Pennsylvania Prisoners Charged with Rioting After Protesting Conditions in Solitary
by Sal Rodriguez
A group of inmates held in solitary confinement in a Pennsylvania prison have been charged with various felony offenses, including rioting and aggravated harassment, stemming from their participation in an April 2010 protest against prison abuses. The group, which has come to be known as the Dallas 6, covered the windows of their cell doors with bedding in protest of alleged harassment by correctional officers at the State Correctional Institution (SCI) Dallas. Their protest was met with violent "cell extractions" against all six inmates. Officially, the covering of the cell windows constituted an act which coerced correctional officials to perform cell extractions, therefore making their actions rioting.
According to Human Rights Coalition-Fed Up! investigator Bret Grote, there will be a hearing before Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas Judge Nina Gartley on October 21st regarding a defense motion to consolidate the cases of four of the Dallas 6's cases into a single case. The hearing involves Andre Jacobs, Carrington Keys, Derrick Stanley, and Duane Peters-El, four of the five members of the Dallas 6 who have yet to have their cases resolved. (Anthony Kelly accepted a plea bargain last year, and Anthony Locke will be tried separately). The four are currently held at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility. Carrington Keys was set to go to trial on October 17th, but the trial has been postponed to a later, undetermined date.
The alleged abuses against inmates that inspired the protest are, according to some, reflective of a widespread problem in the Pennsylvania prison system. The most dramatic allegations surfaced last month, when a suspended prison guard from SCI Pittsburgh was arrested on charges that he sexually or physically assaulted more than 20 inmates. Earlier reports suggest less extreme, but nonetheless serious abuses at other prisons.
As of August 31, 2011 there were 51,393 inmates under the jurisdiction of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, in a system with a designed capacity of 44,190. Among them are over 1,500 inmates in isolation units—referred to as Restricted Housing Units. Restricted Housing Units are solitary confinement units where inmates are kept in their cells 23 hours a day during the week and 24 hours on the weekends.
For ten months between 2009 and 2010, the Human Rights Coalition-Fed Up! worked on a report documenting abuses across Pennsylvania prisons, but most specifically at SCI Dallas. A medium security prison in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, SCI Dallas houses over 2,100 inmates, including over a hundred inmates in Disciplinary and Administrative Restricted Housing Units.
According to the 2010 report by the Human Rights Coalition-Fed Up! “Institutionalized Cruelty: Torture at SCI Dallas and in Prisons Throughout Pennsylvania”, written with extensive cooperation of inmates, SCI Dallas was particularly rife with abuses. Among them, the “frequent usage of racist slurs, threats of violence, verbal and physical abuse by guards,” “ retaliation against prisoners exercising their constitutional rights to file grievances,” and “failure to provide adequate or at times any, physical or mental health care.”
One prisoner who corresponded with the HRC described his experience in the RHU at SCI Dallas:
"The conditions were very inhumane...hot, no working vents at all... stuffy and humid... My first cell bugs were biting me all over my body, when I said something about it they (medical staff) played like I was crazy then finally after constant complaining they gave me benadryl then moved me and still didn't clean the cell. They had a light on all day that felt like a rotisserie lamp. It was hard to sleep because of the hot humid cells and constant bugs biting me all day and night... We had no cups to drink the brown colored water that came o ut of the sinks and toilets. There was constant screaming yelling kicking and banging..."
The 93 page report includes extensive case studies and descriptions by inmates of the psychological torment of solitary confinement, racism, violence, and various other abuses at SCI Dallas. One detailed description of the psychologically detrimental effects of solitary confinement in the RHUs cited in the report can be read here.
The report was released in April 2010. RHU Inmate Andre Jacobs, who had corresponded with HRC and whose testimonial appeared in the report, was sent a copy of the report. On April 25th, RHU inmate Derrick Stanley reported hearing a member of the security staff tell Jacobs that he "just got something really interesting from Fed Up."
At some point on the 25th, inmate Anthony Kelly, who had contributed to the HRC report, had food withheld from him. Fellow inmate Isaac Sanchez spoke out against the withholding of food, and subsequently Sanchez's dinner was withheld. On May 2nd, Anthony Kelly wrote that "as of 4/25/10 I haven't had a sip of water and only 2 baloney sandwiches... They cut off your water and see how long you go before they can break you. They starve you." He also wrote that the report was being circulated among correctional officers, and that they had since "been on a very vicious roll."
On April 28th, three days after the withholding of meals from Kelly and Sanchez, Sanchez was the target of a cell extraction. As the HRC report describes it:
A cell-extraction is when guards equipped in riot gear and armed with pepper spray and electro-shock weapons forcibly enter a cell in order to overwhelm a prisoner, place them in hand and leg restraints, and move them to another cell by force.
Sanchez was, in his own words, "violently beaten and shocked for sometime, then I was placed on the restraint chair for sixteen hours."
The following day, six prisoners, many of whom had contributed to the HRC report, covered the windows of their cells in protest.
"We covered our windows to obstruct count, refused to answer them, barricaded our doors closed... and forced cell-extractions," according to a letter from Andre Jacobs cited in the August 2010 HRC report.
Andre Jacobs, Anthony Kelly, Carrington Keys, Anthony Locke, Derrick Stanley, and Duane Peters-El were all subjected to violent cell extractions the same day. All were tasered, many more than a dozen times, as well as pepper sprayed and beaten. Pages 10-16 of HRC's August 2010 report on the six provide background on the inmates as well as descriptions of their injuries.
According to the criminal complaints, filed July 7th, 2010, all six inmates were charged with rioting. The complaints read:
Riot-A Person is guilty is he participates with two or more others in a course of disorderly conduct with the intent to coerce official action. To wit; the defendant, along with five other inmates, covered their cell door windows and tied their doors shut in order to cause Corrections Officers to perform cell extractions.
In the Affidavit of Probable Cause (against Duane Peters):
On April 29, 2010, the defendant and other inmates lead by I/M Keys, I/M Locke, I/M Kelly and I/M Jacobs covered their cell door windows in order to require them to be extracted from the cells. The defendant, while housed in the RHU, also barricaded his cell door, along with five other inmates, and refused several orders to remove the items. This caused the use of the cell extraction team. When the extraction team attempted to remove the defendant he resisted and attempted to assault the officers after they entered.
According to a September 2010 news story from Luzerne County regarding a preliminary hearing for Carrington Keys:
On April 29, the men hung bedsheets to keep guards from peering into their cells and used the cloth to secure their doors shut, said Trooper Christopher Wilson. When an extraction team entered the cells, he said six guards were pelted with feces and urine.
In testimony, Lt. David Mosier, who heads the extraction team, said he gave "numerous warnings" to Keys and said guards would raid the cells if the bedding wasn't taken down.
"He refused all orders," Mosier said. "At that point I ordered the extraction team to enter."
The section referring to the guards "pelted with feces and urine" is a reference to additional charges against Carrington Keys, who denies those charges.
The charge of Aggravated Harassment by Prisoner against Keys, in the July 7th criminal complaint, reads:
A person is guilty if while confined in or committed to any local or county detention facility, jail or prison or any State penal or correctional institution or other State penal or correctional facility located in this Commonwealth, he intentionally or knowingly causes or attempts to cause another to come into contact with saliva or feces my throwing, tossing, spitting or expelling such fluid or material. To wit; the defendant threw feces at and on the extraction team; the victims are employees of the State Correctional Institution in Dallas.
One inconsistency in the charges against Keys is that, had there been an incident in which excrement had been thrown at the officers, there would have been a decontamination process (which there is no evidence of), rather than the continuation of cell extractions immediately after Keys' extraction.
In a hearing on November 12th, 2010:
State police Cpl. Christopher Wilson called the three corrections officers to testify. They said the six inmates were given several orders to remove the coverings from their cell doors – a violation of the prisons code – and didn’t comply.
The officers testified they then removed the six men from their cells to search them.
“Something serious was going on,” said Sgt. Donald Buck, an officer at SCI-Dallas. “It was a security and safety issue.”
Originally charged as a group, the six were eventually split up into six individual cases. Their actions were deemed a safety issue which, as the complaints read, served to "coerce official action", with the cell extractions being the official action coerced by the inmates.
As of October 4th, 2011, Anthony Kelly accepted a plea bargain (the details of which are unknown) in November 2010 and has since been released. All of the remaining inmates have remained in solitary confinement units. Anthony Locke has not been in contact with HRC-Fed Up! nor any Dallas 6 support groups.
Duane Peters and Carrington Keys are currently representing themselves. Keys, in July 2010, filed a suit against the district attorney for ignoring complaints. In September 2010 the suit was moved from state to federal court, where Keys was asked to amend his complaint against the District Attorney. He added complaints of being retaliated against and asked the federal government to issue a restraining against the District Attorney, a move which was subsequently denied.
Since the incident in April 2010, Andre Jacobs has been transferred to three facilities. The first facility where he was transfered immediately after the cell extraction was SCI Coal Township where, on August 2nd according to over a dozen reports from inmates, food was withheld from him because "he liked to file paperwork." After protesting the withholding of meals, he was subsequently removed from the cell while guards removed the mattress and personal belongings and was returned to an empty cell and was reportedly denied meals for an extended period of time afterwards. He was later sent to SCI Huntington and then SCI Rockview. Jacobs is currently in the Luzerne County prison for pretrial hearings represented by a public attorney who Jacobs has attempted to fire so that he may represent himself, but so far this move has not been allowed by the court.
Sal Rodriguez | October 15, 2011 at 10:00 pm | Categories: civil liberties/civil rights, Pennsylvania, retaliation, solitary confinement | URL: http://wp.me/pKbGK-14e
Monday, October 17, 2011
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
A small teen in prison: Belli was thrown to wolves
A small teen in prison: Belli was thrown to wolves in Lieber's toughest dorm
Inmates at Lieber state prison marked James Belli as prey as soon as he landed in a maximum- security cell block meant for murderers, rapists and other violent criminals. Slight, slim and pale, the Summerville teen was fresh meat in a den of predators.
What happened to him at Lieber reveals a dark and dangerous world behind the brick walls and barbed wire at one of South Carolina's toughest prisons.
PROVIDED BY BELLI FAMILY
James Belli's inmate identification card from the S.C. Department of Corrections.
It unveils a place where the most violent prisoners ruled the roost, guards suspected one another of corruption and corrections officials turned a blind eye to cancers in their midst, court documents show.
Belli's family knew none of this when they turned the wayward teen in to police in late 2005 to face burglary and larceny charges, hoping it would straighten him out. Instead, he became a target for extortion at Lieber, and was roughed up and shaken down by other inmates.
Belli, 19, had served just a few months of his eight-year sentence when prisoners attacked him on Aug. 23, 2006. One man plunged a homemade shank into Belli's neck — again and again. Belli died the next day.
His family's quest for answers, along with a civil lawsuit, has yielded a bounty of documents and testimony that raise fresh questions about prison officials' handling of events leading up to Belli's death, and their failure to protect him from harm.
http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2011/jul/25/small-teen-prison-belli-was-thrown-wolves-liebers-/
Inmates at Lieber state prison marked James Belli as prey as soon as he landed in a maximum- security cell block meant for murderers, rapists and other violent criminals. Slight, slim and pale, the Summerville teen was fresh meat in a den of predators.
What happened to him at Lieber reveals a dark and dangerous world behind the brick walls and barbed wire at one of South Carolina's toughest prisons.
PROVIDED BY BELLI FAMILY
James Belli's inmate identification card from the S.C. Department of Corrections.
It unveils a place where the most violent prisoners ruled the roost, guards suspected one another of corruption and corrections officials turned a blind eye to cancers in their midst, court documents show.
Belli's family knew none of this when they turned the wayward teen in to police in late 2005 to face burglary and larceny charges, hoping it would straighten him out. Instead, he became a target for extortion at Lieber, and was roughed up and shaken down by other inmates.
Belli, 19, had served just a few months of his eight-year sentence when prisoners attacked him on Aug. 23, 2006. One man plunged a homemade shank into Belli's neck — again and again. Belli died the next day.
His family's quest for answers, along with a civil lawsuit, has yielded a bounty of documents and testimony that raise fresh questions about prison officials' handling of events leading up to Belli's death, and their failure to protect him from harm.
http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2011/jul/25/small-teen-prison-belli-was-thrown-wolves-liebers-/
Sunday, August 14, 2011
Youth detention worker arrested on sex charges
Youth detention worker arrested on sex charges
Richard Bradberry, 54, is suspected of abusing inmates
By Patrick Lohmann
Albuquerque Journal
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A supervisor at an Albuquerque youth detention facility was arrested Friday afternoon on charges of sexually abusing several female juvenile inmates.
Richard Bradberry, 54, is charged with three counts each of criminal sexual contact, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, false imprisonment and voyeurism. Authorities said he groped three underage female inmates, including one instance of pulling down the pants and underwear of a girl.
Two of the alleged victims are 16 years old and one is 17, police said. All three are inmates at the Camino Nuevo Youth Center, where Bradberry worked as a youth care specialist.
Police first heard allegations of abuse a year ago, said State Police spokesman Sgt. Tim Johnson, but they didn't have enough evidence.
In April, however, police said one of the alleged victims told police she had been touched inappropriately, and investigators were able to corroborate several witness interviews with the facility's surveillance footage, Johnson said.
"He touched them inappropriately," Johnson said. "... We're hoping that there aren't any more victims, but if there are, they can definitely contact State Police."
Bradberry was arrested shortly before 6 p.m. on Friday at his home.
According to the arrest warrant, the girls told police that Bradberry often made them feel uncomfortable by telling them he needed a girlfriend and inviting them to dance upon their release at a club he claimed to own. The girls' testimonies also claimed that Bradberry would try to get girls alone during cleaning times at the youth jail and try and kiss them, and one of the girls said she always cleaned with a fellow inmate to avoid unwanted contact from the supervisor.
One of the alleged victims told police Bradberry groped her more than a dozen times, according to the warrant.
A second alleged victim said Bradberry groped her as he placed a piece of gum in her back pocket, according to the arrest warrant, and another claimed the supervisor often told her that he was "horny" and needed a girlfriend.
New Mexico Children Youth and Families Department spokesman Enrique Knell said the allegations against Bradberry counteract the good work of "99 percent" of CYFD employees.
"It's really devastating to the mission here," he said. "When this kind of thing happens, it tends to tarnish the reputation of everyone here."
Bradberry was a CYFD employee for between eight and 10 years, Knell said, and he is now on administrative leave.
http://www.correctionsone.com/staff-misconduct/articles/4189763-Youth-detention-worker-arrested-on-sex-charges/
Richard Bradberry, 54, is suspected of abusing inmates
By Patrick Lohmann
Albuquerque Journal
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A supervisor at an Albuquerque youth detention facility was arrested Friday afternoon on charges of sexually abusing several female juvenile inmates.
Richard Bradberry, 54, is charged with three counts each of criminal sexual contact, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, false imprisonment and voyeurism. Authorities said he groped three underage female inmates, including one instance of pulling down the pants and underwear of a girl.
Two of the alleged victims are 16 years old and one is 17, police said. All three are inmates at the Camino Nuevo Youth Center, where Bradberry worked as a youth care specialist.
Police first heard allegations of abuse a year ago, said State Police spokesman Sgt. Tim Johnson, but they didn't have enough evidence.
In April, however, police said one of the alleged victims told police she had been touched inappropriately, and investigators were able to corroborate several witness interviews with the facility's surveillance footage, Johnson said.
"He touched them inappropriately," Johnson said. "... We're hoping that there aren't any more victims, but if there are, they can definitely contact State Police."
Bradberry was arrested shortly before 6 p.m. on Friday at his home.
According to the arrest warrant, the girls told police that Bradberry often made them feel uncomfortable by telling them he needed a girlfriend and inviting them to dance upon their release at a club he claimed to own. The girls' testimonies also claimed that Bradberry would try to get girls alone during cleaning times at the youth jail and try and kiss them, and one of the girls said she always cleaned with a fellow inmate to avoid unwanted contact from the supervisor.
One of the alleged victims told police Bradberry groped her more than a dozen times, according to the warrant.
A second alleged victim said Bradberry groped her as he placed a piece of gum in her back pocket, according to the arrest warrant, and another claimed the supervisor often told her that he was "horny" and needed a girlfriend.
New Mexico Children Youth and Families Department spokesman Enrique Knell said the allegations against Bradberry counteract the good work of "99 percent" of CYFD employees.
"It's really devastating to the mission here," he said. "When this kind of thing happens, it tends to tarnish the reputation of everyone here."
Bradberry was a CYFD employee for between eight and 10 years, Knell said, and he is now on administrative leave.
http://www.correctionsone.com/staff-misconduct/articles/4189763-Youth-detention-worker-arrested-on-sex-charges/
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Class Action Lawsuits: Mississippi Kids Abused
Agenda Area(s): Children at Risk
J.H., et al. v. Hinds County, Miss.
Date Filed: 06/01/2011
Hinds County, which operates Henley-Young Juvenile Justice Center in Jackson, violated the constitutional rights of children by subjecting them to prolonged periods of isolation and sensory deprivation, denying them mental health services, and subjecting them to verbal abuse and threats of physical harm. The SPLC and Disability Rights Mississippi filed the class action lawsuit after numerous attempts to resolve the issues with county officials failed.
----------------------------------------------------Disability Rights Mississippi v. Forrest County, Miss.
Date Filed: 03/07/2011
The Forrest County Juvenile Detention Center in Mississippi was the site of numerous abuse allegations. Video footage from the facility showed youths being slammed into walls and beaten by staffers. When Disability Rights Mississippi (DRMS) attempted to provide the youths with services to protect them from further abuse, Forrest County officials prevented DRMS from having access to the youths. The Southern Poverty Law Center and DRMS sued the county to force it to comply with federal law and allow DRMS access to the children.
-----------------------------------------------------J.A., et al. v. Barbour, et al.
Date Filed: 07/11/2007
The Southern Poverty Law Center filed suit on behalf of mentally ill girls living at the Columbia Training School who were shackled, physically and sexually abused, and provided with inadequate mental health treatment.
---------------------------------------------------
>> UPDATE
SPLC Wins Access to Youths at Abusive Mississippi Detention Facility
07/26/2011
The Southern Poverty Law Center and Disability Rights Mississippi (DRMS) have won access to youths held at the abusive Henley-Young Juvenile Justice Center in Jackson, Miss. A federal judge ruled Monday that facility officials can no longer block lawyers and advocates from meeting with detained children and teens.
----------------------------------------------------
Federal Lawsuit Reveals Inhumane Conditions at For-Profit Youth Prison
11/16/2010
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Jackson, MS civil rights attorney Robert B. McDuff today filed a federal class-action lawsuit against the for-profit operators of Mississippi's Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility (WGYCF), charging that the children there are forced to live in barbaric and unconstitutional conditions and are subjected to excessive uses of force by prison staff.
----------------------------------------------------Abuses outlined in the report included pole-shackling, hog-tying with chains and physical assault by guards. During military exercises, children were sprayed with chemicals to make it more difficult for them to breathe and forced to eat their own vomit if they became sick after hours of exertion and heat exposure.
( http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/news/splc-works-to-improve-mississippi-juvenile-justice )
J.H., et al. v. Hinds County, Miss.
Date Filed: 06/01/2011
Hinds County, which operates Henley-Young Juvenile Justice Center in Jackson, violated the constitutional rights of children by subjecting them to prolonged periods of isolation and sensory deprivation, denying them mental health services, and subjecting them to verbal abuse and threats of physical harm. The SPLC and Disability Rights Mississippi filed the class action lawsuit after numerous attempts to resolve the issues with county officials failed.
----------------------------------------------------Disability Rights Mississippi v. Forrest County, Miss.
Date Filed: 03/07/2011
The Forrest County Juvenile Detention Center in Mississippi was the site of numerous abuse allegations. Video footage from the facility showed youths being slammed into walls and beaten by staffers. When Disability Rights Mississippi (DRMS) attempted to provide the youths with services to protect them from further abuse, Forrest County officials prevented DRMS from having access to the youths. The Southern Poverty Law Center and DRMS sued the county to force it to comply with federal law and allow DRMS access to the children.
-----------------------------------------------------J.A., et al. v. Barbour, et al.
Date Filed: 07/11/2007
The Southern Poverty Law Center filed suit on behalf of mentally ill girls living at the Columbia Training School who were shackled, physically and sexually abused, and provided with inadequate mental health treatment.
---------------------------------------------------
>> UPDATE
SPLC Wins Access to Youths at Abusive Mississippi Detention Facility
07/26/2011
The Southern Poverty Law Center and Disability Rights Mississippi (DRMS) have won access to youths held at the abusive Henley-Young Juvenile Justice Center in Jackson, Miss. A federal judge ruled Monday that facility officials can no longer block lawyers and advocates from meeting with detained children and teens.
----------------------------------------------------
Federal Lawsuit Reveals Inhumane Conditions at For-Profit Youth Prison
11/16/2010
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Jackson, MS civil rights attorney Robert B. McDuff today filed a federal class-action lawsuit against the for-profit operators of Mississippi's Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility (WGYCF), charging that the children there are forced to live in barbaric and unconstitutional conditions and are subjected to excessive uses of force by prison staff.
----------------------------------------------------Abuses outlined in the report included pole-shackling, hog-tying with chains and physical assault by guards. During military exercises, children were sprayed with chemicals to make it more difficult for them to breathe and forced to eat their own vomit if they became sick after hours of exertion and heat exposure.
( http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/news/splc-works-to-improve-mississippi-juvenile-justice )
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
New York Times Heeds a Cry from the Depths of Pelican Bay Prison
New York Times Heeds a Cry from the Depths of Pelican Bay Prison
As we have written before, the three-week-long hunger strike in the Security Housing Unit at Pelican Bay--which was joined by inmates at a dozen other California prisons--may have wrung few tangible concessions from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. But it achieved something less measurable, but in some senses far more important: For a few weeks, the men of the Pelican Bay SHU ceased to be invisible. They forced the media and the public to bear witness to their torment, and see long-term solitary confinement for what it is: one of the most pressing domestic human rights issues of our time.
The media's responses varied, as did the public's (as any reader of online comment will know). One of the publications that refused to turn its face away from the reality of prison torture was arguably the most important one of all--the New York Times. The Times not only covered the strike as news, but also addressed it directly on its editorial pages. First came a powerful op-ed by Colin Dayan, author of The Story of Cruel and Unusual, which pointed out: "Solitary confinement has been transmuted from an occasional tool of discipline into a widespread form of preventive detention. The Supreme Court, over the last two decades, has whittled steadily away at the rights of inmates, surrendering to prison administrators virtually all control over what is done to those held in 'administrative segregation.'” In this context, Dayan wrote, "Hunger strikes are the only weapons prisoners have left." He suggested: "Maybe one way to react to prisoners whose only reaction to bestial treatment is to starve themselves to death might be to do the unthinkable — to treat them like human beings."
Today, the New York Times's lead editorial is "Cruel Isolation." Appearing with the tag line "A California prison protest spotlighted widespread use of torturous solitary confinement," it was clearly inspired by the hunger strike. It states that "the protest has raised awareness about the national shame of extended solitary confinement at Pelican Bay and at high-security, 'supermax' prisons all around the country." By publishing the editorial, the Times ensures that this awareness will be further raised, and brings a desperate cry out of the depths of the Pelican Bay SHU to millions of readers worldwide. The full text of the editorial follows.
For many decades, the civilized world has recognized prolonged isolation of prisoners in cruel conditions to be inhumane, even torture. The Geneva Conventions forbid it. Even at Abu Ghraib in Iraq, where prisoners were sexually humiliated and physically abused systematically and with official sanction, the jailers had to get permission of their commanding general to keep someone in isolation for more than 30 days.
So Americans should be disgusted and outraged that prolonged solitary confinement, sometimes for months or even years, has become a routine form of prison management. It is inflicting unnecessary, indecent and inhumane suffering on tens of thousands of prisoners.
The issue came to the fore most recently because of a three-week hunger strike by inmates at Pelican Bay State Prison in California near the Oregon border that began on July 1 in the Orwellian Security Housing Unit, where inmates are held in wretched isolation in small windowless cells for more than 22 hours a day, some for many years.
Possessions, reading material, exercise and exposure to natural light and the outside are severely restricted. Meals are served through slots in steel cell doors. There is little in the way of human interaction. Returning to the general prison population is often conditioned on inmates divulging information on other gang members, putting themselves in jeopardy.
How inmates in these circumstances communicated to organize the protest is unclear, but it quickly spread to other California prisons. About 6,600 inmates participated at its peak. California’s huge prison system is dysfunctional in so many ways. In May, the Supreme Court found conditions at the overcrowded prisons so egregious that they violated the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment and ordered the state to cut its prison population by more than 30,000 inmates. The case did not address the issue of long-term solitary confinement.
With their health deteriorating, those inmates continuing to fast resumed eating after state prison officials met a few modest demands. Inmates in Pelican Bay’s isolation unit will get wool caps for cold weather, wall calendars to mark the passing time and some educational programming. Prison officials said current isolation and gang management policies are under review. But the protest has raised awareness about the national shame of extended solitary confinement at Pelican Bay and at high-security, “supermax” prisons all around the country.
Once used occasionally as a short-term punishment for violating prison rules, solitary confinement’s prevalent use as a long-term prison management strategy is a fairly recent development, Colin Dayan, a professor at Vanderbilt University, said in a recent Op-Ed article in The Times. Nationally, more than 20,000 inmates are confined in “supermax” facilities in horrid conditions.
Prison officials claim the treatment is necessary for combating gang activity and other threats to prison order. It is possible to maintain physical separation of prisoners without ultraharsh levels of deprivation and isolation. Mississippi, which once set the low bar for terrible prison practices, saw a steep reduction of prison violence and ample monetary savings when it dramatically cut back on long-term solitary several years ago.
Holding prisoners in solitary also is very expensive, and several other states have begun to make reductions. In any case, decency requires limits. Resorting to a dehumanizing form of punishment well known to induce suffering and drive people into mental illness is beyond them.
Wordpress.com
As we have written before, the three-week-long hunger strike in the Security Housing Unit at Pelican Bay--which was joined by inmates at a dozen other California prisons--may have wrung few tangible concessions from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. But it achieved something less measurable, but in some senses far more important: For a few weeks, the men of the Pelican Bay SHU ceased to be invisible. They forced the media and the public to bear witness to their torment, and see long-term solitary confinement for what it is: one of the most pressing domestic human rights issues of our time.
The media's responses varied, as did the public's (as any reader of online comment will know). One of the publications that refused to turn its face away from the reality of prison torture was arguably the most important one of all--the New York Times. The Times not only covered the strike as news, but also addressed it directly on its editorial pages. First came a powerful op-ed by Colin Dayan, author of The Story of Cruel and Unusual, which pointed out: "Solitary confinement has been transmuted from an occasional tool of discipline into a widespread form of preventive detention. The Supreme Court, over the last two decades, has whittled steadily away at the rights of inmates, surrendering to prison administrators virtually all control over what is done to those held in 'administrative segregation.'” In this context, Dayan wrote, "Hunger strikes are the only weapons prisoners have left." He suggested: "Maybe one way to react to prisoners whose only reaction to bestial treatment is to starve themselves to death might be to do the unthinkable — to treat them like human beings."
Today, the New York Times's lead editorial is "Cruel Isolation." Appearing with the tag line "A California prison protest spotlighted widespread use of torturous solitary confinement," it was clearly inspired by the hunger strike. It states that "the protest has raised awareness about the national shame of extended solitary confinement at Pelican Bay and at high-security, 'supermax' prisons all around the country." By publishing the editorial, the Times ensures that this awareness will be further raised, and brings a desperate cry out of the depths of the Pelican Bay SHU to millions of readers worldwide. The full text of the editorial follows.
For many decades, the civilized world has recognized prolonged isolation of prisoners in cruel conditions to be inhumane, even torture. The Geneva Conventions forbid it. Even at Abu Ghraib in Iraq, where prisoners were sexually humiliated and physically abused systematically and with official sanction, the jailers had to get permission of their commanding general to keep someone in isolation for more than 30 days.
So Americans should be disgusted and outraged that prolonged solitary confinement, sometimes for months or even years, has become a routine form of prison management. It is inflicting unnecessary, indecent and inhumane suffering on tens of thousands of prisoners.
The issue came to the fore most recently because of a three-week hunger strike by inmates at Pelican Bay State Prison in California near the Oregon border that began on July 1 in the Orwellian Security Housing Unit, where inmates are held in wretched isolation in small windowless cells for more than 22 hours a day, some for many years.
Possessions, reading material, exercise and exposure to natural light and the outside are severely restricted. Meals are served through slots in steel cell doors. There is little in the way of human interaction. Returning to the general prison population is often conditioned on inmates divulging information on other gang members, putting themselves in jeopardy.
How inmates in these circumstances communicated to organize the protest is unclear, but it quickly spread to other California prisons. About 6,600 inmates participated at its peak. California’s huge prison system is dysfunctional in so many ways. In May, the Supreme Court found conditions at the overcrowded prisons so egregious that they violated the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment and ordered the state to cut its prison population by more than 30,000 inmates. The case did not address the issue of long-term solitary confinement.
With their health deteriorating, those inmates continuing to fast resumed eating after state prison officials met a few modest demands. Inmates in Pelican Bay’s isolation unit will get wool caps for cold weather, wall calendars to mark the passing time and some educational programming. Prison officials said current isolation and gang management policies are under review. But the protest has raised awareness about the national shame of extended solitary confinement at Pelican Bay and at high-security, “supermax” prisons all around the country.
Once used occasionally as a short-term punishment for violating prison rules, solitary confinement’s prevalent use as a long-term prison management strategy is a fairly recent development, Colin Dayan, a professor at Vanderbilt University, said in a recent Op-Ed article in The Times. Nationally, more than 20,000 inmates are confined in “supermax” facilities in horrid conditions.
Prison officials claim the treatment is necessary for combating gang activity and other threats to prison order. It is possible to maintain physical separation of prisoners without ultraharsh levels of deprivation and isolation. Mississippi, which once set the low bar for terrible prison practices, saw a steep reduction of prison violence and ample monetary savings when it dramatically cut back on long-term solitary several years ago.
Holding prisoners in solitary also is very expensive, and several other states have begun to make reductions. In any case, decency requires limits. Resorting to a dehumanizing form of punishment well known to induce suffering and drive people into mental illness is beyond them.
Wordpress.com
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Cops probe death of Rikers Island inmate after being punched
Cops probe death of Rikers Island inmate after being punched by
correction officer
New York Daily News
BY Reuven Blau Rikers Island inmate Angel Ramirez, who had liver
disease, was rushed to Elmhurst Hospital Center where it was determined
he died of "blunt trauma to the torso." Police are investigating the
death of an inmate after a clash with a ...
See all stories on this topic »
probe_death_ of_rikers_ inmate.html% 253Fr%253Dnews% 26hl%3Den% 26geo%3Dus& ct\
correction officer
New York Daily News
BY Reuven Blau Rikers Island inmate Angel Ramirez, who had liver
disease, was rushed to Elmhurst Hospital Center where it was determined
he died of "blunt trauma to the torso." Police are investigating the
death of an inmate after a clash with a ...
See all stories on this topic »
probe_death_ of_rikers_ inmate.html% 253Fr%253Dnews% 26hl%3Den% 26geo%3Dus& ct\
Monday, August 1, 2011
Guard suspended in teen’s death was fired from last job
Guard suspended in teen’s death was fired from last job
By Carol Marbin Miller
cmarbin@MiamiHerald.com
Eric Perez When Laryell King was forced to leave her job at the Department of Juvenile Justice lockup in Orlando for “negligently” leaving a youth alone in a room, juvenile justice administrators left a clear warning in her personnel file: “NO rehire in any position.”
But rehire her they did.
King ended up on the payroll at the DJJ lockup in West Palm Beach. Now, she is one of five guards suspended after staffers ignored the suffering of 18-year-old Eric Perez, who died at the West Palm Beach juvenile detention center following seven hours of vomiting, hallucinating and complaining of severe headaches.
The person who hired King despite the admonition, lockup superintendent Anthony C. Flowers, has a work history that raises other questions.
When Flowers was hired by the state, he was the assistant program director for the Florida Institute for Girls, a 100-bed prison for hard-to-manage girls that was being closed down amid a Palm Beach County grand jury report that found it rife with violence, sexual abuse by guards, and endless lockdowns due to chronic short-staffing.
“The culture of some staff was to protect each other, fostering cover-ups and unprofessional conduct,” the grand jury wrote in February 2004.
The employment records for Flowers and King were provided to The Miami Herald in response to a public records request. Samadhi Jones, an agency spokeswoman in Tallahassee, declined to comment about the two employees. “While the Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) is committed to being open and transparent to the greatest degree possible, due to ongoing investigations by the DJJ Inspector General’s Office and the West Palm Beach Police Department we cannot comment further on the death of the young man at the Palm Beach Regional Juvenile Detention Center,” Jones said Tuesday.
Eric, who turned 18 on July 2 while detained at the West Palm Beach center, was locked up after officers found marijuana in his possession when they stopped his bicycle for a broken light. The arrest violated his probation years earlier on a robbery charge.
Beginning around 1:30 a.m. on July 10, the teen began to complain of a severe headache, and vomited the rest of the night. He also appeared to be hallucinating, waving his arms and screaming at officers to extricate him from an imaginary assailant. Records and interviews suggest guards moved Eric by dragging his mat from room to room, but did nothing to help him until just before 8 a.m., when they called for an ambulance. By the time paramedics arrived, a heart monitor showed only a “flat line,” records show.
King, who had been honorably discharged from the U.S. Army, was first hired by DJJ to work in the Orange County detention center in late 2001. She had been working for a security company at the time. Her evaluations from the early 2000s were generally positive, though unremarkable. “Officer King is dedicated to her work and the department,” a supervisor wrote in March 2005, for example. “She’s respectful, cooperative and committed to excellence.”
But in March 2008, Jeffrey Lonton, the then-superintendent of the Orlando lockup, moved to fire King.
King had “negligently” left a youth alone and unsupervised for 45 minutes, until another staff member heard the child “banging on the door” to get out. “Ms. King also placed three youths in the laundry room the same day unsupervised; they let themselves out after several minutes,” a memo states. “Additionally, after reviewing video surveillance, the same events had occurred over several days in the month of February.”
The memo noted that King would be allowed to resign “in lieu of termination.” The subject line of the memo stated: “NO rehire in any position for Laryell King.”
But in September 2010, King applied at DJJ for a job as a probation officer and correctional treatment specialist. When asked on the employment application why she left the Orlando lockup, King gave a one-word answer: “advancement.”
On Sept. 28, 2010, Flowers informed King of her job offer. “In accordance with the provisions of the state of Florida’s personnel rules, you have been selected for position of juvenile justice detention officer,” he wrote.
Less than a year later, when administrators suspended King, personnel managers in Orlando were asked in writing by DJJ whether King had ever been counseled or disciplined. “No disciplinary actions in the personnel file,” was the response.
King could not be reached for comment.
Flowers was hired by DJJ in October 2003 as a senior detention officer. At the time, he was working as the assistant program director at the Florida Institute for Girls, or FIG. His application said he was “responsible for the day-to-day operation of the intensive mental health wing’’ of the prison, where he supervised staff, monitored compliance with state regulations and standards, and evaluated employee performance. He had been an assistant superintendent at the West Palm Beach lockup before his employment at FIG.
Though FIG was being paid $5 million per year by DJJ to operate the treatment center, a company personnel manager refused to answer a single question about his performance when asked by juvenile justice administrators doing a background check.
“What were the major duties performed?,” a reference check asked. “Per company policy cannot give out information,” was the reply. “How effectively did he perform these functions?,” the questionnaire asked. “Same as above,” FIG answered.
Roy Miller, who heads the Florida Children’s Campaign, questioned why administrators would have hired a guard from a program that was rife was abuse — and why they would have allowed a contract agency to refuse to provide personnel information that is covered under the state’s public records law.
“It’s a matter of public record that girls were abused sexually and physically at the Florida Institute for Girls,” Miller said. “Why they would hire employees from FIG without knowing explicitly their employment record is beyond comprehension,” said Miller, whose group has long been a DJJ watchdog.
DJJ records obtained at the time by The Herald showed one girl complained that she had been taken to the facility’s “boom boom room,” where officers “slammed her head into the wall and struck her in the mouth.” The girl suffered bruises and welts, said a report that verified the girl’s claims.
After his return to DJJ, Flowers rose quickly through the ranks: senior detention officer, assistant detention center superintendent, superintendent. His work was described as “outstanding’’ and “exceptional” in yearly evaluations. His personnel file shows he has never been disciplined.
FIG was shuttered about the same time a Palm Beach County grand jury blasted it, but not because DJJ administrators took the action. Lawmakers sliced the program’s funding from their spending plan, at the urging of children’s advocates.
“It was a hellhole for girls,” Miller said.
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/07/26/v-print/2332308/guard-suspended-in-teens-death.html#ixzz1TohOQWRZ
By Carol Marbin Miller
cmarbin@MiamiHerald.com
Eric Perez When Laryell King was forced to leave her job at the Department of Juvenile Justice lockup in Orlando for “negligently” leaving a youth alone in a room, juvenile justice administrators left a clear warning in her personnel file: “NO rehire in any position.”
But rehire her they did.
King ended up on the payroll at the DJJ lockup in West Palm Beach. Now, she is one of five guards suspended after staffers ignored the suffering of 18-year-old Eric Perez, who died at the West Palm Beach juvenile detention center following seven hours of vomiting, hallucinating and complaining of severe headaches.
The person who hired King despite the admonition, lockup superintendent Anthony C. Flowers, has a work history that raises other questions.
When Flowers was hired by the state, he was the assistant program director for the Florida Institute for Girls, a 100-bed prison for hard-to-manage girls that was being closed down amid a Palm Beach County grand jury report that found it rife with violence, sexual abuse by guards, and endless lockdowns due to chronic short-staffing.
“The culture of some staff was to protect each other, fostering cover-ups and unprofessional conduct,” the grand jury wrote in February 2004.
The employment records for Flowers and King were provided to The Miami Herald in response to a public records request. Samadhi Jones, an agency spokeswoman in Tallahassee, declined to comment about the two employees. “While the Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) is committed to being open and transparent to the greatest degree possible, due to ongoing investigations by the DJJ Inspector General’s Office and the West Palm Beach Police Department we cannot comment further on the death of the young man at the Palm Beach Regional Juvenile Detention Center,” Jones said Tuesday.
Eric, who turned 18 on July 2 while detained at the West Palm Beach center, was locked up after officers found marijuana in his possession when they stopped his bicycle for a broken light. The arrest violated his probation years earlier on a robbery charge.
Beginning around 1:30 a.m. on July 10, the teen began to complain of a severe headache, and vomited the rest of the night. He also appeared to be hallucinating, waving his arms and screaming at officers to extricate him from an imaginary assailant. Records and interviews suggest guards moved Eric by dragging his mat from room to room, but did nothing to help him until just before 8 a.m., when they called for an ambulance. By the time paramedics arrived, a heart monitor showed only a “flat line,” records show.
King, who had been honorably discharged from the U.S. Army, was first hired by DJJ to work in the Orange County detention center in late 2001. She had been working for a security company at the time. Her evaluations from the early 2000s were generally positive, though unremarkable. “Officer King is dedicated to her work and the department,” a supervisor wrote in March 2005, for example. “She’s respectful, cooperative and committed to excellence.”
But in March 2008, Jeffrey Lonton, the then-superintendent of the Orlando lockup, moved to fire King.
King had “negligently” left a youth alone and unsupervised for 45 minutes, until another staff member heard the child “banging on the door” to get out. “Ms. King also placed three youths in the laundry room the same day unsupervised; they let themselves out after several minutes,” a memo states. “Additionally, after reviewing video surveillance, the same events had occurred over several days in the month of February.”
The memo noted that King would be allowed to resign “in lieu of termination.” The subject line of the memo stated: “NO rehire in any position for Laryell King.”
But in September 2010, King applied at DJJ for a job as a probation officer and correctional treatment specialist. When asked on the employment application why she left the Orlando lockup, King gave a one-word answer: “advancement.”
On Sept. 28, 2010, Flowers informed King of her job offer. “In accordance with the provisions of the state of Florida’s personnel rules, you have been selected for position of juvenile justice detention officer,” he wrote.
Less than a year later, when administrators suspended King, personnel managers in Orlando were asked in writing by DJJ whether King had ever been counseled or disciplined. “No disciplinary actions in the personnel file,” was the response.
King could not be reached for comment.
Flowers was hired by DJJ in October 2003 as a senior detention officer. At the time, he was working as the assistant program director at the Florida Institute for Girls, or FIG. His application said he was “responsible for the day-to-day operation of the intensive mental health wing’’ of the prison, where he supervised staff, monitored compliance with state regulations and standards, and evaluated employee performance. He had been an assistant superintendent at the West Palm Beach lockup before his employment at FIG.
Though FIG was being paid $5 million per year by DJJ to operate the treatment center, a company personnel manager refused to answer a single question about his performance when asked by juvenile justice administrators doing a background check.
“What were the major duties performed?,” a reference check asked. “Per company policy cannot give out information,” was the reply. “How effectively did he perform these functions?,” the questionnaire asked. “Same as above,” FIG answered.
Roy Miller, who heads the Florida Children’s Campaign, questioned why administrators would have hired a guard from a program that was rife was abuse — and why they would have allowed a contract agency to refuse to provide personnel information that is covered under the state’s public records law.
“It’s a matter of public record that girls were abused sexually and physically at the Florida Institute for Girls,” Miller said. “Why they would hire employees from FIG without knowing explicitly their employment record is beyond comprehension,” said Miller, whose group has long been a DJJ watchdog.
DJJ records obtained at the time by The Herald showed one girl complained that she had been taken to the facility’s “boom boom room,” where officers “slammed her head into the wall and struck her in the mouth.” The girl suffered bruises and welts, said a report that verified the girl’s claims.
After his return to DJJ, Flowers rose quickly through the ranks: senior detention officer, assistant detention center superintendent, superintendent. His work was described as “outstanding’’ and “exceptional” in yearly evaluations. His personnel file shows he has never been disciplined.
FIG was shuttered about the same time a Palm Beach County grand jury blasted it, but not because DJJ administrators took the action. Lawmakers sliced the program’s funding from their spending plan, at the urging of children’s advocates.
“It was a hellhole for girls,” Miller said.
Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/07/26/v-print/2332308/guard-suspended-in-teens-death.html#ixzz1TohOQWRZ
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