Lest anyone think jail problems are just a southern phenomenon, the Buffalo News reports that Erie County, New York’s two jails have a few problems, too:

The U.S. Justice Department, after an almost two-year investigation, finds that Erie County’s two jails routinely violate the constitutional rights of their inmates and subjects them to brutality as well poor care on several levels.

In a 50-page report, the Justice Department says the Erie County Holding Center in downtown Buffalo and the Correctional Facility in Alden have failed to correct their numerous problems, even after being warned of them for years by other regulatory agencies.

The Justice Department called the effort by Sheriff Timothy B. Howard’s Jail Management Division to run the two facilities as “woefully inadequate” and said it has led to a “pattern of serious harm to inmates, including death.”

“We conclude that the conditions of confinement violate the constitutional rights of inmates,” the Justice Department said in a letter to County Executive Chris Collins, who had refused to cooperate with the probe.

It turns out the Erie county government went well beyond just not cooperating.

Maybe if we weren’t locking up more people than any other country in the world, we might not have so many problems with jails.