Left To Die

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/in-a-virginia-jail-a-young-man-wasted-away-and-died--and-no-one-bothered-to-notice/2016/06/09/61d90668-2e63-11e6-9de3-6e6e7a14000c_story.html The Post's View In a Virginia jail, a young man wasted away and died — and no one bothered to notice Jamycheal Mitchell, 24, died at the Hampton Roads Regional Jail on Aug. 19, 2015. By Editorial Board June 10 A MENTALLY ill black man, just 24 years old, is arrested in April 2015 for shoplifting a Mountain Dew, a Snickers bar and a Zebra Cake — total cost: $5 — from a convenience store in Virginia. He languishes in jail for 14 weeks, refusing medicine, his weight plummeting, his cell smeared with feces. After 101 days, having lost more than 40 pounds — literally wasting away, as a starving man does — he dies. And no one noticed a thing, until it was too late. The first and hastiest investigation was done by the facility where Mitchell starved to death, the Hampton Roads Regional Jail. Scarcely a week after his body was discovered, jail officials concluded their probe, pronounced themselves blameless — and released not an iota of information. The next two investigations, by Virginia’s Office of the State Inspector General and the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, were no more edifying. The inspector general, citing guidance from the state attorney general, said it lacked jurisdiction to question jail personnel, thereby raising doubts about the utility of its existence. And the DBHDS, in thousands of turgid words, did not bother to address or, so far as can be determined, even ask about the most glaring failure of all: How could no one have noticed that a man was wasting away in plain sight? The scandal here is multidimensional. It’s a disgrace Mitchell spent 101 days in jail on a $5 shoplifting rap. It’s a disgrace he wasn’t transferred to a nearby state mental-health hospital, as a judge repeatedly ordered. (The hospital didn’t receive and then didn’t see the order until after Mitchell’s death.) It’s a disgrace that months went by before anyone at the jail intervened to take Mitchell to the emergency room. It’s a disgrace the jail taped over video footage taken outside Mitchell’s cell that might have added information. It’s a disgrace the jail absolved itself of all responsibility, while releasing no information. And it’s a disgrace state investigators, after spending months on probes, either couldn’t or wouldn’t ask the right questions to the relevant people. State advocates for the mentally ill have asked for a Justice Department civil rights investigation. That would be a good, and sadly necessary, start in unraveling the disgrace of Jamycheal Mitchell’s death. >Update Family sueing for $60 Million http://wtkr.com/2016/05/10/family-of-portsmouth-man-found-dead-in-jail-files-60-million-lawsuit/ Posted 4:27 pm, May 10, 2016, by Web Staff, Updated at 03:13pm, May 20, 2016 ---------------------------------------- Hampton Roads Regional Jail responds to accusations of threats to inmates Posted 10:02 pm, June 24, 2016, by Brendan Ponton PORTSMOUTH, Va. – Hampton Roads Regional Jail officials responded to claims of inmates facing threats for speaking up about the death of another inmate. In a court filing Friday, jail officials wrote that there is no evidence four inmates are being threatened or targeted. “While there may be cases of witness intimidation requiring court intervention, this is not such a case,” a document reads. The four inmates wrote letters to the lawyer representing Jamycheal Mitchell’s family. Mitchell died in a cell at the jail last summer. His family is now suing. The inmates are named in the lawsuit as having witnessed alleged mistreatment and abuse of Mitchell. Since then, they say they’re being retaliated against. Mitchell’s family’s lawyer, Mark Krudys, asked a judge to make sure the inmates are kept safe. In response to the lawsuit, a statement from the attorney read: “We deny the allegations made against our facility and staff and believe that the facts will establish that our employees were professional and caring in their interactions with Mr. Mitchell.” http://wtkr.com/2016/06/24/hampton-roads-regional-jail-responds-to-accusations-of-threats-to-inmates/ Judge denies protective orders for witnesses in Jamycheal Mitchell case

Inmate Dies When Noone Would Help

Virginia: Man dies in Hampton Roads Regional Jail 2 days after filing emergency grievance begging for help Inside the Hampton Roads Regional Jail, Henry Clay Stewart knew he was sick. He'd filled out grievance after grievance asking for help, a fellow inmate said. A 60-year-old man incarcerated for violating probation on a shoplifting charge, Stewart was vomiting blood. He was unable to eat much of anything for weeks, said Brent Lashley, who was two cells away from Stewart. "I have blacked out two times in less than 24 hours," Stewart wrote Aug. 4 in imperfect English on an emergency grievance form obtained by his family after his death. "I keep asking to go to the emergency room. ... I can't hold water down or food." Two days later, he was dead. Stewart died 353 days after the death of Jamycheal Mitchell in the same jail. Read more: http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/8/28/jamycheal-mitchell-virginia-jail-death.html

Texas Jail Guards Deny Using Excessive Force

Texas Jail Guards Deny Using Excessive Force A Texas prisoner testified Monday that five guards stormed his cell, squeezed his genitals and shoved something into his rectum after he asked why he needed to be strip-searched, since he was already naked. Six prison guards are fighting excessive force and failure to protect claims that Marcos Ortiz, 60, made in an October 2014 federal lawsuit. Ortiz took the stand Monday, the first day of trial, in a long-sleeved white shirt, a black tie and thick glasses, his gray goatee nearly meeting white sideburns. He peered around a computer monitor facing him on the witness stand and told his attorney he's still haunted by the sexual assault he suffered at the Estelle Unit in Hunstville on Jan. 31, 2014. "How often do you think about the incident?" asked his attorney, Laura Smith, with Baker Botts. "Just about every day." Prisoner civil rights cases rarely make it to trial. The 11th Amendment immunizes state prison systems and officials from being sued in their official capacities for money, under Section 1983 of the Civil Rights Act. Three such defendants in Ortiz's case were dismissed: the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Estelle Unit Warden Tracy Bailey and TDCJ Executive Director Brad Livingston. Ortiz sued Pope and fellow guards Michael Lewis, Diveonlea Lott, Michael Kirk, Kenneth Cathey and Kevin Lloyd in their individual capacities, which means he can recover money damages if he prevails. > The officers claim they are protected by qualified immunity, which shields them from all but the most blatant misconduct. Read more: http://www.courthousenews.com/2016/08/30/texas-jail-guards-deny-using-excessive-force.htm

Guards Had Teen Beat Up

Guards Offer Snack Bounty To Beat Up 13-Year-Old Boy In Detention >> Yet ANOTHER prison abuse horror story out of Florida! A juvenile detention center in Fort Lauderdale is under fire for offering food as a reward for beating up a teenager in its custody. A 13-year-old identified as A.R. was hospitalized for three weeks after staff at the Broward Juvenile Detention Center offered a “snack bounty” in exchange for beating him up. After A.R. was struck on the head by another teenager, staff left him in a solitary room that was scrubbed with bleach. Inhaling the toxic fumes, A.R. suffered a near-fatal asthma attack that landed him in the hospital. But his mother, Shantell McNair, wasn’t informed about the incident until her son was released 21 days later. According to Gordon Weekes, the chief public defender of Broward County, A.R. is one of many abuse victims locked away at the detention facility. In a recent letter to the Department of Juvenile Justice, Weekes wrote that at least one kid was shackled and left in a scorching hot van for hours. He also reported that kids are living in a building that wreaks of sewage, which could be the result of toxic chemicals in the facility. Guards also assaulted the boys and denied them urgent medical care in the past. Weekes believes many of the problems boil down to too few staff and not enough resources to manage so many people. “They’re frustrated, they’re tired, and it’s a recipe for disaster when you have an overworked staff working with kids who have issues,” he told the Broward Palm Beach New Times. “The staff are overworked and underpaid, and as a result they have a short fuse.” http://www.citizensforcriminaljustice.net/guards-offer-snack-bounty-to-beat-up-13-year-old-boy-in-detention/?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=c4cjenewsletter

Teargassed, Stripped Naked

World | Tue Jul 26, 2016 3:41am EDT Related: World, Australia Australian PM orders inquiry after teenage prisoners teargassed, stripped naked Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Tuesday ordered an inquiry into the treatment of children in detention after the airing of video showing prison guards teargassing teenage inmates and strapping a half-naked, hooded-boy to a chair. Footage of the abuse of six aboriginal boys in a juvenile detention center sparked renewed criticism of Australia's treatment of Aborigines and their high imprisonment rate. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) aired CCTV footage late Monday of boys in a Northern Territory juvenile detention center also being stripped naked, thrown by the neck into a cell, and held for long periods in solitary confinement. "Like all Australians, I've been deeply shocked – shocked and appalled by the images of mistreatment of children," Turnbull said on ABC radio as he announced a Royal Commission, Australia's most powerful, state sanctioned inquiry. The CCTV footage from the Don Dale Youth Detention Centre in Darwin was shot between 2010-2014. A lawyer representing two of the boys said all six boys abused were of aboriginal descent. Aborigines make up the majority of the Northern Territory population and 94 percent of juvenile inmates in the territory. “Our (indigenous) people have known about things like this...and to just see it laid bare in front of us last night must be a wake-up call to everyone in Australia – that something’s got to be done about the way we lock our people up in this country, and particularly the way we lock our kids up," an emotional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Mick Gooda told reporters. “What we saw last night is an absolute disgrace.” A report into some of the incidents by the Northern Territory Children's Commissioner in 2015 found fault with the guards' behavior, but the findings were disputed by the then head of prisons and not acted upon, said the ABC. Northern Territory Chief Minister Adam Giles sacked his corrections minister within hours of the broadcast and said that information about the abuse had been withheld from him, blaming a "culture of cover-up" within the Corrections system. Some Aborigines in the territory called for Giles to be removed, with one wearing a hood over their head with the words "Sack Giles". A coalition of Northern Territory Aboriginal organizations called for the national government to dissolve the territory government, which it has the authority to do. "Any government that enacts policies designed to harm children and enables a culture of brutalization and cover-ups, surrenders its right to govern," said spokesman John Paterson. Residents in Alice Springs staged a peaceful protest against the abuse of children in detention, while the ABC reported that at least eight people were protesting on the roof of a prison in the town. Reuters could not confirm the prison protest. BOY SHACKLED TO CHAIR The CCTV video showed guards mocking inmates, carrying a boy by the neck and throwing him onto a mattress in a cell, and covering a teenager's head with a hood and shackling him to a chair with neck, arm, leg and foot restraints. "Excessive use of force, isolation and shackling of children is barbaric and inhumane," said Human Rights Watch Australia Director Elaine Pearson. The ABC reported that only two detention staff members identified in footage remained within the youth justice system. Lawyer Peter O'Brien, who represents Dylan Voller and Jake Roper who were abused, said he was suing the state on their behalf, alleging assault, battery and false imprisonment. "It seems as if this abuse is built into the very core of the system," he said in a statement, calling for the immediate release of Voller, who is now in an adult prison, and all children imprisoned in the Northern Territory. Australia's Human Rights Commission president Gillian Triggs, who backed the inquiry, said: "We have been reporting on this question of indigenous incarceration, particularly of juveniles, for many, many years and we have had many, many reports...on the appalling conditions in which they are held." Aborigines comprise just three percent of Australia's population but make up 27 percent of those in prison. (Additional reporting by Tom Westbrook; Editing by Jane Wardell and Michael Perry) http://www.reuters.com/article/us-australia-prison-inquiry-idUSKCN10605H?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

vaginal and anal searches

New Mexico: CBP Settles Lawsuit with ACLU Client Who Endured Invasive Cavity Searches On July 21, 2016, the ACLU of Texas and the ACLU of New Mexico announced a record settlement in which U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) paid a New Mexico woman $475,000 for illegally subjecting her to vaginal and anal searches after she was detained at the Cordova Bridge point of entry in El Paso. Also today, the four ACLU affiliates at the nation's Southwest border dispatched letters to 40 healthcare providers that cover 110 facilities - from San Diego to Houston-detailing the rights and responsibilities of hospital personnel when confronted by federal agents who request they perform invasive and illegal body cavity searches. In 2014, the University Medical Center of El Paso paid the same woman - referred to in the lawsuit as Jane Doe to protect her privacy - a $1.1 million settlement - for its collusion in the invasive searches. "While we are pleased to have obtained justice for our client, this is really a victory for residents of border communities, who shouldn't have to fear interactions with the thousands of border agents in their midst," said Rebecca Robertson, legal and policy director for the ACLU of Texas. "Of course, this result could not have been achieved without Ms. Doe's courage and perseverance. Had she succumbed to the threats of CBP agents and remained silent, who knows how many others might have suffered a similarly despicable experience." The ordeal began when a drug-sniffing dog allegedly "alerted" on the ACLU's client as she attempted to return from Mexico to her home in the U.S. Agents subjected her to a strip search at the border station, examining her genitals and anus with a flashlight. No contraband was found. The agents nevertheless transported Ms. Doe to University Medical Center, where over the course of six hours she suffered an observed bowel movement, an X-ray, a speculum exam of her vagina, a bimanual vaginal and rectal exam, and a CT scan. These procedures were conducted without Ms. Doe's consent or a search warrant. Read more: http://bit.ly/29TpGIS

CIW'S Suicide Spike

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/may/10/suicide-california-womens-prison-mental-health 'The system failed her': behind a Suicide Spike at a California women's prisom By Jessica Pishko Advocates for female prisoners say that poor mental health care is causing preventable deaths at the California Institution for Women During an 18-month period from 2014 to 2015, there were 4four suicides and at least 20 suicide attempts the institution. At 14, Erika Rocha pleaded guilty to attempted murder in a shooting. Tried as an adult, she was sentenced to 19 years-to-life. At 16, Rocha was incarcerated in solitary confinement in an adult prison until she turned 18, allegedly for her own protection from other inmates. At 35, the day before her first parole hearing and just after being released from yet another stay in suicide watch – solitary confinement in a suicide-resistant room – she hanged herself in her cell at the California Institution for Women (CIW). “She needed help,” Rocha’s sister Geraldine said. “She needed somebody there for her, not to say: ‘Here, go sit in a room by yourself and maybe it will go away.’” Rocha’s suicide is just the latest in a spike at CIW, in San Bernardino County. During an 18-month period from 2014 to 2015, there were four suicides and at least 20 suicide attempts at CIW – eight times the national rate for female inmates and more than five times the rate for all California’s prisons. In comparison, there had been just three suicides at CIW in the previous 14 years. According to advocates at the California Coalition for Women Prisoners (CCWP), 22 women have been added to suicide watch since Rocha’s death, so many that they are being housed in security housing units – solitary confinement cells intended for punishment, not mental health care. Michael Bien, a lead attorney in Coleman v Brown, an ongoing lawsuit against the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), said: “Once you start using segregation for suicide watch, you’ve lost.” Colby Lenz, an advocate with CCWP, said: “The prison system failed Erika and her loved ones. After years of failed suicide prevention audits and CDCR negligence in remedying court-ordered violations, the blatant inaction of CDCR and CIW led to Erika’s tragic and preventable death.” In 1995, a judge in the Coleman suit found that the standard of mental health care in California’s overcrowded prisons was so low as to be unconstitutional and ordered that mental health care for all of California’s prisons be placed under independent control. But advocates and a recent independent report warn that despite the decades-old judicial order to improve mental health care for inmates, there have not been enough changes by the CDCR to stem what were preventable deaths. Neither the CDCR nor the healthcare receiver’s office responded to a request for comment. The state’s office of the inspector general said this month that it was taking steps to address the recent surge: “We have increased our usual monitoring practice with regard to attempted suicides by female inmates. We are currently conducting a case review as described above for every attempted suicide and are responding on-scene to all attempts that result in serious injury. We are also collaborating with CDCR regarding steps being taken to improve suicide prevention efforts at CIW.” The inspector general’s office said that they were monitoring Rocha’s case and others. In January, Lindsay M Hayes, a prison and jail suicide expert who advises facilities across the country, filed a nearly 150-page report on CDCR facilities as part of the 1995 judicial order that requires periodic reporting. According to Hayes’ report, the CDCR had done little to improve identification of women who needed treatment. CIW logs that Hayes reviewed showed that, from October 2014 through March 2015, only nine women were sent for emergency care due to suicide risk. Yet he found over 400 referrals for suicidal behavior over the same period, a “staggering disparity”. One of the more troubling suicides in the report occurred in March 2015, when a woman in her 30s, nearing the end of an eight-year sentence, hanged herself in her cell. Despite a long history of abuse, psychiatric illnesses dating back to her first hospitalization when she was 13, self-mutilation and multiple suicide attempts, including one less than a year before her death – she was listed as “low risk” for suicide. The report also said that CIW had not ensured safe housing for all suicidal inmates – meaning there is nothing they can harm themselves with. The prison was also denying women in mental heath treatment access to yard time; only two of the women had been outside in the last month. Bien, who has been working to improve mental health care conditions in CDCR facilities for over a decade, points to a host of reasons for the spike in suicides: “Overcrowding, understaffing and ineffective management and supervision all contribute.” He adds that CDCR has had appropriate procedures for mental health care and suicide prevention for some time, but “it has not been able to successfully train and implement the policies in a consistent way”. Female inmates are a uniquely vulnerable group as compared to men; 85-90% of women sentenced to life have been physically and sexually abused, and, according to a 2005 Bureau of Justice Statistics report, 73% of incarcerated women have a diagnosed mental health problem. (The average across all California prisons is just under 50%, according to a study out of Stanford Law School.) And while the men’s prisons have steadily decreased their numbers, the women’s still suffer from severe overcrowding. According to the CDCR’s reports, CIW is currently at 132% capacity, which is below the court-ordered population cap of 137.5%) and Chowchilla prison is at 145%. Both facilities are under-resourced, say advocates who have called for improved monitoring and resources. While the CDCR has made steps to reduce prison populations and improve the identification of women in need of treatment, there is still the simple math problem of too many people and too few resources. ------------------------------------- http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/may/10/suicide-california-womens-prison-mental-health Rocha’s suicide is just the latest in a spike at CIW, in San Bernardino County. During an 18-month period from 2014 to 2015, there were four suicides and at least 20 suicide attempts at CIW – eight times the national rate for female inmates and more than five times the rate for all California’s prisons. In comparison, there had been just three suicides at CIW in the previous 14 years. According to advocates at the California Coalition for Women Prisoners (CCWP), 22 women have been added to suicide watch since Rocha’s death, so many that they are being housed in security housing units – solitary confinement cells intended for punishment, not mental health care. Michael Bien, a lead attorney in Coleman v Brown, an ongoing lawsuit against the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), said: “Once you start using segregation for suicide watch, you’ve lost.”Colby Lenz, an advocate with CCWP, said: “The prison system failed Erika and her loved ones. After years of failed suicide prevention audits and CDCR negligence in remedying court-ordered violations, the blatant inaction of CDCR and CIW led to Erika’s tragic and preventable death.” In 1995, a judge in the Coleman suit found that the standard of mental health care in California’s overcrowded prisons was so low as to be unconstitutional and ordered th t mental health care for all of California’s prisons be placed under independent control. But advocates and a recent independent report warn that despite the decades-old judicial order to improve mental health care for inmates, there have not been enough changes by the CDCR to stem what were preventable deaths. Neither the CDCR nor the healthcare receiver’s office responded to a request for comment. The state’s office of the inspector general said this month that it was taking steps to address the recent surge: “We have increased our usual monitoring practice with regard to attempted suicides by female inmates. We are currently conducting a case review as described above for every attempted suicide and are responding on-scene to all attempts that result in serious injury. We are also collaborating with CDCR regarding steps being taken to improve suicide prevention efforts at CIW.” The inspector general’s office said that they were monitoring Rocha’s case and others. In January, Lindsay M Hayes, a prison and jail suicide expert who advises facilities across the country, filed a nearly 150-page report on CDCR facilities as part of the 1995 judicial order that requires periodic reporting. According to Hayes’ report, the CDCR had done little to improve identification of women who needed treatment. CIW logs that Hayes reviewed showed that, from October 2014 through March 2015, only nine women were sent for emergency care due to suicide risk. Yet he found over 400 referrals for suicidal behavior over the same period, a “staggering disparity”. One of the more troubling suicides in the report occurred in March 2015, when a woman in her 30s, nearing the end of an eight-year sentence, hanged herself in her cell. Despite a long history of abuse, psychiatric illnesses dating back to her first hospitalization when she was 13, self-mutilation and multiple suicide attempts, including one less than a year before her death – she was listed as “low risk” for suicide. The report also said that CIW had not ensured safe housing for all suicidal inmates – meaning there is nothing they can harm themselves with. The prison was also denying women in mental heath treatment access to yard time; only two of the women had been outside in the last month. Bien, who has been working to improve mental health care conditions in CDCR facilities for over a decade, points to a host of reasons for the spike in suicides: “Overcrowding, understaffing and ineffective management and supervision all contribute.” He adds that CDCR has had appropriate procedures for mental health care and suicide prevention for some time, but “it has not been able to successfully train and implement the policies in a consistent way”. Female inmates are a uniquely vulnerable group as compared to men; 85-90% of women sentenced to life have been physically and sexually abused, and, according to a 2005 Bureau of Justice Statistics report, 73% of incarcerated women have a diagnosed mental health problem. (The average across all California prisons is just under 50%, according to a study out of Stanford Law School.) And while the men’s prisons have steadily decreased their numbers, the women’s still suffer from severe overcrowding. According to the CDCR’s reports, CIW is currently at 132% capacity, which is below the court-ordered population cap of 137.5%) and Chowchilla prison is at 145%. Both facilities are under-resourced, say advocates who have called for improved monitoring and resources. While the CDCR has made steps to reduce prison populations and improve the identification of women in need of treatment, there is still the simple math problem of too many people and too few resources. ----------------------------------------------------------- http://www.theguardian.com/world/series/6x9--a-virtual-experience-of-solitary-confinement (The Different Viseos & Pod Casts: " Solitary Confinement is inhumane, I should know, I spent 30 days there." Chandra Bozelko ------------------- " You start seeing figures in the paint chips" ---------------------- 6x9 Virtual Reality This is isolation" Welcome to your virtual cell: could you survive solitary confinement? http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/27/6x9-could-you-survive-solitary-confinement-vr ------------------------ " It is time to end Solitary Confinememt for Juveniles" Once & For All" Cory Booker -------------------- " After audiences see our plat, Mariposa & the saint. They no longer wonder what she did to deserve solitary confinement-they know that no body does." Julia Steele Allen. ----------------------------- http://www.theguardian.com/world/series/6x9--a-virtual-experience-of-solitary-confinement ---------------------------------------

Florida Teen Raped, Beaten

From the PLN in Print Archives Lawsuit Claims Florida Teen Raped, Beaten in Prison Initiation Ritual Florida's correctional facilities for youthful offenders are part of the state's adult prison system, and Florida incarcerates more minors than any other state in the nation. Approximately 140 juveniles are housed in detention centers on any given day, and in July 2013 that included a 17-year-old identified only as "R.W." According to a lawsuit filed on January 17, 2016 by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and Florida Institutional Legal Services, a project of Florida Legal Services, Sumter Correctional Institution guard Bruce A. Kiser, Jr. stood by and watched while at least six youths beat and sexually assaulted R.W. in a bathroom in F Dorm as part of a prison initiation rite called a "test of heart." R.W. was cut repeatedly with sharpened pieces of barbed wire, choked unconscious and raped with a broomstick on July 24, 2013. Kiser never reported the incident. "R.W. suffered a nightmare at Sumter," said SPLC attorney Miriam Haskell. "Unfortunately, his experience is not unique. A culture of brutality persists within the Florida Department of Corrections (FDOC), and what R.W. endured is just another example of why children do not belong in the adult prison system." See: R.W. v. Kiser, U.S.D.C. (M.D. Fla.), Case No. 5:16-cv-00045-WTH-PRL. An investigation by the FDOC's Office of the Inspector General "noted Kiser's inaction" and recommended a review of the incident, according to the SPLC, but Kiser reportedly "was not disciplined for his role in the attack and continues to be employed as a prison guard." The FDOC had previously settled a similar lawsuit, agreeing to pay $700,000 to a youth who was permanently injured during a "test of heart" ritual at the Lancaster Correctional Institution. Another juvenile died in 2014 from injuries sustained in a comparable incident at a Florida prison for youthful offenders. Read more: https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/2016/may/5/lawsuit-claims-florida-teen-raped-beaten-prison-

Women Decry Deplorable Conditions in State Prison

Women Decry Deplorable Conditions in State Prison Former inmates at the Central California Women's Facility say they were denied health care and diagnosed with diseases they don't have. A recent report backs up their claims. By Andrea Abi-Karam When Theresa Martinez was an inmate at the Central California Women's Facility, prison health officials diagnosed her as having HIV. Martinez said her mental health deteriorated as a result. Prison doctors also put her on a rigorous anti-HIV drug regimen for ten years. Eventually, officials with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation transferred her to a state prison facility in Southern California. Once there, the facility's health staffers urged Martinez to take another HIV test, even though she had assured them that she was infected with the virus. The results came back negative. They did the test again. It was negative, again. She didn't have HIV. Martinez said she later learned that the Central California Women's Facility, where she and many other East Bay women end up when they're sentenced to prison, had a contract with a pharmaceutical company that sells HIV medication. Martinez, who now works for the Oakland-based prisoners' rights group Justice Now, shared the story of what happened to her at a recent public event. She contends that corporate-driven interests affect the physical and mental health of prisoners throughout the California prison system. There's also compelling evidence that the health facility within the Central California Women's Facility (CCWF) in Chowchilla has a history of badly mistreating female prisoners. Late last year, a three-person panel of court-appointed medical experts released a scathing report on the deplorable conditions inside the prison. Overall, the panel found that CCWF "is not providing adequate medical care, and that there are systemic issues resulting in preventable morbidity and mortality disease and death] that present an ongoing serious risk of harm to patients." The 57-page report, which didn't receive much press coverage, also stated that CCWF's health facility is disorganized and overcrowded. "We believe that the majority of problems are attributable to overcrowding, insufficient health care staffing and inadequate medical bed space," the report stated. The court-ordered health care evaluation came in response to a January 2013 report conducted by Governor Jerry Brown's office that declared the health care conditions at CCWF improved. The dismal quality of health care inside California's prisons was the driving force behind orders issued by federal judges to the state to dramatically reduce its inmate population. "Overcrowding and health care conditions cited by this Court to support its population reduction order are now a distant memory," Brown's office stated. Despite the scathing report on CCWF by court-appointed medical experts, federal judges agreed last month to give Brown and state corrections officials more time to relieve overcrowding in California's prisons.The overcrowded conditions at CCWF worsened in 2012 when the state converted Valley State Prison for Women (which is located near CCWF) into a men's facility and then funneled that facility's female prisoners into CCWF and the California Institution for Women near Chino. CCWF's inmate population quickly grew to 184 percent of capacity. According to the court-appointed medical experts, the packed conditions at CCWF resulted in health care staff being slow to respond to inmates' medical needs. "I would assume that during an emergency you would run toward the emergency, but no, 95 percent of the time they walk — stroll," said Mianta McKnight, a former Brisbane resident who was released from CCWF three months ago and currently resides at a prisoner re-entry facility on Treasure Island. McKnight told me that when nurses at CCWF respond to an emergency, they'll only provide care if the patient is incoherent and can't stand up. She described an instance in which her roommate was waiting to get treatment for an earache. The pain became so intense, she passed out and hit her head on her bunk. "She was trying to be seen and was ignored," McKnight said. And even if a prisoner does get seen by health care staffers at CCWF, there's a good chance she won't get appropriate care. According to the court-ordered report, as well as first-hand accounts, CCWF medical staffers routinely prescribe expired, incorrect, or insufficient medication. Inmates also "were given the wrong medications at times — kind of like test this and see if it works and if it doesn't work we'll try something else," she continued. She said she once helped take care of a fellow inmate who became paralyzed down the left side of her body because she received the wrong drugs. McKnight also said that it was not uncommon for prisoners to wait in the pharmacy line for long periods and then watch staffers withhold their prescribed medications. They'd get to the front of the line, and then watch staffers pull up their mugshots and arrest histories on Google, and send the prisoners to the back of the line if the staffers disliked what they saw, she said. At CCWF, prisoners with chronic illnesses and disabilities are consigned to the skilled nursing facility, which further isolates them within the prison system, and further alienates them from their families. "They are sometimes thrown back there and don't know why they're back there," said McKnight of inmates being put in skilled nursing. "They have little or no communication with their families." Prison officials also regularly lock down the skilled nursing facility without explanation, she said. http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/women-decry-deplorable-conditions-in-state-prison/Content?oid=3868191

Women In CCWF Abused

For Immediate Release Imprisoned People Facing Medical Neglect and Violence, Family Members and Organizers Speak Out. > Press Contact: Dolores Canales, Family Unity Network, (714)290-9077 dol1canales@gmail.com or Hannah McFaull, Justice Now, (415) 813.7715 hannah@justicenow.org > Sacramento – On November 11th, an imprisoned person at Central California Women’s Facility (CCWF), faced extreme violence at the hands of prison guards. Stacy Rojas and three others were detained, physically abused, sexually harassed, strip searched in the presence of male guards, and were kept without water, food or restrooms for eleven hours. The group was illegally kept in administrative segregation without a lock up order and have been denied health care support for the injuries caused by these officers. Requests to speak with members of the prison’s Investigative Services Unit have so far been ignored. I just want to let them know that we have been physically abused, sexually harassed,” said Stacy Rojas, “and that this was just wrong. They used excessive force, totally used excessive force against us and we need help. The public acknowledgment of excessive use of force and deadly use of force by police has increased throughout the nation. Video recordings of interactions between the police and the public have increased significantly in recent years as technology has improved and the number of distribution channels has expanded. This is not an option open to people experiencing violence from guards behind prison walls and any attempt to speak out is often met with retaliation and increased force. > Our communities in and out of lock up have lived experiences with biased policing -- ranging from racial profiling, to excessive, and sometimes lethal, use of force”, stated Patrisse Cullors co-founder of #BlackLivesMatter. “We hear about it more and more in the communities we live in, but rarely hear about the traumatic ways that it manifests in the California prison system. Stories like Stacy’s are happening everyday inside of California prisons and jails with little to no measures taken by authorities to keep people safe and hold law enforcement, such as prison guards accountable. Advocacy organizations working with people in women’s prisons are familiar with reports of abuse and violence, like that experienced at CCWF last week. The California Coalition for Women Prisoners, Justice Now, the Family Unity Network, the TGI Justice Project and others regularly provide legal and medical advocacy support following incidents of violence perpetrated by correctional officers at women’s prisons. > This group of organizations and Stacy’s family members are requesting an independent investigation of the violence and excessive use of force used. They are requesting medical care and safe housing for Stacy and all those involved. The group also demands an end to the violence imposed on women, transgender people, gender nonconforming people, and communities of color within the California prison system. > " My sister is at the end of a fourteen year sentence and it seems as though some would wish to take that away. This has never happened to Stacy before. We have never had fear for my sister's life”, said Adriana Rojas. “My sister Stacy Rojas' constitutional rights have been violated by being stripped searched by male guards, assaulted by means of kicking and stomping, taken outdoors in near 40 degree weather, threatened with rape, humiliated, placed in holding cages for nearly 12 hours, and deprived of food and water. Albert Jacob Rojas added, “They were denied medical attention and denied the right to speak to internal affairs. We ask that anybody who cares about human rights and women's rights please join us in demanding justice for all. Family members and advocates are calling for: An immediate independent investigation into the violence and excessive force used by guards in this incident. Suspension of guards involved pending investigation. Comprehensive medical treatment for injuries sustained during the incident. No retaliation for speaking out against this abuse.

Inmates Forced To Have Sex At Florida's Prison For Women

Horrific Report: At Largest US Women’s Prison, Inmates Forced To Have Sex For Basic Necessities .This is a major problem in most of America’s prisons! it is one of the most widespread forms of prison abuse. The abusers must be prosecuted! At the foundation of our civil liberties lies the principle that denies to government officials an exceptional position before the law and which subjects them to the same rules of conduct that are commands to the citizen. – Justice Louis D. Brandeis Florida is one of the largest women’s corrections facilities in the United States, and it is also notorious for being one of the most corrupt and brutal. Recently, numerous inmates have come forward with allegations that they were routinely sexually abused and assaulted by both male and female guards. According to various complaints filed between 2011 and 2015, female inmates would be forced to “barter” sexual acts with guards in exchange for basic necessities like soap and food. According to the complaints, women at Lowell who submitted to the sexual demands of the guards were rewarded with the best food and living supplies available. Meanwhile, women who refused were harassed, neglected, denied basic necessities, and sometimes put in solitary confinement. In many cases, women were put through psychological evaluations and labeled as mentally ill as a result of refusing the guard’s sexual advances.and labeled as mentally ill as a result of refusing the guard’s sexual advances. As we reported last year, in one case, a woman named Latandra Ellington attempted to file a complaint against the guards at Lowell, saying that she was being sexually assaulted, and she was murdered just days later. According to family members, Latandra may have been planning to speak out about the rampant sexual abuse that the correctional officers at the prison have been inflicting on the inmates. Marion County Chief Assistant State Attorney Ric Ridgway told the Miami Herald that the sex taking place in these situations was “consensual,” however it is obvious that women in prison are dependent upon the mercy of these guards for their survival, and that the sexual acts in these situations were coerced. sexual activity was absolutely coerced. “What I saw was that some of the girls were truly victims of rape and sexual assault and battery. I believed them when they told me it was unsolicited, uninvited and a nightmare,” Johnson argued. The allegations sparked an investigation by the Miami Herald, which revealed that complaints of rape were frequently silenced by the staff at the prison In the past decade, only two officers were arrested for sexual misconduct at the prison, but both of them pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and only spent a few months in jail. “The so-called punishment for an officer who rapes an inmate is to get transferred to another facility. Florida’s prisons allow officers to rape women in prison because the inmates aren’t considered to have any rights,” Nancy G. Abudu, legal director for the ACLU of Florida pointed out. http://thefreethoughtproject.com/largest-womens-prison-inmates-forced-sex-guards-exchange-basic-necessities-large/

Reports Of Chronic Abuse And Neglect

Residential Schools Goes Too Far Certain programs around the country for kids with emotional and behavioral disorders have a history of physical mistreatment. At least 145 children have died from avoidable causes at residential facilities over the past 35 years. At programs across the country, at least 145 children have died from avoidable causes at residential facilities over the past 35 years, a ProPublica analysis of news reports found. At least 62 children died after being restrained, most often because of asphyxiation. The job of monitoring the well-being of children at the programs is spread across so many state and local agencies that kids can fall through the cracks. State education agencies, for instance, rarely take strong action. A ProPublica survey found that about half of the education departments didn’t have the power to sanction such schools even if they discovered public-school students were being mistreated. School officials in just seven of the 44 states that responded to the survey said they had levied penalties on or closed such a program in the last decade. “State agencies can certainly step up measures to hold all residential treatment programs accountable to high health and safety standards, but the reality is that most have not despite a rash of abuse allegations occurring in programs on their turf,” the California representative Adam Schiff told ProPublica in an email. Schiff reintroduced a bill earlier this year that would require the tracking of abuse allegations lodged against such programs. Despite the public funding, there is little data on residential schools. One federal database collects state data on abuse incidents, but submission is voluntary. There is no required federal tracking of abuse allegations–and there is not even a nationwide list of all residential programs. One often-cited government survey, which is more than a decade old, estimates that there are at least 3,600 facilities across the country, housing more than 50,000 children annually. Ira Burnim, the legal director for the Bazelon Center for Mental Health, believes that the current data gives an incomplete picture. “Our lack of information and data is very troubling,” said Burnim. “To a certain extent, the residential treatment centers are out of sight, out of mind.” Lawmakers have repeatedly called for changes amid reports of chronic abuse and neglect. A government report in 2008 found gaps in state regulation increased the risk of abuse and neglect at some youth residential programs. Some state agencies didn’t visit programs often enough to make sure kids were safe and well-cared for, the report found. In other states, some programs, such as private boarding schools and religious treatment centers, are exempt from licensing and do not have direct regulation. There were residential facilities that had built fortresses around themselves,” Blau said. “They kept kids in and kept families out.” There is great value to having local oversight, but it’s important for there to be federal standards that drive service advancement,” she told ProPublica. Industry groups and providers have at times aggressively sought to fend off federal regulation of their programs and worked to undermine stricter rules. http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/12/kids-get-hurt-at-residential-schools/420846/?utm_source=SFTwitter