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No handcuffs? For real?
Where I was a PD, every defendant in custody wore a bright orange uniform and had handcuffs attached to a chain around his or her waist. Only the inmates from the Department of Corrections (the people brought over from a prison, not the county jail) wore shackles on their ankles as well and they were usually escorted by two deputies the whole time.
I don't know how things work in Atlanta, but in all the courthouses I've seen, the inmates are kept in a lockup between courtrooms when they're brought over for court. They come up a locked elevator and stay in locked holding cells, and then have to go through a locked door to get into the courtroom. Apparently this isn't the case everywhere -- on the local news last night, they showed the Denver courthouse and it appeared that they escort inmates through the regular hallways, which is something I've never seen. Maybe older courts don't have the behind the scenes lockup system.
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A hiney bird is a bird that flies in perfectly executed, concentric circles until it eventually flies up its own behind and poof! disappears forever....
-Ken Harrelson
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