I have started coping each one of these stories & am going to each month send my articles to the White House. Praying some one soon will do something about the abuse & neglect in all of our states prisons & jails* God Bless you & your Loved loves locked behind bars* Gellybean*
Story>>>
Sun 27, 8:36 PM EDT
Ill. inmate died in agony while pleading for help
By DAVID MERCER
Associated Press Writer
PEKIN, Ill. (AP) -- For days before he died in a federal prison, Adam Montoya pleaded with guards to be taken to a doctor, pressing a panic button in his cell over and over to summon help that never came.
An autopsy concluded that the 36-year-old inmate suffered from no fewer than three serious illnesses - cancer, hepatitis and HIV. The cancer ultimately killed him, causing his spleen to burst. Montoya bled to death internally.
But the coroner and a pathologist were more stunned by another finding: The only medication in his system was a trace of over-the-counter pain reliever.
That means Montoya, imprisoned for a passing counterfeit checks, had been given nothing to ease the excruciating pain that no doubt wracked his body for days or weeks before death.
"He shouldn't have died in agony like that," Coroner Dennis Conover said. "He had been out there long enough that he should have at least died in the hospital."
The FBI recently completed an investigation into Montoya's death and gave its findings to the Justice Department, which is reviewing the case. If federal prosecutors conclude that Montoya's civil rights were violated, they could take action against the prison, its guards, or both. A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment, saying that the matter was still being investigated.
The coroner said guards should have been aware that something was seriously wrong with the inmate. And outside experts agree that the symptoms of cancer and hepatitis would have been hard to miss: dramatic weight loss, a swollen abdomen, yellow eyes.
During Montoya's final days, he "consistently made requests to the prison for medical attention, and they wouldn't give it to him," said his father, Juan Montoya, who described how his son repeatedly punched the panic button. Three inmates corroborated that account in interviews with The Associated Press.
The younger Montoya was taken to the prison clinic one day for "maybe five, 10 minutes," his father said. "And they gave him Tylenol, and that was it. He suffered a lot."
The federal prison in Pekin will not discuss Montoya's death. Prison spokesman Jay Henderson referred questions to the Bureau of Prisons, which denied an AP request for information on Montoya's medical condition, citing privacy laws.
It isn't clear whether the prison system, relatives or even Montoya himself knew the full extent of his illness. Montoya's father had no idea his son had cancer or hepatitis. Inmates who knew him said he told them he had cancer, but they knew nothing of his HIV.
According to its website, the Bureau of Prisons tries to screen the health of new inmates within 24 hours of their arrival. A closer examination within two weeks is required for prisoners with serious, long-term illnesses. But officials have not said whether Montoya was given any kind of exam or whether his medical records made it to Pekin.
Montoya pleaded guilty in May 2009 to counterfeiting commercial checks, credit cards and gift cards. Prosecutors will not say how much money was involved in the scheme, but Montoya was ordered to pay a little over $2,000 in restitution.
Montoya, who had a history of methamphetamine abuse, was released while awaiting sentencing and was ordered not to use drugs. At the time, he was living with his father and working for his father's process-serving business, which delivers legal documents. His father said he was paying Montoya's bills and paying him about $300 a week.
Then in mid-June, Adam Montoya was diagnosed with HIV.
"It hit him like a ton of bricks," his father said.
After the diagnosis, Montoya retreated back into methamphetamine. Following a urine test, he admitted using the drug three times in a month, and he was locked up.
Montoya began taking antiviral drugs, so his father still had hope and tried to give his son a sense of the same. "I thought, 'You'll get out. You'll get your probation, and you'll have years of life," the elder Montoya said.
In mid-October, Montoya was sentenced to two years and three months in prison. When he arrived at a federal prison transfer center in Oklahoma City, his medication was waiting for him. His father took that to mean that the prison system knew Montoya suffered from HIV.
Montoya arrived at the Pekin prison on Oct. 26. He lived just 18 more days. The inmates around him say he spent much of that time pleading for help from his cell.
Prison staff told Montoya he had the flu, according to Randy Rader, an inmate in the next cell who wrote letters to his mother about Montoya and discussed him in an e-mail interview with the AP.
"That man begged these people for nine days locked behind these doors," Rader wrote to his mother on Nov. 14. The letter was first obtained by The Pekin Daily Times, which wrote about Montoya's death earlier this year.
Rader has since been moved to a prison in California - far from his family in Michigan. He suspects the move was retaliation for speaking out about Montoya.
The last time a staff member visited Montoya, about 10 p.m. on Nov. 12, he reported having trouble breathing and complained that he could no longer feel his fingers, Rader said in the e-mail interview. The staff member told Montoya that he would try to get help the next day.
Around 6:30 a.m., prison officials found Montoya's body in his cell.
The autopsy showed that Montoya's spleen was almost 10 times the normal weight because it had been engulfed by a cancerous tumor, which was on its way to doing the same with his liver.
The pathologist who examined Montoya's body said his eyes were also yellow - an unmistakable sign of hepatitis. Dr. John Ralston is reluctant to speculate whether treatment could have saved Montoya's life by the time he reached Pekin. The doctor suspects he would have needed a liver transplant to have a chance.
That said, "You would think that he would have been feeling bad enough and complaining enough that somebody should have tried to get to the bottom of this," Ralston said.
The AP sought opinions about Montoya's condition from other doctors who did not examine him but were familiar with his diseases. They agreed he probably displayed obvious signs of distress.
Montoya would have had a swollen abdomen because of his spleen. At the same time, he probably was losing weight rapidly because the large tumor would have left little room in his belly for food, according to Dr. Krishna Rao, an assistant professor of oncology at Southern Illinois University Medical School in Springfield.
Someone in Montoya's condition should have been taking heavy doses of chemotherapy for his cancer or receiving stem cell transplants, if he were healthy enough, said Dr. James Egner, an oncologist with the Carle Foundation Hospital in Champaign.
If the cancer was too advanced, Montoya should have at least been treated for pain with powerful drugs, possibly in a hospice, Egner said.
The president of the American Civil Liberties Union's National Prison Project said it isn't uncommon for medical records not to arrive with a federal inmate.
"Sometimes it arrives late, and sometimes it doesn't happen at all," said David Fathi, who has spent 15 years studying prison conditions. "That's why it's so critical that the new facilities do a medical screening" of new inmates.
Fahti said Montoya's death "is really an egregious failure, of the kind that you wouldn't expect from even a small county jail, let alone the largest prison system in the United States."
After his son's death, Juan Montoya wrote to the prison complaining about its medical care. Warden Richard Rios wrote back to defend his institution.
"I must respectfully disagree with your characterization of the medical care Adam received and want to assure you that we carefully monitored you son's medical condition," wrote Rios, who was not hired for the job until months after the death. He did not elaborate, writing that privacy laws limited what he could say.
The elder Montoya is now waiting for his son's medical records, but he doubts they will offer many clues. The family has hired lawyers but has not decided whether to file a lawsuit.
Montoya thinks a lot now about the assurances he offered his son as he headed for prison.
"Your time will go by fast, and you'll get out, and we'll get you a job and be part of the family," Montoya recalls telling his son. "It never happened."
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_INMATE_DEATH_IN_AGONY?SITE=MOSPL&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Saturday, June 12, 2010
June 2010 Update On Jamie Scott
Mrs. Rasco arrived in Mississippi yesterday for a visit with Jamie today
and one with Gladys tomorrow, yet was told once she arrived at the
prison today that she and her granddaughter had on open-toed shoes
and were not permitted in. They had to leave the prison and purchase
closed-toe shoes to even get into see Jamie after all of that travelling.
She was also told that she would not be permitted to see Gladys
at all tomorrow because she is NOT on Glady's visitation list!!
She has been on Gladys' visitation list for 15 years and visited she
and Jamie recently. This is unconscionable and pure harassment,
and the family and Gladys are extremely hurt and disappointed.
Jamie was feeling and looking better today and told her mother that
she is getting better medication, although she did state that she feels
her body is changing and deteriorating slowly. She has unresolved
chest pains that come and go and have not been evaluated. She's
very, very grateful to all of the supporters for all that is being done!
The conditions in the Quick Bed unit where she is housed are horrible.
This unit is the worst place in the prison, no one even goes back there
except those that work there. It is in the back of the prison and there
are also men housed back there. When it rains, the water pours into
the unit and they all have to mop up the water. Water leaks around
Jamie's bed and electrical socket and she is worried about getting
sick or even electrocuted. The toilets still have major plumbing
problems and overflow. Mold is also still an issue on the unit.
The Board of Health needs to go into the prison and get these
problems addressed once and for all, Jamie's health is tenuous as
it is! On April 16, 2010 , Mr. Jeffrey Brown of the Board of Health
stated that the mold, sewage and spider infestation at CMCF/quickbed
would be taken care of but only the insect infestation has been
addressed.
Jeffrey Brown - Jeffrey.Brown@ msdh.state. ms.us
Mac Arthur Washington - Macarthur.Washingto n@msdh.state. ms.us
Central Office Phone
601-576-7400 (8am-5pm)
Agency personnel are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in public health emergencies.
and one with Gladys tomorrow, yet was told once she arrived at the
prison today that she and her granddaughter had on open-toed shoes
and were not permitted in. They had to leave the prison and purchase
closed-toe shoes to even get into see Jamie after all of that travelling.
She was also told that she would not be permitted to see Gladys
at all tomorrow because she is NOT on Glady's visitation list!!
She has been on Gladys' visitation list for 15 years and visited she
and Jamie recently. This is unconscionable and pure harassment,
and the family and Gladys are extremely hurt and disappointed.
Jamie was feeling and looking better today and told her mother that
she is getting better medication, although she did state that she feels
her body is changing and deteriorating slowly. She has unresolved
chest pains that come and go and have not been evaluated. She's
very, very grateful to all of the supporters for all that is being done!
The conditions in the Quick Bed unit where she is housed are horrible.
This unit is the worst place in the prison, no one even goes back there
except those that work there. It is in the back of the prison and there
are also men housed back there. When it rains, the water pours into
the unit and they all have to mop up the water. Water leaks around
Jamie's bed and electrical socket and she is worried about getting
sick or even electrocuted. The toilets still have major plumbing
problems and overflow. Mold is also still an issue on the unit.
The Board of Health needs to go into the prison and get these
problems addressed once and for all, Jamie's health is tenuous as
it is! On April 16, 2010 , Mr. Jeffrey Brown of the Board of Health
stated that the mold, sewage and spider infestation at CMCF/quickbed
would be taken care of but only the insect infestation has been
addressed.
Jeffrey Brown - Jeffrey.Brown@ msdh.state. ms.us
Mac Arthur Washington - Macarthur.Washingto n@msdh.state. ms.us
Central Office Phone
601-576-7400 (8am-5pm)
Agency personnel are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in public health emergencies.
Juveniles Abused While In State Facilities
The girls at the Mississippi detention center were tied up for weeks at a time. Minor offenders, some as young as 13, were cuffed and chained when they ate or used the bathroom. In the words of Erica, a 16-year-old detainee, it was a place that ‘made you feel like you were nothing.’
The boy was beaten and restrained by guards on his first day at a juvenile boot camp in Northwest Florida, suspected of faking an illness to avoid exercise. Martin Lee Anderson died from his injuries early the next day. He was 14.
David Burgos spent much of his young life running away from abusive group homes. One of the estimated 80 percent of juvenile offenders who suffer from a recognizable mental health disorder, the bipolar 17-year-old was arrested in 2006 for a probation violation related to a minor theft charge. After four months at Connecticut's Manson Youth Institution without mental health care, David hung himself with a bed sheet.
According to the most recent data from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, nearly 80,000 people under the age of 18 are held in juvenile detention and residential facilities around the United States each day. To juvenile justice advocates across the nation, the stories above are all too common in a system where punitive policies increase recidivism and exacerbate juvenile crime. “ (Juvenile Junction- By Will Di Novi September 15, 2008)
http://www.manipulatedtrial.de/Letter%20to%20my%20Friends%20III%200809.pdf
The boy was beaten and restrained by guards on his first day at a juvenile boot camp in Northwest Florida, suspected of faking an illness to avoid exercise. Martin Lee Anderson died from his injuries early the next day. He was 14.
David Burgos spent much of his young life running away from abusive group homes. One of the estimated 80 percent of juvenile offenders who suffer from a recognizable mental health disorder, the bipolar 17-year-old was arrested in 2006 for a probation violation related to a minor theft charge. After four months at Connecticut's Manson Youth Institution without mental health care, David hung himself with a bed sheet.
According to the most recent data from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, nearly 80,000 people under the age of 18 are held in juvenile detention and residential facilities around the United States each day. To juvenile justice advocates across the nation, the stories above are all too common in a system where punitive policies increase recidivism and exacerbate juvenile crime. “ (Juvenile Junction- By Will Di Novi September 15, 2008)
http://www.manipulatedtrial.de/Letter%20to%20my%20Friends%20III%200809.pdf
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