Most of the people arrested were allowed to go free while their cases worked their way through court. Judges decided a smaller group — often those facing the most serious charges or those who prosecutors worried might flee the country — should be locked up while they awaited trial.
.... including people linked by prosecutors to the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers and QAnon — in one section of the jail for a protracted period has had unintended consequences.
Initially, the inmates seemed so unified and bonded that a defense attorney
told a judge the jail had developed a "cult-like" atmosphere. Experts on extremism
worried that the jail was radicalizing the inmates. But recently, conflicts have blown up between the inmates and grown into what another attorney referred to as a "schism" and what an inmate compared to a "middle school lunchroom."
Many of the inmates declined to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and were
restrictedfrom going to the barbershop or getting in-person visits.
"Being incarcerated with a group of people who are from vastly different backgrounds, income brackets, education levels and viewpoints — compounded with the stress of solitary confinement, being away from our loved ones and looking down the barrel of 6- to 15-year prison sentences — is very stressful, so naturally there is going to be tension
A handful of inmates said their experience of being arrested had turned them away from Donald Trump. "I stopped caring about politics because that's what got me incarcerated," said one inmate, "and I don't ever want to be a pawn in someone else's game again." Another said he would never go to another political rally in his life.
