“'I'm afraid we don't believe everything you tell us,” Hardy said. There was deep sadness in his voice. “Not that I ever accepted everything you told us. Priests hear a lot of lies. But we knew you were hiding something.'” –-Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, The Mote in God's Eye pg 533.
Since the The Mockingbird's first report on rape and other sexual abuse in the Fairfield County County jail and the resultant cover up, the powers that be have pushed back. Despite claiming in an interview with ABC 6 that the investigation was closed, Sheriff Dave Phalen repeated called family members of sources for our story demanding to speak to them within 48 hours of our first publication.
Jail is never a fun place to be. The overcrowded and ever expanding Fairfield County Jail in Lancaster Ohio is less fun than most and downright dangerous for some. Deputies smuggle drugs to female prisoners in exchange for sexual favors, traffic in photos of prisoners, and in at least one case, allegedly raped them just out of view of security cameras. When the rape was reported, evidence never made it to the prosecutor's office. Witnesses were then threatened with retaliation.