Justice
How Safe Was the Water in Flint's Jail?
A video investigation by VICE leaves unanswered questions about how the city’s incarcerated population has fared throughout the lead crisis.
In an upcoming episode of VICE for HBO, news correspondent Ahmed Shihab-Eldin reports from Flint, Michigan, where residents are still learning how to live with a water supply contaminated with toxic lead—the result of decisions made by state-appointed city managers.
In the 15-minute report, Shihab-Eldin features one questionable segment with Robert Pickell, the Genesee County Sheriff who presides over a jail in downtown Flint that—depending on who’s asked—was either spared or uniquely victimized by the poisoned water. In the VICE report, Pickell is portrayed heroically for providing bottled water to the inmates, and for deploying the inmates to Flint’s streets to distribute bottled water to residents.