inmates; inmates are not separated according to their status; the food is prepared, served and eaten under unsanitary conditions; there is no law library or legal materials; and the jail staff has refused to assist inmates in-mates in corresponding with the federal courts. He also said the jail is unsanitary and unsafe and in "such a condition as to constitute cruel and unusual punishment"; punish-ment"; there are no rules and regulations for the discipline of inmates; in-mates; women inmates are often housed without direct supervision of a matron; and there are no adequate recreational or rehabilitative programs for the inmates. "I believe that the conditions and JL situations described above constitute a denial of due process of law, a denial of, access to the courts and the imposition of cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Utah State Constitution and the United States Constitution," the letter said. However Sheriff Ira Schoppmann said that the charges in the letter; simply aren't true for the most part. "It's not that bad of conditions." In fact, he said, if a grand jury should be empaneled, which he doubted, it would find the Iron County Jail neater than a lot of new jails. He especially commented on the charges of unsanitary food and the housing of stripped and drunken prisoners with others. He flatly denied both. "These things just haven't hap-pend." |