AUTISM - CHILDREN BEATEN FORCE FED ABUSED!
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Thursday, May 3, 2012
Friday, April 20, 2012
Montana Youth With Mental Disabilities, Locked In Solitary
Montana Settlement Limits Solitary Confinement for Juveniles, Prisoners with Mental Illness
by Jean Casella and James Ridgeway
One of our very first posts, when we started the Solitary Watch blog, concerned a suicidal Montana teenager locked in solitary confinement because he was deemed a discipline problem after he damaged prison property. It's a story so gut-wrenching that we still often tell it as an example of how isolation becomes torture for many people in prison. As the Helena Independent Record reported the story in December 2009:
A 17-year-old boy suffering from mental illnesses was so traumatized by his deplorable treatment in the Montana State Prison that he twice attempted to kill himself by biting through the skin on his wrist to puncture a vein, a lawsuit filed Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union of Montana alleges.
The lawsuit filed in Lewis and Clark County District Court claims that the boy, “Robert Doe,” has been treated illegally and inhumanely and has been detained for about 10 months in solitary confinement. Doe was Tasered as part of a “behavior modification plan,” pepper-sprayed and stripped naked in view of other inmates, the complaint states….
His available mental health treatment consists of a prison staff member knocking on his door once a week and asking if he has any concerns, according to documents, and then he must answer by yelling within earshot of other inmates.
Since March, he has been locked in a solitary cell all but five to six hours a week, and he is not allowed personal visits or telephone calls.
In 2010, the teenager--who was identified as Raistlen Katka once he turned 18--told a federal judge that he had tried to bite through his veins because he was so desperate to get out of solitary: “My thought process was if I don’t die, at least I’ll get out of my cell for 30 seconds,” Katka testified.
The case epitomized the plight of two groups of inmates–juveniles in adult prisons, and prisoners suffering from mental illness. Members of both these groups are disproportionately likely to end up in solitary confinement, even though they are even less equipped than other prisoners to tolerate the effects of long-term isolation.
This week, the American Civil Liberties of Montana has reached a settlement with the Montana State Prison over the case, Raistlen Katka v. State of Montana. According to a press release:
[The settlement] limits the amount of time juveniles can be placed in isolation and provides for better treatment of mentally ill inmates in solitary confinement, protecting our state’s most vulnerable prisoners.
“I am glad the prison is changing how it treats young offenders,” said plaintiff Raistlen Katka. “I brought this lawsuit so no one else would have to endure the torture I endured.”
“The effects of solitary confinement on any inmate are profound, but are even more pronounced for adolescents whose brains are still developing and for persons with mental illness,” said ACLU cooperating attorney Andree Larose. “On top of that, experience nationwide shows that solitary really does not work. This settlement is a step in the right direction toward making sure inmates are treated humanely and consistent with the Montana Constitution, and are incarcerated in conditions that promote successful reintegration when they are released.”...
“Once Raistlen was released from solitary confinement and given mental health treatment, he began doing far better than he did under the prison’s ‘behavior management plans,’” said attorney Jennifer Giuttari who filed the case on behalf of the ACLU of Montana, and has continued working on it at her new law firm, Montana Legal Justice, PLLC. “Raistlen’s story shows that prisoners can successfully re-enter into society when given proper treatment during their incarceration.”
The settlement mandates several new policies at the Montana State Prison. Juveniles cannot be placed in solitary or so-called behavior management programs for longer than 72 hours without the approval of the director of the Department of Corrections or warden. Classification of teen inmates "Will take into account their unique needs for education and mental and medical treatment and their lack of full maturity." In addition, "mentally ill prisoners cannot be placed into solitary confinement if it is determined it will harm their mental health, and those who are placed in solitary confinement must receive private treatment sessions with a mental health professional as often as necessary." Finally, "suicidal inmates cannot be placed in behavior management programs."
http://solitarywatch.com/2012/04/18/montana-settlement-limits-solitary-confinement-for-juveniles-and-prisoners-with-mental-illness/
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Distraction techniques’ just plain brutality
Distraction techniques’ just plain brutality
By John Bowden – HMP Shotts (Scotland), from insidetime issue March 2012
John Bowden questions why the care of already damaged children is left to profit-seeking companies?
After more than a decade of unlawful abuse and brutality within child prisons run by private security companies it took the deaths of two young people and the inquests into those deaths to finally expose the sort of violence routinely inflicted on children held in such institutions. A subsequent legal action brought by the Children’s Rights Alliance for England (CRAE) laid bare completely what had been going on in these places, and on the 11th January the High Court delivered a judgement that was absolutely damning of the privately owned and run ‘ Secure Training Centres’ (STC) and the brutality of their regimes.
In his judgement Judge Justice Foskett said that in bringing the case CRAE had shone ‘a light into a corner which might otherwise have remained in the dark’, and indeed it was a corner of the penal system where the brutalisation of already damaged children in the name of so-called ‘restraint’ was endemic and institutionalised and actively encouraged and promoted by the government’s Youth Justice Board. It was also revealed that none of the statutory agencies charged with monitoring the care and treatment of children in the STCs did anything to stop the unlawful treatment. Clearly the human rights of such powerless working class children counted for nothing.
What the ruling finally exposed were places where a culture of abuse had been allowed to flourish and where the victims were too terrified to complain and accepted such treatment as an inevitable part of their captivity. In his judgement Justice Foskett said, ‘I do not think there can be any doubt that in the vast majority of cases the detainees made the subject of an (unlawful)) restraint technique would simply have accepted it as part and parcel of the routine in the STC. There is, of course, also the inevitable reluctance that there would have been on the part of the young detainee to ‘rock the boat’ by making a complaint’. Too frightened to complain on their own behalf, the children subjected to abuse and ill treatment were given absolutely no protection by social workers or prison inspectors who knew exactly what was going on. Justice Foskett said in this regard, ‘It is a legitimate comment that until the deaths of Gareth Myatt and Adam Rickwood, and the investigations and inquiries that resulted from these deaths, none of the agencies in place to monitor what took place within an STC had identified and/or acted to stop the unlawful nature of what was happening’. In fact, so called monitors from the Youth Justice Board actively encouraged restraint techniques (which were often injury inducing) that were criticised by the United Nations, the European Torture Committee and Parliamentarians on the Joint Committee on Human Rights. These techniques included the ‘nose distraction’ technique, which involved members of staff punching non-complying children on the nose; other ‘restraint’ techniques included punching children in the ribs and yanking their thumbs back. 14 year old Adam Rickwood was subjected to the ‘nose distraction’ technique hours before he hung himself.
The extent of the abuse was also revealed in the judgement. The number of violent ‘restraints’ on children ran at over 350 per month across the 4STCs up until July 2008. Hassockfield STC seemed to use an almost gratuitous amount of violence against its child inmates and during a six month period in 2004 applied violent ‘restraint’ approximately 570 times.
The widespread use of unlawful violence over such a prolonged period was allowed and encouraged to take place because those employing it operated without any accountability and because an environment of frequent staff brutality was obviously considered appropriate for difficult and rebellious working class children.
Despite delivering a scathing condemnation of the STC regimes, Justice Foskett refused to make a judgement requiring the state to identify victims and notify them of their right to seek compensation. He claimed that such a judgement might have a ‘springboard’ effect in creating a mass of compensation claims from both children and adults abused in state institutions. There was no suggestion either that a police investigation should be conducted into what took place in the STCs over such a prolonged period, nor any inquiry into the culpability of senior management at G4S and Serco or why both companies are continuing to run and operate penal facilities for children. In effect, everyone involved in the unlawful abuse of children in the STCs for over a decade got off scot free.
An important question that emerges from this case is why the care and custody of already damaged children is still being entrusted to profit-driven private companies like G4S and Serco, who have clearly shown by this case a total disregard for the human rights of those in their custody? Running jails for profit is always morally dubious, but when it has been clearly established and proven that children have been so brutalised by regimes operating in privately owned child jails that some of them have been driven to kill themselves, then the whole corrupt business needs to be fundamentally questioned.
http://www.insidetime.org/articleview.asp?a=1152&c=distraction_techniques_just_plain_brutality
By John Bowden – HMP Shotts (Scotland), from insidetime issue March 2012
John Bowden questions why the care of already damaged children is left to profit-seeking companies?
After more than a decade of unlawful abuse and brutality within child prisons run by private security companies it took the deaths of two young people and the inquests into those deaths to finally expose the sort of violence routinely inflicted on children held in such institutions. A subsequent legal action brought by the Children’s Rights Alliance for England (CRAE) laid bare completely what had been going on in these places, and on the 11th January the High Court delivered a judgement that was absolutely damning of the privately owned and run ‘ Secure Training Centres’ (STC) and the brutality of their regimes.
In his judgement Judge Justice Foskett said that in bringing the case CRAE had shone ‘a light into a corner which might otherwise have remained in the dark’, and indeed it was a corner of the penal system where the brutalisation of already damaged children in the name of so-called ‘restraint’ was endemic and institutionalised and actively encouraged and promoted by the government’s Youth Justice Board. It was also revealed that none of the statutory agencies charged with monitoring the care and treatment of children in the STCs did anything to stop the unlawful treatment. Clearly the human rights of such powerless working class children counted for nothing.
What the ruling finally exposed were places where a culture of abuse had been allowed to flourish and where the victims were too terrified to complain and accepted such treatment as an inevitable part of their captivity. In his judgement Justice Foskett said, ‘I do not think there can be any doubt that in the vast majority of cases the detainees made the subject of an (unlawful)) restraint technique would simply have accepted it as part and parcel of the routine in the STC. There is, of course, also the inevitable reluctance that there would have been on the part of the young detainee to ‘rock the boat’ by making a complaint’. Too frightened to complain on their own behalf, the children subjected to abuse and ill treatment were given absolutely no protection by social workers or prison inspectors who knew exactly what was going on. Justice Foskett said in this regard, ‘It is a legitimate comment that until the deaths of Gareth Myatt and Adam Rickwood, and the investigations and inquiries that resulted from these deaths, none of the agencies in place to monitor what took place within an STC had identified and/or acted to stop the unlawful nature of what was happening’. In fact, so called monitors from the Youth Justice Board actively encouraged restraint techniques (which were often injury inducing) that were criticised by the United Nations, the European Torture Committee and Parliamentarians on the Joint Committee on Human Rights. These techniques included the ‘nose distraction’ technique, which involved members of staff punching non-complying children on the nose; other ‘restraint’ techniques included punching children in the ribs and yanking their thumbs back. 14 year old Adam Rickwood was subjected to the ‘nose distraction’ technique hours before he hung himself.
The extent of the abuse was also revealed in the judgement. The number of violent ‘restraints’ on children ran at over 350 per month across the 4STCs up until July 2008. Hassockfield STC seemed to use an almost gratuitous amount of violence against its child inmates and during a six month period in 2004 applied violent ‘restraint’ approximately 570 times.
The widespread use of unlawful violence over such a prolonged period was allowed and encouraged to take place because those employing it operated without any accountability and because an environment of frequent staff brutality was obviously considered appropriate for difficult and rebellious working class children.
Despite delivering a scathing condemnation of the STC regimes, Justice Foskett refused to make a judgement requiring the state to identify victims and notify them of their right to seek compensation. He claimed that such a judgement might have a ‘springboard’ effect in creating a mass of compensation claims from both children and adults abused in state institutions. There was no suggestion either that a police investigation should be conducted into what took place in the STCs over such a prolonged period, nor any inquiry into the culpability of senior management at G4S and Serco or why both companies are continuing to run and operate penal facilities for children. In effect, everyone involved in the unlawful abuse of children in the STCs for over a decade got off scot free.
An important question that emerges from this case is why the care and custody of already damaged children is still being entrusted to profit-driven private companies like G4S and Serco, who have clearly shown by this case a total disregard for the human rights of those in their custody? Running jails for profit is always morally dubious, but when it has been clearly established and proven that children have been so brutalised by regimes operating in privately owned child jails that some of them have been driven to kill themselves, then the whole corrupt business needs to be fundamentally questioned.
http://www.insidetime.org/articleview.asp?a=1152&c=distraction_techniques_just_plain_brutality
Friday, March 16, 2012
A former juvenile corrections officer has been jailed after being accused of sex
Former juvenile corrections officer jailed
Associated Press
March 15, 2012
A former juvenile corrections officer has been jailed after being accused of sex
crimes.
The former employee, Ardith Brown, faces charges of felony child molestation and
sexual assault against persons in custody, the Georgia Department of Juvenile
Justice said in a statement late Wednesday.
Brown was a former staff member at the Regional Youth Detention Center in
Gainesville. She was fired on Feb. 2, after an internal investigation into
allegations of an inappropriate relationship with a 14-year-old in the
department's custody, authorities said.
Brown was being held in the Hall County Jail. Jail records did not indicate
whether she had an attorney.
The Gainesville case is the latest in a series of investigations involving the
Department of Juvenile Justice, which began a system-wide review after the
beating death of a 19-year-old at an Augusta facility.
"As a result of our surprise inspections at all 27 Georgia juvenile detention
centers, we've observed many of our Juvenile Corrections Officers become more
diligent in monitoring youth activity at all our facilities," Commissioner Gale
Buckner said in a statement.
The agency recently named a new director of the Augusta Youth Development
Campus, which has been at the center of several investigations involving its
staff after the beating death.
Nine workers at the Augusta youth center have been fired since November. Two
others were demoted and offered positions at different facilities.
http://www.ajc.com/news/former-juvenile-corrections-officer-1386082.html?cxtype=\
rss_news_82001
Associated Press
March 15, 2012
A former juvenile corrections officer has been jailed after being accused of sex
crimes.
The former employee, Ardith Brown, faces charges of felony child molestation and
sexual assault against persons in custody, the Georgia Department of Juvenile
Justice said in a statement late Wednesday.
Brown was a former staff member at the Regional Youth Detention Center in
Gainesville. She was fired on Feb. 2, after an internal investigation into
allegations of an inappropriate relationship with a 14-year-old in the
department's custody, authorities said.
Brown was being held in the Hall County Jail. Jail records did not indicate
whether she had an attorney.
The Gainesville case is the latest in a series of investigations involving the
Department of Juvenile Justice, which began a system-wide review after the
beating death of a 19-year-old at an Augusta facility.
"As a result of our surprise inspections at all 27 Georgia juvenile detention
centers, we've observed many of our Juvenile Corrections Officers become more
diligent in monitoring youth activity at all our facilities," Commissioner Gale
Buckner said in a statement.
The agency recently named a new director of the Augusta Youth Development
Campus, which has been at the center of several investigations involving its
staff after the beating death.
Nine workers at the Augusta youth center have been fired since November. Two
others were demoted and offered positions at different facilities.
http://www.ajc.com/news/former-juvenile-corrections-officer-1386082.html?cxtype=\
rss_news_82001
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Kids In Mississippi Held In Solitary And Abused
New Ban on Solitary Confinement for Child Prisoners in Mississippi
by Jean Casella and James Ridgeway
The United States, alone among industrialized nations, incarcerates thousands of juveniles in adult prisons, after trying and sentencing them as adults. We also lead the world in the practice of solitary confinement. These two facts have come together to create a horrifying reality: hundreds of children languishing in isolation cells.
This week, the American Civil Liberties Union and Southern Poverty Law Center announced that after years of litigation, they had reached an agreement with the state of Mississippi that will end juvenile solitary confinement in its prisons. According to a post on the ACLU's "Blog of Rights":
On March 22, 2012, a federal court in Jackson, Mississippi, will enter a groundbreaking consent decree, believed to be the first of its kind in the nation, banning the horrendous practice of subjecting kids convicted as adults to solitary confinement...While in solitary, the youth are held in almost complete isolation and sensory deprivation with virtually no human contact, without books, paper or pens, radios, pictures, access to television or any kind of recreational activity, and are denied all visits, telephone calls and even mail from their families. If prison staff tags a kid as suicidal — which they often do with punitive motives — that kid is stripped naked except for a paper gown and denied a mattress.
It's been known for a long time that prolonged solitary confinement inflicts intense suffering, worsens pre-existing mental illness and causes psychiatric breakdown even in mature healthy adults — let alone in emotionally vulnerable kids. International law recognizes that solitary confinement can rise to torture and, furthermore, that kids under the age of 18 are particularly vulnerable to the damaging effects of solitary. These effects are so well understood that international law now prohibits solitary confinement of any person under the age of 18, strongly condemning it as a form of cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.
According to the Jackson Clarion Ledger, the groups' lawsuit, filed in November 2010, challenged what it called "brutal, unconstitutional conditions" at Mississippi's Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility. WGYCF, which houses male prisoners ages 13 to 22, is operated by the GEO Group, America's second largest private prison company. In addition to placing kids in solitary confinement, the suit alleges that "guards beat inmates, smuggled drugs to the youths and engaged in sexual acts with them," as well as allowing older inmates to prey on younger ones. In an incident two years ago, 14 young inmates were injured, including one who suffered brain damage. The consent degree announced this week will also ban the placement of juveniles at WGYCF.
It’s been known for a long time that prolonged solitary confinement inflicts intense suffering, worsens pre-existing mental illness and causes psychiatric breakdown even in mature healthy adults — let alone in emotionally vulnerable kids. International law recognizes that solitary confinement can rise to torture and, furthermore, that kids under the age of 18 are particularly vulnerable to the damaging effects of solitary. These effects are so well understood that international law now prohibits solitary confinement of any person under the age of 18, strongly condemning it as a form of cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.
According to the Jackson Clarion Ledger, the groups’ lawsuit, filed in November 2010, challenged what it called “brutal, unconstitutional conditions” at Mississippi’s Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility. WGYCF, which houses male prisoners ages 13 to 22, is operated by the GEO Group, America’s second largest private prison company. In addition to placing kids in solitary confinement, the suit alleges that “guards beat inmates, smuggled drugs to the youths and engaged in sexual acts with them,” as well as allowing older inmates to prey on younger ones. In an incident two years ago, 14 young inmates were injured, including one who suffered brain damage. The consent degree announced this week will also ban the placement of juveniles at WGYCF.
http://solitarywatch.com/2012/02/29/new-ban-on-solitary-confinement-for-child-prisoners-in-mississippi/
by Jean Casella and James Ridgeway
The United States, alone among industrialized nations, incarcerates thousands of juveniles in adult prisons, after trying and sentencing them as adults. We also lead the world in the practice of solitary confinement. These two facts have come together to create a horrifying reality: hundreds of children languishing in isolation cells.
This week, the American Civil Liberties Union and Southern Poverty Law Center announced that after years of litigation, they had reached an agreement with the state of Mississippi that will end juvenile solitary confinement in its prisons. According to a post on the ACLU's "Blog of Rights":
On March 22, 2012, a federal court in Jackson, Mississippi, will enter a groundbreaking consent decree, believed to be the first of its kind in the nation, banning the horrendous practice of subjecting kids convicted as adults to solitary confinement...While in solitary, the youth are held in almost complete isolation and sensory deprivation with virtually no human contact, without books, paper or pens, radios, pictures, access to television or any kind of recreational activity, and are denied all visits, telephone calls and even mail from their families. If prison staff tags a kid as suicidal — which they often do with punitive motives — that kid is stripped naked except for a paper gown and denied a mattress.
It's been known for a long time that prolonged solitary confinement inflicts intense suffering, worsens pre-existing mental illness and causes psychiatric breakdown even in mature healthy adults — let alone in emotionally vulnerable kids. International law recognizes that solitary confinement can rise to torture and, furthermore, that kids under the age of 18 are particularly vulnerable to the damaging effects of solitary. These effects are so well understood that international law now prohibits solitary confinement of any person under the age of 18, strongly condemning it as a form of cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.
According to the Jackson Clarion Ledger, the groups' lawsuit, filed in November 2010, challenged what it called "brutal, unconstitutional conditions" at Mississippi's Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility. WGYCF, which houses male prisoners ages 13 to 22, is operated by the GEO Group, America's second largest private prison company. In addition to placing kids in solitary confinement, the suit alleges that "guards beat inmates, smuggled drugs to the youths and engaged in sexual acts with them," as well as allowing older inmates to prey on younger ones. In an incident two years ago, 14 young inmates were injured, including one who suffered brain damage. The consent degree announced this week will also ban the placement of juveniles at WGYCF.
It’s been known for a long time that prolonged solitary confinement inflicts intense suffering, worsens pre-existing mental illness and causes psychiatric breakdown even in mature healthy adults — let alone in emotionally vulnerable kids. International law recognizes that solitary confinement can rise to torture and, furthermore, that kids under the age of 18 are particularly vulnerable to the damaging effects of solitary. These effects are so well understood that international law now prohibits solitary confinement of any person under the age of 18, strongly condemning it as a form of cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.
According to the Jackson Clarion Ledger, the groups’ lawsuit, filed in November 2010, challenged what it called “brutal, unconstitutional conditions” at Mississippi’s Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility. WGYCF, which houses male prisoners ages 13 to 22, is operated by the GEO Group, America’s second largest private prison company. In addition to placing kids in solitary confinement, the suit alleges that “guards beat inmates, smuggled drugs to the youths and engaged in sexual acts with them,” as well as allowing older inmates to prey on younger ones. In an incident two years ago, 14 young inmates were injured, including one who suffered brain damage. The consent degree announced this week will also ban the placement of juveniles at WGYCF.
http://solitarywatch.com/2012/02/29/new-ban-on-solitary-confinement-for-child-prisoners-in-mississippi/
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Injustices Behind Bars Describes what Women In Prison Endur
February 14, 2012
Injustices Behind Bars
Occupy Prisons by VICTORIA LAW
“Manhandled, arrested, cuffed, searched, and locked away in the Tombs” is how AlterNet described the story of protester Barbara Schneider Reilly, who spent 30 hours in jail after being arrested at an Occupy Wall Street-related protest in October 2011.
Terrina describes what the process is like for those entering the prison system:
When someone arrives at DW, you’re stripped, photographed, poked, prodded, asked a bunch of questions that seem to have no bearing on your actual crime or personal situation (although the answers do chart out a path for your life in DOC), and given a piece of dry stale cake to eat. Yes cake. And that is it for the day. When you take into account that the prisoners are awake and traveling before 6am, without food or drink, from the county jail, and scared, anxious and unsure of the upcoming events, not being fed until 6pm is an awfully long time.
The women are placed in the first living unit. Although it is called a LIVING unit, you would think it is more like a kennel. The women are allowed out of their cell for one hour a day. At that time, they have to shower, use the phone, and try to learn the rules and regulations of their new surroundings without any guidance from the officers. Yes, it is true that there are “Posted Operational Regulations” (PORs) but … Lord forbid that the officers tell the new inmates how to use the telephone, when they are allowed to shower, how to get their medication, if needed, and, if they are pregnant, they are lucky if they are allowed to receive prenatal treatment for the first month that they are here. The women live like animals for at least a month before moving to the next “living” unit. Once they move, they are allowed TWO hours out a day. No classes, one hour a week at the gym, a minimal church, and hopefully by now the new girl has found a decent “old number” that can explain the way of her new world. If not … she’s still shit out of luck.
Unfortunately she still has to deal with the same offices that she’s been around for the first month. At this time, her telephone system should be working. However, the case managers that are supposed to be there to help are not able to explain the phone system, the classes that are available, the jobs that are attainable, or even the canteen that should be purchasable. Three to four weeks later and the confusion begins all over with another “living” unit move. Previously, contact with the other offenders was restricted altogether. Now you are thrown into a space set up like the monkey exhibit at most zoos. It is so overwhelmingly loud and disorganized that many women shut down, get angry, fight, and begin to behave like the animals they are being treated like.
In this new building, the inmate is supposed to automatically know the rules they were never taught, they’re expected to know where to go and when, which sidewalks to walk on at specific times, who they are and aren’t allowed to talk to, and are expected to show up to work on time, usually without knowing that they have even been assigned a job…
Let’s take a moment and discuss the jobs: labor crew, kitchen, laundry … those are the first jobs available. DOC pays 60 cents a day to do the work that keeps the facility running. The majority of inmates MUST pay restitution, which is, of course, taken out of their state pay … so after a full month of working hard, they are able to spend approximately $10.63. The only thing that is free in DOC is one roll of toilet paper a week and one pack of sanitary pads per month. If the inmate has a heavy menstrual cycle and needs more pads, she has to pay $4 to get them. Toothpaste, toothbrush, body soap, a brush or comb, lotion, shampoo, conditioner, hair grease, floss, any hygiene besides one roll of toilet paper a week, the inmate HAS to pay for. Since I have been in prison, the prices of canteen have gone up at least every two to three months. Why hasn’t the rate of our pay? The state is allowed to charge more for the toothpaste, but unable to pay us enough to purchase it? Don’t get caught giving away any hygiene if you are lucky enough to have it because then you can get a write-up for loaning and bartering or unauthorized possession if you don’t have a receipt for the items in your room.
These inhumanities are of the everyday variety for women behind bars. Then there are the other injustices that are all too common in women’s prisons nationwide:
Health care: Women in prison are more likely to be HIV+ than either men in prison or women who are not in prison. In 2000, women in prison were 60% more likely to have HIV than men in prison. Women in prison are 36 times more likely than women outside to have HIV. In addition, prisons are not likely to have female-specific health care (pregnancy, breast and cervical cancer screenings, GYN services, etc) and so women’s health needs often go untreated.
Parenting: More than 80% of women in prison are mothers to children under the age of eighteen. Because of the ways in which parenting is gendered, when a mother goes to prison, she is far less likely to have a co-parent, partner or family member who is willing and able to take care of her children. As a result, children of imprisoned mothers are five times more likely to end up in foster care than children of incarcerated fathers. This statistic became even more devastating in 1997 when Congress passed the federal Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA). Under the Act, if a child has been in foster care for fifteen of the past 22 months, the state has to automatically begin terminating legal custody. Only three states make exceptions for parents who are in prison. If a mother is fortunate enough to maintain the legal rights to her child(ren), the distance of the prison from her home community makes it less likely that she will ever receive a visit from her child. More than 50% of mothers in prison reported never having received a visit from their children.
Sexual Assault: In 1996, Human Rights Watch released All Too Familiar, a report documenting sexual abuse of women prisoners throughout the United States. The report, reflecting the organization’s two-and-a-half years of research, found that sexual assaults, abuse and rape of women prisoners by male staff members were common and that women who complained incurred write-ups, loss of “good time” accrued toward an early parole and/or prolonged periods in disciplinary segregation. Little has changed in many prisons since the report’s release in 1996. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits gender discrimination in employment, giving both male and female guards the right to gender-neutral employment in prisons housing prisoners of the opposite gender. Male staff members have been placed in female facilities with little to no training on cross-gender supervision and no procedures for investigating or disciplining staff sexual misconduct. In Michigan and other states, untrained male officers were asigned to positions in which they were able to walk, unannounced, into areas where women dress and undress, shower, and use the toilet. Male guards have also been given the task of performing body searches on prisoners, which includes patting down women’s breasts and genital areas. They also transported women to medical care and were required to observe gynecological and other intimate medical procedures. It was not until incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women won a class-action lawsuit were restrictions on male access put into place.
Abuse and battering: More than half of women in state prisons and jails report having experienced physical and/or sexual abuse. Women are three times more likely than men to have been physically and/or sexually abused prior to incarceration.
In 1964, peace activist Barbara Deming spent 27 days in jail in Albany, Georgia. Deming and a group of activists had embarked on a Peace Walk from Quebec to Guantanamo, the American army base in Cuba. When the walk reached Georgia, the Peace Walkers found it impossible to demand peace without also demanding the right of all people — black and white — to walk together down any street in any city. In Albany, where the police chief had boasted that he had defeated Martin Luther King non-violently, the group twice attempted to walk through the White section of town; each time, they were arrested and brought to the county jail. Deming was among the group of fifty-four women arrested the second time. Her fellow Peace Walker Yvonne, who spent first 24 days in jail and 27 days the second time, wrote: “If there is anything I have learned by being in jail, it is that prisons are wrong, simply and unqualifiedly wrong.”
Nearly fifty years later, in 2011, Barbara Schneider Reilly ends her account of jail on an optimistic note: “Society must be changed. They insist on it, and, I hope, will continue to insist. And, not withstanding the difficulties ahead, we will fight for it.”
One hopes that these fights also recognize and include the struggles of people in prison. As RJ states,
“When we hear and tell our stories, we must think of the abuse that is churning behind the razor wire at that moment. When we are released, or when we greet our friends outside the gates, we must think of the person who is already waiting to fill the vacant bed. We must imagine what it will take to disable this corrupt industry with its devastating methods that are carried out under the lie of ‘bettering society.’ We must not turn our backs on each other!”
Spurred on by prison justice organizers, people in the various Occupy movements are beginning to realize this and are calling for a National Occupy Day in Support of Prisoners on Monday, February 20, 2012. There will be actions across the nation. To find out about the nearest one, go to: http://occupy4prisoners.org/actions/.
Victoria Law is a writer, photographer, mother, and Contributing Author for New Clear Vision. She is the author of Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles Of Incarcerated Women(PM Press, 2009), the editor of the zine Tenacious: Art and Writings from Women in Prison, and a co-founder of Books Through Bars — NYC. She is currently working on transforming Don’t Leave Your Friends Behind, a zine series on how radical movements can support the families in their midst, into a book.
Notes
[1] Human Rights Watch, All Too Familiar.6.
[2] Jennifer Bagwell, “Barred from View: How Michigan Keeps the Lid on Allegations of Widespread Sexual Abuse Against Female Inmates,” Metro Times: Detroit’s Alternative Weekly, March 24, 1999.
[3] Beth E. Richie and Kay Tsenin, Female Offenders, Pornography and Prostitution, Child Abuse and Neglect, research forum on women and girls in the justice system for the Department of Justice, 1999.
[4] Caroline Wolf Harlow, Prior Abuse Reported by Inmates and Probationers, special report for the U.S. Department of Justice, April 1999, 1.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/02/14/occupy-prisons/
Injustices Behind Bars
Occupy Prisons by VICTORIA LAW
“Manhandled, arrested, cuffed, searched, and locked away in the Tombs” is how AlterNet described the story of protester Barbara Schneider Reilly, who spent 30 hours in jail after being arrested at an Occupy Wall Street-related protest in October 2011.
Terrina describes what the process is like for those entering the prison system:
When someone arrives at DW, you’re stripped, photographed, poked, prodded, asked a bunch of questions that seem to have no bearing on your actual crime or personal situation (although the answers do chart out a path for your life in DOC), and given a piece of dry stale cake to eat. Yes cake. And that is it for the day. When you take into account that the prisoners are awake and traveling before 6am, without food or drink, from the county jail, and scared, anxious and unsure of the upcoming events, not being fed until 6pm is an awfully long time.
The women are placed in the first living unit. Although it is called a LIVING unit, you would think it is more like a kennel. The women are allowed out of their cell for one hour a day. At that time, they have to shower, use the phone, and try to learn the rules and regulations of their new surroundings without any guidance from the officers. Yes, it is true that there are “Posted Operational Regulations” (PORs) but … Lord forbid that the officers tell the new inmates how to use the telephone, when they are allowed to shower, how to get their medication, if needed, and, if they are pregnant, they are lucky if they are allowed to receive prenatal treatment for the first month that they are here. The women live like animals for at least a month before moving to the next “living” unit. Once they move, they are allowed TWO hours out a day. No classes, one hour a week at the gym, a minimal church, and hopefully by now the new girl has found a decent “old number” that can explain the way of her new world. If not … she’s still shit out of luck.
Unfortunately she still has to deal with the same offices that she’s been around for the first month. At this time, her telephone system should be working. However, the case managers that are supposed to be there to help are not able to explain the phone system, the classes that are available, the jobs that are attainable, or even the canteen that should be purchasable. Three to four weeks later and the confusion begins all over with another “living” unit move. Previously, contact with the other offenders was restricted altogether. Now you are thrown into a space set up like the monkey exhibit at most zoos. It is so overwhelmingly loud and disorganized that many women shut down, get angry, fight, and begin to behave like the animals they are being treated like.
In this new building, the inmate is supposed to automatically know the rules they were never taught, they’re expected to know where to go and when, which sidewalks to walk on at specific times, who they are and aren’t allowed to talk to, and are expected to show up to work on time, usually without knowing that they have even been assigned a job…
Let’s take a moment and discuss the jobs: labor crew, kitchen, laundry … those are the first jobs available. DOC pays 60 cents a day to do the work that keeps the facility running. The majority of inmates MUST pay restitution, which is, of course, taken out of their state pay … so after a full month of working hard, they are able to spend approximately $10.63. The only thing that is free in DOC is one roll of toilet paper a week and one pack of sanitary pads per month. If the inmate has a heavy menstrual cycle and needs more pads, she has to pay $4 to get them. Toothpaste, toothbrush, body soap, a brush or comb, lotion, shampoo, conditioner, hair grease, floss, any hygiene besides one roll of toilet paper a week, the inmate HAS to pay for. Since I have been in prison, the prices of canteen have gone up at least every two to three months. Why hasn’t the rate of our pay? The state is allowed to charge more for the toothpaste, but unable to pay us enough to purchase it? Don’t get caught giving away any hygiene if you are lucky enough to have it because then you can get a write-up for loaning and bartering or unauthorized possession if you don’t have a receipt for the items in your room.
These inhumanities are of the everyday variety for women behind bars. Then there are the other injustices that are all too common in women’s prisons nationwide:
Health care: Women in prison are more likely to be HIV+ than either men in prison or women who are not in prison. In 2000, women in prison were 60% more likely to have HIV than men in prison. Women in prison are 36 times more likely than women outside to have HIV. In addition, prisons are not likely to have female-specific health care (pregnancy, breast and cervical cancer screenings, GYN services, etc) and so women’s health needs often go untreated.
Parenting: More than 80% of women in prison are mothers to children under the age of eighteen. Because of the ways in which parenting is gendered, when a mother goes to prison, she is far less likely to have a co-parent, partner or family member who is willing and able to take care of her children. As a result, children of imprisoned mothers are five times more likely to end up in foster care than children of incarcerated fathers. This statistic became even more devastating in 1997 when Congress passed the federal Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA). Under the Act, if a child has been in foster care for fifteen of the past 22 months, the state has to automatically begin terminating legal custody. Only three states make exceptions for parents who are in prison. If a mother is fortunate enough to maintain the legal rights to her child(ren), the distance of the prison from her home community makes it less likely that she will ever receive a visit from her child. More than 50% of mothers in prison reported never having received a visit from their children.
Sexual Assault: In 1996, Human Rights Watch released All Too Familiar, a report documenting sexual abuse of women prisoners throughout the United States. The report, reflecting the organization’s two-and-a-half years of research, found that sexual assaults, abuse and rape of women prisoners by male staff members were common and that women who complained incurred write-ups, loss of “good time” accrued toward an early parole and/or prolonged periods in disciplinary segregation. Little has changed in many prisons since the report’s release in 1996. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits gender discrimination in employment, giving both male and female guards the right to gender-neutral employment in prisons housing prisoners of the opposite gender. Male staff members have been placed in female facilities with little to no training on cross-gender supervision and no procedures for investigating or disciplining staff sexual misconduct. In Michigan and other states, untrained male officers were asigned to positions in which they were able to walk, unannounced, into areas where women dress and undress, shower, and use the toilet. Male guards have also been given the task of performing body searches on prisoners, which includes patting down women’s breasts and genital areas. They also transported women to medical care and were required to observe gynecological and other intimate medical procedures. It was not until incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women won a class-action lawsuit were restrictions on male access put into place.
Abuse and battering: More than half of women in state prisons and jails report having experienced physical and/or sexual abuse. Women are three times more likely than men to have been physically and/or sexually abused prior to incarceration.
In 1964, peace activist Barbara Deming spent 27 days in jail in Albany, Georgia. Deming and a group of activists had embarked on a Peace Walk from Quebec to Guantanamo, the American army base in Cuba. When the walk reached Georgia, the Peace Walkers found it impossible to demand peace without also demanding the right of all people — black and white — to walk together down any street in any city. In Albany, where the police chief had boasted that he had defeated Martin Luther King non-violently, the group twice attempted to walk through the White section of town; each time, they were arrested and brought to the county jail. Deming was among the group of fifty-four women arrested the second time. Her fellow Peace Walker Yvonne, who spent first 24 days in jail and 27 days the second time, wrote: “If there is anything I have learned by being in jail, it is that prisons are wrong, simply and unqualifiedly wrong.”
Nearly fifty years later, in 2011, Barbara Schneider Reilly ends her account of jail on an optimistic note: “Society must be changed. They insist on it, and, I hope, will continue to insist. And, not withstanding the difficulties ahead, we will fight for it.”
One hopes that these fights also recognize and include the struggles of people in prison. As RJ states,
“When we hear and tell our stories, we must think of the abuse that is churning behind the razor wire at that moment. When we are released, or when we greet our friends outside the gates, we must think of the person who is already waiting to fill the vacant bed. We must imagine what it will take to disable this corrupt industry with its devastating methods that are carried out under the lie of ‘bettering society.’ We must not turn our backs on each other!”
Spurred on by prison justice organizers, people in the various Occupy movements are beginning to realize this and are calling for a National Occupy Day in Support of Prisoners on Monday, February 20, 2012. There will be actions across the nation. To find out about the nearest one, go to: http://occupy4prisoners.org/actions/.
Victoria Law is a writer, photographer, mother, and Contributing Author for New Clear Vision. She is the author of Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles Of Incarcerated Women(PM Press, 2009), the editor of the zine Tenacious: Art and Writings from Women in Prison, and a co-founder of Books Through Bars — NYC. She is currently working on transforming Don’t Leave Your Friends Behind, a zine series on how radical movements can support the families in their midst, into a book.
Notes
[1] Human Rights Watch, All Too Familiar.6.
[2] Jennifer Bagwell, “Barred from View: How Michigan Keeps the Lid on Allegations of Widespread Sexual Abuse Against Female Inmates,” Metro Times: Detroit’s Alternative Weekly, March 24, 1999.
[3] Beth E. Richie and Kay Tsenin, Female Offenders, Pornography and Prostitution, Child Abuse and Neglect, research forum on women and girls in the justice system for the Department of Justice, 1999.
[4] Caroline Wolf Harlow, Prior Abuse Reported by Inmates and Probationers, special report for the U.S. Department of Justice, April 1999, 1.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/02/14/occupy-prisons/
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Department of Justice Investagates Police Brultality
Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASETuesday, December 20, 2011
U.S. Bureau of Prisons Employee Pleads Guilty in Florida to Sexual Abuse of a Ward
WASHINGTON – Bureau of Prisons employee Jack Chris Jackson, 45, pleaded guilty today to the charge of sexual abuse of a ward, announced the Department of Justice.
During the plea proceedings, Jackson admitted to having a sexual relationship with an inmate at the Federal Correctional Institute (FCI) in Miami. This inmate was in Jackson’s custodial and supervisory authority at FCI.
“We will not tolerate corrections officers engaging in this behavior with institutionalized persons,” said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “The Justice Department will vigorously prosecute individuals who abuse their position and authority in this manner.”
U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Wifredo A. Ferrer added, “This correction officer abused his official position. This conduct is an intolerable breach of trust that not only endangers the safety of inmates but also compromises prison security. Our office will prosecute all official corruption cases to the fullest extent of the law.”
Jackson faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. Sentencing has been set for March 19, 2012.
This case was investigated by the FBI and the Department of Justice Office of Inspector General, and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Susan Rhee Osborne of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida and Trial Attorney Henry Leventis of the Civil Rights Division.
11-1686Civil Rights Division
http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2011/December/11-crt-1686.html
---------------------------------------------------
Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEFriday, January 6, 2012
Two Former Alabama Sheriff’s Office Deputies Sentenced to Prison for Assaulting Handcuffed Man in Custody
WASHINGTON – The Justice Department announced today that Kirby Dollar and Timothy Watford, former deputies with the Russell County, Ala., Sheriff’s Office, were sentenced in federal court in Montgomery, Ala., for their participation in the beating of a handcuffed man who had been taken into official custody. U.S. District Court Judge Mark E. Fuller sentenced Dollar, 37, to 46 months in prison and Watford, 42, to 34 months in prison.
Dollar pleaded guilty on Aug.11, 2011, to willfully depriving the victim of his constitutional right to be free from the use of excessive force. Watford was convicted of the same charge by a federal jury sitting in Opelika, Ala., on Sept, 1, 2011, following a three day trial.
Evidence presented during the court proceedings established that Dollar and Watford, while acting in their capacity as law enforcement officers, punched, kicked and slapped the victim, who was lying on the ground in handcuffs and offering no resistance. The victim suffered multiple lacerations, facial fractures and a ruptured eardrum. Dollar admitted, and witnesses during Watford’s trial confirmed, that the attack was entirely unprovoked.
“These convictions and sentences demonstrate that the use of excessive force cannot be tolerated,” said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “The vast majority of police officers do an outstanding job in protecting both the community and the rights of the accused, even in stressful situations. But when police officers use excessive force to punish arrestees, they will be held accountable.”
“As well intended as some officers may be, police activity must remain within constitutional bounds,” said George L. Beck Jr., U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Alabama. “Let these two convictions and sentences serve as examples of bad conduct that will be prosecuted by this office. Emotions cannot overcome good judgment. Zealousness cannot overcome good training. And brutality can never be a substitute for effective law enforcement.”
FBI’s Special Agent in Charge Lewis M. Chapman stated, “Today’s sentencing of former Russell County Deputies Kirby Dollar and Tim Watford brings some closure to a breach of trust by law enforcement officers. Law enforcement officers must always act within the bounds of the law under any circumstance and particularly while safeguarding our communities and citizens. The investigation of Civil Rights violations continues to be one of the FBI’s top priorities; and, these sentences reaffirm our commitment to enforcing those standards on ourselves and the law enforcement community.”
---------------------------------------------
Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEThursday, January 12, 2012
Deputy US Marshal in Chicago Indicted for Civil Rights Violations
WASHINGTON - A federal grand jury in Chicago returned an indictment today charging Deputy U.S. Marshal Stephen Linder, 36, with violations of federal criminal civil rights law related to two separate incidents in which Linder assaulted a handcuffed civilian.
The indictment charges Linder with a criminal civil rights violation for punching and choking a handcuffed man on July 8, 2010, and with obstructing justice for attempting to persuade another law enforcement officer to withhold evidence of the assault. Linder was also charged with a criminal civil rights violation for head-butting a handcuffed man on May 13, 2008, and with obstructing justice by persuading another law enforcement officer to withhold evidence of the assault.
Each of the civil rights counts carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. Each of the obstruction counts carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Each count in the indictment also carries a maximum fine of $250,000.
An indictment is merely an accusation and the defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
This case is being investigated by the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General and is being prosecuted by the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice.
Office of Public Affairs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASETuesday, December 20, 2011
U.S. Bureau of Prisons Employee Pleads Guilty in Florida to Sexual Abuse of a Ward
WASHINGTON – Bureau of Prisons employee Jack Chris Jackson, 45, pleaded guilty today to the charge of sexual abuse of a ward, announced the Department of Justice.
During the plea proceedings, Jackson admitted to having a sexual relationship with an inmate at the Federal Correctional Institute (FCI) in Miami. This inmate was in Jackson’s custodial and supervisory authority at FCI.
“We will not tolerate corrections officers engaging in this behavior with institutionalized persons,” said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “The Justice Department will vigorously prosecute individuals who abuse their position and authority in this manner.”
U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Wifredo A. Ferrer added, “This correction officer abused his official position. This conduct is an intolerable breach of trust that not only endangers the safety of inmates but also compromises prison security. Our office will prosecute all official corruption cases to the fullest extent of the law.”
Jackson faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. Sentencing has been set for March 19, 2012.
This case was investigated by the FBI and the Department of Justice Office of Inspector General, and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Susan Rhee Osborne of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida and Trial Attorney Henry Leventis of the Civil Rights Division.
11-1686Civil Rights Division
http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2011/December/11-crt-1686.html
---------------------------------------------------
Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEFriday, January 6, 2012
Two Former Alabama Sheriff’s Office Deputies Sentenced to Prison for Assaulting Handcuffed Man in Custody
WASHINGTON – The Justice Department announced today that Kirby Dollar and Timothy Watford, former deputies with the Russell County, Ala., Sheriff’s Office, were sentenced in federal court in Montgomery, Ala., for their participation in the beating of a handcuffed man who had been taken into official custody. U.S. District Court Judge Mark E. Fuller sentenced Dollar, 37, to 46 months in prison and Watford, 42, to 34 months in prison.
Dollar pleaded guilty on Aug.11, 2011, to willfully depriving the victim of his constitutional right to be free from the use of excessive force. Watford was convicted of the same charge by a federal jury sitting in Opelika, Ala., on Sept, 1, 2011, following a three day trial.
Evidence presented during the court proceedings established that Dollar and Watford, while acting in their capacity as law enforcement officers, punched, kicked and slapped the victim, who was lying on the ground in handcuffs and offering no resistance. The victim suffered multiple lacerations, facial fractures and a ruptured eardrum. Dollar admitted, and witnesses during Watford’s trial confirmed, that the attack was entirely unprovoked.
“These convictions and sentences demonstrate that the use of excessive force cannot be tolerated,” said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “The vast majority of police officers do an outstanding job in protecting both the community and the rights of the accused, even in stressful situations. But when police officers use excessive force to punish arrestees, they will be held accountable.”
“As well intended as some officers may be, police activity must remain within constitutional bounds,” said George L. Beck Jr., U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Alabama. “Let these two convictions and sentences serve as examples of bad conduct that will be prosecuted by this office. Emotions cannot overcome good judgment. Zealousness cannot overcome good training. And brutality can never be a substitute for effective law enforcement.”
FBI’s Special Agent in Charge Lewis M. Chapman stated, “Today’s sentencing of former Russell County Deputies Kirby Dollar and Tim Watford brings some closure to a breach of trust by law enforcement officers. Law enforcement officers must always act within the bounds of the law under any circumstance and particularly while safeguarding our communities and citizens. The investigation of Civil Rights violations continues to be one of the FBI’s top priorities; and, these sentences reaffirm our commitment to enforcing those standards on ourselves and the law enforcement community.”
---------------------------------------------
Department of Justice
Office of Public Affairs
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEThursday, January 12, 2012
Deputy US Marshal in Chicago Indicted for Civil Rights Violations
WASHINGTON - A federal grand jury in Chicago returned an indictment today charging Deputy U.S. Marshal Stephen Linder, 36, with violations of federal criminal civil rights law related to two separate incidents in which Linder assaulted a handcuffed civilian.
The indictment charges Linder with a criminal civil rights violation for punching and choking a handcuffed man on July 8, 2010, and with obstructing justice for attempting to persuade another law enforcement officer to withhold evidence of the assault. Linder was also charged with a criminal civil rights violation for head-butting a handcuffed man on May 13, 2008, and with obstructing justice by persuading another law enforcement officer to withhold evidence of the assault.
Each of the civil rights counts carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. Each of the obstruction counts carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Each count in the indictment also carries a maximum fine of $250,000.
An indictment is merely an accusation and the defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
This case is being investigated by the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General and is being prosecuted by the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice.
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