Young People In Rikers

By Ashley Southall and Jan Ransom, New York Times NATIONAL NEWS New York City’s Young Inmates Are Held in Isolation Upstate Despite Ban Posted 11:49 p.m. yesterday NEW YORK — Three years ago, when New York City banned solitary confinement for inmates younger than 22 and curtailed it for others, Mayor Bill de Blasio held up the policy as a model for reform. But since the rules were approved, the city has stepped up a long-standing practice of transferring some inmates to correctional facilities elsewhere in the state where no such restrictions exist. Dozens of New York City inmates, including several teenagers, have ended up in solitary confinement Transfers of inmates 21 and younger increased sharply starting in 2015, the year the city adopted the solitary ban, and except for a drop in 2017, the number of such transfers has remained well above the levels seen before the ban, according to Correction Department data. At least 10 young inmates have been transferred from New York City this year, including eight who are in solitary at one upstate jail, the Albany County Correctional Facility, according to their lawyers. Defense lawyers say transferring inmates allows city officials to avoid responsibility for harsher conditions of confinement. A few of the lawyers are challenging the transfers in court on the grounds that they violate inmates’ due process rights, as well as state law and city rules. Isolation of inmates has been shown to heighten the risks of suicide and depression, especially among young people, and the city has not only limited the use of solitary confinement but has begun moving 16- and 17-year-olds off Rikers Island to comply with a new state law that raised the age at which a person could be charged as an adult to 18. But some of the reform efforts have faced resistance, most notably from the union representing guards, which has said serious sanctions like solitary must be preserved for violent inmates. All the inmates sent to Albany said through their attorneys or in interviews that they have been beaten by guards and put into solitary confinement for months. Steven Espinal, 19, said guards stomped and kicked him so badly when he arrived that he lost hearing in his left ear and passed blood in his urine. He was hospitalized, then sentenced to 600 days in solitary confinement for violating jail rules, his lawyer said. Currently, 10 young New York City inmates are being held in outside jails, according to the Correction Department. There are 811 inmates younger than 21 in the city’s jails. Detailed information about how transfers have been used under de Blasio was not available because orders granted for safety reasons were destroyed three years after they expired. That practice ended in April, when the state Commission of Correction, which approves transfers Since city jails implemented alternatives to solitary confinement for inmates 21 and younger, officers have complained they lost an effective tool for controlling young inmates. Inmates sent to the Albany jail described a pattern of abuse that begins with making up misconduct and weapons violations. In written complaints and in interviews with The New York Times and their lawyers, they said the charges serve as a pretext for beating and isolating them. https://www.wral.com/new-york-city-s-young-inmates-are-held-in-isolation-upstate-despite-ban/17714114/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

None of the guards were ever disciplined

Ohio: Cleveland man says guard at private prison severely beat him A Cleveland man filed suit against a private prison in Ashtabula County that says a guard beat him unconscious in 2016, and that the beating was so severe that he required an emergency medical procedure on his brain. A surveillance camera at the Lake Erie Correctional Institution in Conneaut captured part of the incident at the center of Timothy Davis' lawsuit. However, most of the beating that he says he endured at the hands of prison guard Aaron Lawrence was not captured on camera after another staff member opened a door and blocked most of the action. Ashtabula County Prosecutor Nicholas Iarocci's office presented a case against Lawrence to a grand jury, which declined to charge him with a crime. Davis, 31, filed his lawsuit in federal court in Cleveland last week. The suit names private prison owner CoreCivic, Warden Brigham Sloan, Lawrence, fellow guard Laurie Typinski and other staff members as defendants. CoreCivic owns the Conneaut institution and contracts with the state to house inmates. Read More http://www.cleveland.com/court-justice/index.ssf/2017/09/cleveland_man_says_guard_at_pr.html Davis says in his lawsuit that he was later flown to a hospital and underwent a procedure that involves removing part of the skull to help reduce swelling on his brain. None of the guards were ever disciplined, and the force was ruled justified, the lawsuit says. Iarocci says an Ashtabula County grand jury heard a lot of evidence before deciding against indicting Lawrence. He said he never makes recommendations to grand juries on whether to charge a suspect. "I'm grateful there's a video," Cristallo said in a statement Monday. "Without visual proof, prisoners have virtually no chance of finding justice. But in Tim's case, even with a video they found in Lawrence's favor and had no problem with Typinski blocking the camera. Tim Davis was almost killed and not one of them had the courage to stand up for what's right. It shouldn't take a corpse for someone to speak up." -----------------------------------------------------------

Corrections Officer Punched Her in 2015 While She Was Handcuffed

By Eric Heisig, cleveland.com Madeline Chappell CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cuyahoga County and the city of Euclid will pay a combined $70,000 to a woman who said a Corrections Officer Punched Her in 2015 While She Was Handcuffed to a chair at the Euclid Jail, her attorney said. Lucille Dumas, 57, of Cleveland, said in a lawsuit filed in 2016 that Sheriff's Department Corporal Madeline Chappell repeatedly punched her, pepper sprayed her, drenched her with water and struck her in the face with a Tupperware container after she was arrested in January 2015 in a drunken driving case. Dumas later pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges "The senseless and needless attack on Ms. Dumas by a Cuyahoga County corrections officer was a grave violation of her constitutional rights, and one that could have been easily stopped by other officers who witnessed it," Pattakos said in an email. "Ms. Dumas hopes that by her lawsuit she's helped ensure that the county and the City of Euclid will better train their officers to intervene in situations where their colleagues engage in needless violence against citizens, and that no one else will have to endure what she did." http://www.cleveland.com/court-justice/index.ssf/2017/10/woman_punched_by_guard_while_h.

Left To Die

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

Inmate Dies When Noone Would Help

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

Texas Jail Guards Deny Using Excessive Force

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

Guards Had Teen Beat Up

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