Lawsuit Filed Against Solitary Confinement of 800 Mentally Ill In Pennsylvania

Lawsuit Filed Against Solitary Confinement of 800 Seriously Mentally Ill In Pennsylvania by Sal Rodriguez RHU cell of prisoner Matthew Bullock, who committed suicide in 2009. The Disability Rights Network of Pennsylvania (DRNP) has filed a lawsuit against John Wetzel, the Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, charging that the confinement of prisoners in Restricted Housing Units (RHUs) amounts to cruel and unusual punishment of those diagnosed as seriously mentally ill. The suit seeks an end to long-term segregation of such individuals and seeks an order that DOC prisoners receive constitutionally adequate mental health care. According to the lawsuit, prisoners in the RHUs are locked in extremely small cells for at least 23 hours a day on weekdays and 24 hours a day on weekends and holidays. Typically, the lights are on in the cell all the time. The prisoners are denied adequate mental health care and prohibited from working, participating in educational or rehabilitative programs, or attending religious services. Prisoners in the RHU are generally held alone, notes the lawsuit, though even in cases when prisoners are assigned a cellmate, this may be "as deleterious to their mental health as solitary confinement" if the cellmate is "psychotic or violent." Placing people in such conditions, can create a Dickensian nightmare, in which prisoners are trapped in an endless cycle of isolation and punishment, further deterioration of their mental illness, deprivation of adequate mental health treatment, and inability to qualify for parole. The lawsuit provides profiles of 12 men housed in the RHU, which serve to illustrate the widespread use of solitary confinement against prisoners who have been diagnosed as having "serious mental illnesses." A man identified as "Prisoner #1" is described in the lawsuit as having been diagnosed with a delusional disorder with paranoid features and a borderline intellectual diability. Initially placed in a Special Needs Unit, in which prisoners receive psychiatric treatment, he was frequently placed in the RHU following incidents precipitated by delusions. Despite expressing suicidal thoughts before and during his confinement in the RHU, he remained in the RHU until he committed suicide by hanging on May 6, 2011. Prisoner #8 is a 28-year old man at State Correctional Institution-Green (SCI-Green) who has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, a psychotic disorder, a paraphilia, and a personality disorder. According to the lawsuit, he claims to receive "messages from the television and from dead people." The lawsuit states that he has expressed suicidal ideation and has been placed in the RHU after being deemed by the Department of Corrections a "danger to himself and others. The lawsuit charges that Wetzel knows or is deliberately indifferent to the fact that the DOC's treatment of prisoners with mental illness, including the practice of segregating them for long periods of time in RHUs, can cause grave harm to their mental health. While it is unclear what DSM-Axis I mental disorders fall under the scope of serious mental illness, the lawsuit argues that the current disciplinary system within Pennsylvania prisons fails to "consider a prisoner's serious mental illness and the impact of isolation in assessing whether to sanction the prisoners. Pennsylvania prisoner Ricardo Noble, who has spent over five years in the RHU, has written to Solitary Watch about the nature of life in the isolation units: In the RHU life is intense. Especially in the beginning weeks or months. As time passes your mind begins to become clouded with mixed emotions, anger, guilt, hate, paranoia, hopelessness, loneliness, and other frustrations. Some who fail to productively channel their frustrations tend to take it out on those closest to them (mainly other prisoners) or even themselves because they can’t lash out on the ones (the Administration) who can affect change of the physical aspects of their harsh condition. Approximately 1/3 of prisoners in the RHUs, which as of February 28th housed 844 prisoners in long term Administrative Custody and an additional 1,417 in shorter term Disciplinary Custody, have been described by DRNP as seriously mentally ill.The DRNP cited the position of the American Psychiatric Association, which in December 2012 declared that prolonged segregation of adult inmates with serious mental illness, with rare exceptions should be avoided due to the potential harm to such inmates. For more on solitary confinement in Pennsylvania, click here to read Solitary Watch's reporting. http://solitarywatch.com/2013/03/18/lawsuit-filed-against-solitary-confinement-of-800-seriously-mentally-ill-in-pennsylvania/

What Solitary Confinement Does to the Mind

Voices from Solitary: What Solitary Confinement Does to the Mind by Voices from Solitary The following was submitted to Solitary Watch by Michael Jewell, who was sentenced to death in Texas for capital murder in 1970 and spent three years in solitary confinement as a death row prisoner. His sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 1973 following the 1972 Supreme Court ruling in Furman v. Georgia, which prohibited the death penalty nationwide until the decision was overturned in 1976 in Gregg v. Georgia. Over the next 30 years, Jewell spent two two-year-long terms in Administrative Segregation. In Ad Seg, he would spend 23 hours a day in a 5x9 foot cell alone, allowed only a 20 minute shower and one hour of exercise in a cage. The first term was a result of his leading a work stoppage at Ellis Unit in Huntsville, Texas, in support of the Texas civil rights case Ruiz v. Estelle, which ultimately led federal courts to rule that the conditions in the Texas prison system violated 8th Amendment prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment. His second term in solitary confinement was the result of an escape attempt at Ferguson Unit in Madison County. Since his parole, he has found that life after prison is not easy. "Hell, with my criminal history, I couldn't get a job as a speed bump at Kroger's," he writes. "If it were not for a loving wife with enough fixed income to support the both of us, no doubt I would have recidivated for something akin to throwing a brick through a bank window." Jewell has become active in prison reform with Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants (CURE), Amnesty International, the Texas Inmate Family Association, and the ACLU of Texas. With his wife, Joan, he founded Con-Care Services, which assists Texas inmates with problems prisoners routinely face, including visitation issues and appealing disciplinary cases. "We don't move mountains but we kick the shit out of molehills," --Sal Rodriguez I served 40 consecutive years on a life sentence in the Texas Department of Corrections, from 1970 to 2010. My first 3 years were on death row, which is much like Administrative Segregation and Solitary Confinement (S.C). I also did time in Ad Seg on two separate occasions, staying over two years each time. During that time I was confined to a 5 x 9 foot cell for 23 hours per day. I was allowed a 20 minute shower and an hour for outside recreation in a cage made of cyclone fencing, which resembled a cage you’d see at the dog pound. The cage measured about 10 x 10 square feet. S.C. is a form of sensory deprivation, in that your perception shrinks to the dimensions of the space and sensations of confinement. Visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile, and even the sense of taste are dramatically deprived and constricted. Almost immediately upon being tossed into isolation, though many people may not recognize it for what it is, you begin to suffer from a form of “sensory withdrawal.” Soon, you begin to crave the broader liberty you’ve lost, even the limited freedom of a prison’s environment: the ability to move about and interact with other human beings. Such a radical deprivation of sensory perceptions has a ‘numbing’ effect. You feel ‘stunned.’ Removed from the distractions and diversions of the broader context, the mind is suddenly forced to confront itself. You begin to hear yourself think. When the mind is withdrawn from the experience of ‘perceiving’ and interacting with the complex activities of the broader environment, it is forced to switch to perceptions from within itself and draw upon self-consciousness, as well as the subconscious. Sudden subjection to S.C. is a painful and dreaded experience. Because it is human nature to seek pleasure and avoid pain, we have a tendency to withdraw from the physical and take refuge into the psychological. Different people will have different reactions to this phenomenon. But most will indulge in various memories and forms of ‘fancy.’ Alongside memories of good times come those of sad and bad times. It is my opinion that all prisoners, deep inside, have a poor self-image. In S.C. that fact becomes acutely self-evident, or at least it did in my case. I suffered profound feelings of guilt and shame for past actions and inactions. Hot on the heels of regret come recrimination. Again, it is our nature to seek pleasure and to avoid pain. We tend to escape from over-awareness of our faults and foibles by turning to ‘fancy.’ Over time: days, weeks, months, and years, imagination can verge on, and in many cases, into, hallucination. The next stage is often psychosis and irreparable psychological damage. Resech has shown an irrefutable link between S.C. and mental deterioration: http://solitarywatch.com/2013/02/16/voices-from-solitary-what-solitary-confinement-does-to-the-mind/

MENTAL PATIENT DETERIORATING FAST IN SOLITARY CONFINEMENT IN CALIF.

++++Please Note This story is from 2009 & the petition is out dated* The Abuse taking place in our county & state facilities is not! It is taking place every day and could happen to someone you love:>> Gelly*
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MENTAL PATIENT DETERIORATING FAST IN SOLITARY CONFINEMENT IN CALIF.


Jeremy Smith is a mentally ill young man who is suffering solitary confinement in California Prison System, and the Chief Psychologist reported to his mother that he is deteriorating rapidly. Please help remove Jeremy from solitary confinement in prison and into a mental hospital where he belongs! e-Mail Gov. Schwarzenegger http://gov.ca. gov/interact



Justice4Jeremy Peition: http://www.thepetit ionsite.com/ 1/JusticeForJere my

PLEASE, WILL SOMEONE HELP THIS FAMILY?

Letter from Gina, Jeremy Smith's Mother

Gina B.
March 17, 2009

Hello Mary and AIMI members,

Jeremy is in "Segregated Housing Unit" "Shu", is Solitary confinement for eight years, he as been there for a year now. I had been calling the Cal prison "CSP, SAC" to inquirer about my son, since I haven't heard from him in over 6 months, and never received any return calls. I did receive a call from the Head Chief Psychologist Mrs Kelly, I told her my concerns about my son. She said that she would call me back once she found out about my son Jeremy, well she did call me back in a couple of days and told me that she was unable to locate any consent forms allowing me to receive any information concerning my son, but she was able to tell me that he wasn't doing good, I was crying asking her if my son was dying she said no, that he was in good health, so in said I take it that mentally in he was in a mental crisis and that's why I hadn't heard from him.

She replied that that was a very good assumption. The prison is responsible to give him mental health care and he is not receiving it!

Please help us!

Gina
mentalunderstanding @yahoo.com

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REMEMBER THIS NEWS? Please be Jeremy Smith's Good Samaritan today!

PRIVATE PRISON TORTURE OF MENTALLY ILL AMERICAN - 9 MO. SOLITARY IN FILTH

http://my.nowpublic .com/health/ private-prison- torture-mentally -ill-american- nine-months- solitary- confinement- filth-and- naked


TAKE A LOOK, GINA. MAYBE SOMEONE WILL HELP YOU!! JEREMY'S PETITION IS ON THE HOME PAGE OF THE SENATE SELECT COMMUNITY COMMITTEE ON CALIFORNIA'S CORRECTIONAL SYSTEM! http://ssccccs. org/

LOOK, AIMI MEMBERS! YOU ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE! Our link is on the SSCCCCS homepage as well!

Gina, please write to the SSCCCCS and let them know of your terrible news about Jeremy.

If there is anyone at all in a position of authority who gives a damn about this young mental patient suffering solitary confinement and deterioriating every day, PLEASE HELP!

Will everyone please sign Jeremy Smith's petition now? He is deteriorating, and California has him locked in solitary confinement - a schizophrenic young man who was reportedly sentenced to prison for eight (8) years for merely hitting another mental patient at a mental health facility, but he caused no lasting damage to the other patient. Some people did not get eight years sentences for manslaughter, or stealing government money. Read Jeremy's petition in itilacs below:

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Justice4Jeremy Peition: http://www.thepetit ionsite.com/ 1/JusticeForJere my
Justice for Jeremy and Other Mentally Ill Prisoners


Target: Governor Schwarzenegger
Sponsored by: Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill

GINA CRIES HERSELF TO SLEEP most nights and spends her off days trying to get our justice system to do justice for her son, Jeremy. Jeremy Smith suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and has an IQ between 50 and 70. Gina has her son's power of attorney, but when Jeremy was charged with a crime, the prosecutor talked Jeremy into signing a plea deal sentencing him to eight years in prison. His crime? He hit another patient at a mental hospital, but caused no lasting injury.

The sad truth is that sick U.S. citizens like Jeremy are used to boost profits for private prisons. Each inmate in the general prison population costs taxpayers about $50,000 per year to warehouse, although 2/3 of them are non-violent offenders. Prison labor programs use these inmates to manufacture goods the prison owners sell and trade on Wall Street. Mentally ill and dying inmates are even more lucrative for private prison owners. Taxpayers pay about $100 thousand per year, per patient to warehouse 1.25 million mental patients usually under cruel living conditions without adequate medical or psychiatric care.

Jeremy has been in prison before for hitting someone. In fact, Jeremy spent FOUR YEARS in "the hole," a space no larger than a closet where he lived naked in solitary confinement 23 hours per day. When released from the hole, Jeremy had lost about 60 pounds, was too weak to stand on his own, and could not speak a complete sentence. Jeremy was so malnourished and traumatized after his torture that Gina thought he might die. After being stabilized in the mental hospital, Jeremy was transferred to a facility nearer to his mother. As the new kid on the block, Jeremy was targeted by aggressive psychiatric patients. Jeremy again hit someone, and that is why he is now back in prison and he may be already back in "the hole," as scheduled. Gina has not heard from Jeremy in over a month, and the prison refuses to tell her how her son is doing or allow Gina to see him.

Seven inmates reportedly died in this year in California prisons from tooth decay. Infection from their rotten teeth entered their bloodstreams and killed them. Gina knows that Jeremy is unlikely to receive proper psychiatric treatment while imprisoned.

1. The undersigned petitioners demand that the plea bargain Jeremy Smith signed that was used to condemn him to eight years in prison must be revoked because of his borderline retardation and acute mental illness. The power of attorney Gina has for her son must be fully honored.

2. We demand that mentally ill people be treated as hospital inpatients, not prison inmates. Sick people cannot be punished into a state of mental health.

3. We demand that since taxpayers are charged significantly more for the care of sick inmates, they must actually receive health care. Torture is not a part of their sentencing.

Thank you.

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Please sign Jeremy's petition and email the governor and send to your friends and groups. Not everyone is shot down like Oscar Grant. Many people die slow deaths, out of sight, deprived of medical care and oversight in prison.

Please call and write Governor Schwarzenegger on behalf of Jeremy Smith and other mental patients locked in dungeons like the Dark Ages!

PLEASE help Jeremy Smith, everyone! Don't let what happened to Mr. Horton in CCA's prison in Nashville happen to this young man!

Mr. Horton was kept in isolation in Nashville, TN's CCA prison for 9 months. He lived in filth - no baths, no medical or psychiatric care, and no exercise until a prison guard feared for the mentally ill inmate's life and blew the whistle on his employers!


Mary Neal
Website: http://wrongfuldeat hoflarryneal. com

Assistance to the Incarcerated Mentally Ill
Visit Online at Care2: http://www.care2. com/c2c/group/ AIMI