Inmate: Jail movies 'torture'

TITUSVILLE, Fla., Nov. 16 (UPI) -- A Florida jail inmate awaiting trial is accusing the sheriff of "torture" by repeatedly showing the same movies.

James Poulin, 45, who has been in the Brevard County Detention Center for four years awaiting trial on a driving under the influence-manslaughter charge, wrote a letter to Florida Today saying Sheriff Jack Parker has been making inmates watch the same handful of movies over and over during the past year.

"Parker gathered up a bunch of old (movies) he had laying around and played them over and over for the next year," Poulin wrote. "I have seen 'Black Hawk Down,' 'Pearl Harbor,' 'Saving Private Ryan' and 'Battle Front' hundreds of times each, sometimes two or three times a day."

"Like the old Chinese water torture, the inescapable sounds of these movies over and over works on nerves and psyche," he wrote.

However, jail administrator Cmdr. Susan Jeter said no one is forced to watch the films.

"The jail provides a voluntary, video-programmed educational opportunity for the inmates," she said. "This program is available in the dayroom area ... They can go to their cells and read a book if they so choose."