City Officials Check Condition Of Police Detention Facilities

The increased public scrutiny of the Cambridge Police Department continued yesterday when officials inspected a city jail that had come under fire for its allegedly bad living conditions.

Police Chief Anthony J. Paolillo led a group of four city councilors, City Manager Robert W. Healy, several other officials and members of the press on a two-hour tour of the detention facilities at the department's Western Ave. headquarters.

The officials said that while the conditions of the cells and booking area were unpleasant, they were better than they had anticipated.

The investigation of the facilities has come into the spotlight in the wake of public charges of racism in the department. A group of Black parents last month claimed that police officers harassed their children in picking them up for allegedly assaulting a bicycle rider.

The parents also charged that their children were harshly treated at the detention center.

The incident triggered a call by City Councilor Alfred E. Vellucci for an investigation of the facilities as part of an effort to scrutinize the department's activities more closely.

But officials said yesterday the facilities appeared in relatively good shape. "They're a lot cleaner than they used to be," Healy said.

Vellucci said the cells were so clean that "Harvard students could come here for a quiet place to write their papers."

Paolillo said that the cells, which are used to detain offenders if they cannot immediately make bail, are fumigated once a month, and had just been repainted.

But cleanliness does not make the facilities adequate, Paolillo added. "They're on the third floor, and if you have an unruly prisoner, you almost have to carry him up," he said. "My officers complain all the time."

In addition, because of a lack of cooking facilities, prisoners in the cells are fed on hamburgers and drinks from the nearby McDonald's Paolillo said.

Environment

Paolillo said that the juvenile detention cells were "a bad environment for the children" and that young prisoners are held in the women's cell block whenever possible.

Councilor Saundra Graham said that people arrested for "frivolous crimes," such as traffic violations, were being detained in the same cells used for violent criminals.

"This is terrible--they need a human environment," Graham said. She suggested the department set up a holding area for those accused of less serious crimes and for juveniles.

Healy said that funds for a holding area were one of the things he would consider when he sits down with Paolillo today to review the police budget for next year.

For the first time since Proposition 2 1/2 the 1980 tax-cutting measure that forced cities throughout the state to trim their budgets, the Police Department is being given funds to enlarge its staff and equipment.

Healy said that the hiring of 15 new police officers, including more women, and officers specializing in juvenile affairs has already been approved.

The city will also be replacing about one third of its fleet of 19 marked police cars as well as buying five extras. Healy said.

Paolillo said his department was investigating leaving the cars rather than buying them outright, a move which would save the city "a substantial amount" of money. The average life of a police car is three years.

Paolillo added that Cambridge would be the first city in Massachusetts to lease its police fleet