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SANTA CLARA COUNTY, Calif. (KTVU) - As critics of the Santa Clara County Jail rally Friday to protest guard violence, one mom tells KTVU beatings like the one that brought murder charges, are nothing new.
"They don't want people to know the type of heinous and horrific beatings that go on in there," declared the mother of an inmate, who is in his late twenties and has been incarcerated awaiting trial for three years.
During her KTVU interview, the concerned parent concealed her identity, out of fear that her son might be retaliated on by his jailers.
"As a mom you want to protect your son, you want to protect your family," she said firmly, "and he's my son, I love him, no matter what."
She hopes the unprecedented charges against three correctional officers will be a turning point in the facility, but she's not sure the culture he's told her about will change swiftly.
"They have inmates shackled, they will beat them up, kick them in the face," she recounted, "and it will be three on one, it's as though they don't know when to stop."
At a Thursday news conference, Sheriff Laurie Smith condemned the guards’ actions.
"The disappointment and disgust that I feel cannot be overstated," she said, describing how the three correctional officers allegedly beat 31-year-old Michael Tyree senseless, then left him to die, later pretending they had discovered him lifeless in his cell.
"To me, they are like gang members wearing green and a badge and a uniform they don't respect," said the unidentified mom, who has filed complaints and called authorities, to no avail.
"They seem to cover things up in there because it's a clique," she exclaimed, "and they don't see the inmates as human, or having any rights."
Under the guise of a clothing search, she says, officers invade cells and ransack them.
"They take the inmates property, they rip it up, they stomp on their food, mess everything up, throw coffee all over the floor," she claimed.
If the inmate objects, she says, he's called "confrontational" and gets a beating, often so severe everyone can hear it.
"So then, all the inmates are pounding on their doors shouting 'leave him alone, leave him alone.'"
She doesn't know if her son witnessed any of what happened to victim Michael Tyree.
But he has told her of his own threatening encounter with one of the men arrested, guard Rafael Rodriguez.
Rodriguez, she says, took her son alone to a holding room.
"Then he turned off his radio microphone, and said he could beat the f--- out of him and no one would know. And that's while my son was handcuffed!"
The grievances she has filed have come back rejected - claim closed.
"Nothing happens, nothing happens," she bemoaned, "until there's a dead body there, then it's 'well can't hide it now.'"
And listening to the sheriff's emotional news conference in which she expressed shock and "profound sorrow".
"I don't think she's shocked or surprised," said the South Bay mother indignantly, "I think she's surprised that they got caught. Her hands have blood on them, just like everybody else in that facility."
The Friday noon rally and march will be held in front of the Main Jail at 150 West Hedding Street, San Jose.
A coalition of community organizations and families with incarcerated loved ones, are demanding that inmates be safe from guard abuse, and that jail practices be reviewed and reformed to prevent further tragedies.