Governor Carney Signs Executive Order to Improve Reentry Procedures, Reduce Recidivism
Don’t be distracted!
The abuse in Delaware prisons continues unabated, continues because those in control allow it to continue! Guards enter a cell, cuff the inmate, beat him steal or brake his property. They intimidate by threatening to plant drugs in their cells and charge them with “possession of contraband”. Medical care is virtually non existent.
How do I know? Two guards who know me call me from their homes and tell me. My friend Steve Hampton just sent me another email with several detailed incidents of brutality and cruelty related in letters from inmates.
One inmate has his TV smashed. I have SEEN this for five years, and the situation only worsens. It worsens because authorities do not have the will to stop it, and that is a disgrace to them.
They roll out things like the new “Commission to Reduce Recidivism”, which, I dare predict, will accomplish no more than keeping the executives at some of the nonprofit corporations involved in it employed! Hell, I can tell the governor how to reduce recidivism in five minutes. These “Commissions” and “Committees” are pure window dressing, and behind the windows, the abuse marches on. The abuse is a major cause of the recidivism they say they want to prevent! READ Prison Abuse – Why Massive Indifference is a Massive Mistake
YOU tell me in 5 years what this new “Commission” actually accomplished!
Excerpts from the Article:
Governor John Carney on Tuesday signed Executive Order #27, which focuses on improving reentry procedures for incarcerated individuals in Delaware. The Executive Order creates a commission focused on reentry reform, policies, and procedures, with a goal of helping former inmates more successfully reenter their communities. The Order will more effectively coordinate service delivery, strengthen data sharing among agencies, create a comprehensive reentry protocol, improve the availability of academic and vocational programming prior to an inmate’s release, and strive to reduce recidivism in Delaware.
“It’s our responsibility to look out for every Delawarean. We need to make sure offenders who serve out their sentences are able to reenter society ready to positively contribute to their communities, and have the support they need to succeed,” said Governor Carney. “This Executive Order will improve our existing reentry procedures, and in turn, reduce recidivism. That will help strengthen communities across our state.”
Executive Order #27 is the result of Delaware’s participation in the National Criminal Justice Reform Project, an initiative led by the National Governors Association and the National Criminal Justice Association Center for Justice Planning to assist states in implementing evidence-based criminal justice reforms.
“This Executive Order enhances the ability for the Department of Correction to meet its goals of ensuring public safety and providing opportunities for rehabilitation to justice-involved individuals preparing to return to the community,” said Perry Phelps, Commissioner of the Delaware Department of Correction. “I look forward to working with Governor Carney and our sister agencies to reduce barriers and collateral consequences for the men and women exiting the correctional system.”
Approximately 23,000 incarcerated adults are released from the State of Delaware Department of Correction (DOC) facilities annually. Seventy-six percent of those who are released from DOC facilities are rearrested within three years. Sixty-eight percent of those released had a reconviction and sixty-five percent had a recommitment. Delaware’s percentage of probationers is approximately forty-six percent higher than the national average, and its percentage of incarcerated adults is approximately twelve percent higher than the national average. Reentry reforms in Executive Order #27 are intended to directly confront Delaware’s high rate of recidivism.
“The Delaware Criminal Justice Council is excited to work with Governor Carney and the newly-established commission to build on the continuing work of improving reentry services to all justice involved individuals,” said Christian Kervick, Executive Director of the Delaware Criminal Justice Council. “This Executive Order includes best practices and reforms to improve our Criminal Justice System and increase public safety throughout the State.”
The Delaware Correctional Reentry Commission will consist of members of the Governor’s Cabinet, the Chief Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, the Attorney General and others who work closely on this issue, including the Executive Director of the Criminal Justice Council. This Commission will oversee implementation and further develop the State’s comprehensive strategic reentry initiatives, ensuring that federal, state, and local resources are used most efficiently to reduce duplicative reentry services and align with the application of evidence-based approaches.
“Ninety-eight percent of the people who enter Delaware prisons will return to the community. They are our neighbors. We live, shop, and work in the same community,” said Adam Balick, Chair of the newly-created Delaware Correctional Reentry Commission. “It is in all of our interests to give them the tools they need to succeed when they return to our community. We know the factors that lead to recidivism. Homelessness, unemployment, drug addiction, among other things. We can lower recidivism rates in Delaware by helping these men and women reintegrate successfully.”
Executive Order #27 is the result of Delaware’s participation in the National Criminal Justice Reform Project, an initiative led by the National Governors Association and the National Criminal Justice Association Center for Justice Planning to assist states in implementing evidence-based criminal justice reforms.
‘They’re gonna kill me’: Why did a man die in jail near Fort Worth as untrained guards watched?
This is a story I have heard/seen too many times. Open the whole article; it is so long I have had to edit out much of it. Private prisons are THE worst development in criminal justice! Here we see brutality committed by LaSalle Corrections, a family business that runs the Parker County jail, where 24 out of 77 officers don’t have permanent licenses. If this company is underbidding the two biggest private prison companies, as indicated, you KNOW their training, staffing, and medical care must be God Awful!
Excerpts from the Article:
Andy DeBusk’s family thought a night in jail might save him. It was Christmas Eve of 2016. He was in the Parker County jail in Weatherford, west of Fort Worth, coming down from a meth high. He called his mother to ask for bail money.
Hoping a night in a cell would sober him up, his family decided to wait until Christmas Day to bail him out. But before their holiday dinner was over, the phone rang again: DeBusk was dead.
Video obtained by The Dallas Morning News shows him shackled after guards used pepper spray on him in a cell. Jailers then placed him face down and piled on him, making it hard for him to breathe and contributing to his death at age 38, an autopsy found.
The jail operator has rules that strictly limit the use of pepper spray and bar guards from holding down prisoners in ways known to cause asphyxiation. But at least four jailers that night had virtually no training, state records show. An officer who dug his knee into DeBusk’s back minutes before his death had been on the job just seven weeks and hadn’t gone through any of the state’s mandated instruction.
Every year, thousands of untrained jailers work all over Texas under a loophole that allows jails to employ so-called temporary guards for up to 12 months, The News found. That means these officers haven’t received all 96 hours of the state training that teaches guards how to handle volatile prisoners, when to use force, and what constitutes basic safety techniques.
They are sometimes paid less than licensed jailers.
Many untrained guards work for LaSalle Corrections, a family business that runs the Parker County jail, where 24 out of 77 officers don’t have permanent licenses, according to the county sheriff’s office. The Louisiana-based firm runs the main jails in six of the 10 counties where the most temporary jailers work, according to a News analysis.
We found LaSalle has hired more than 370 jailers with temporary licenses at less than a dozen facilities around the state since 2017. That’s a lot: Half of the agencies that have used temporary jailers since 2017 employed four or fewer.
As LaSalle has amassed a growing empire of county jails, state prisons and immigration detention centers, it has been plagued by complaints about temporary workers and lax training, court records show. Among the lawsuits is one filed by DeBusk’s family, alleging negligence in his death; the company has not responded in court.
Eason said LaSalle’s internal records showed the company had fewer temporary jailers than reflected in state records, but did not provide specific numbers. He noted the numbers may change as jailers are hired, fired or quit; and the company sometimes struggles to staff its facilities, depending on the location. The company has hired recruiters and held job fairs to fill positions at short-staffed jails, he said.
In recent years, LaSalle has won contracts by bidding significantly less than competitors GEO Group and CoreCivic (the prison company formerly known as Corrections Corporation of America).
The company has gotten a growing number of contracts in Texas to operate jails by promising to house inmates for as little as $30 per person per day; the company’s contract with Parker County is for less than $50. In Dallas, the county-operated jail estimates it spends about $70.
Police and jailers must have a license to work in Texas. But if you’re 18 or older, graduated from high school or earned a GED, can pass a criminal background check, drive a car and carry a gun, you’re allowed to work in a Texas jail for up to one year on a temporary license before completing the state-required coursework to get a jailers license. Texas issues between 4,000 and 5,000 temporary licenses a year.
The permanent licensing process includes 72 hours of instruction that can be completed online, plus 24 hours in a classroom, said Kenny Merchant, director of operations for credentialing at the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement. It’s illegal for jails to employ guards who don’t take the licensing exam within a year. But Merchant said it’s not uncommon — though risky.
“The liability issue that comes in for the jails and the employers is just huge,” he said.
To get their permanent licenses, guards must pass a 100-question multiple-choice test. One online practice exam asks test takers to identify when inmates may play games, to pick parts of federal law that relate to civil rights, and to agree sliding keys across a jailhouse floor is a bad idea.
In addition to the Parker County jail, LaSalle runs at least eight other facilities in Texas. They include local jails in Beaumont, Cleburne, Waco, Texarkana and Fannin County, north of Dallas. It also contracts with federal officials to detain immigrants and houses hundreds of inmates for Harris County in a jail in Louisiana.
While its Texas operations continue to increase, LaSalle has also been the target of lawsuits and complaints about treatment of inmates.
In 2015, at the LaSalle-operated Bi-State Jail in Texarkana (which holds people from Texas and Arkansas), Michael Sabbie was found dead on the floor of his cell. The day before he died, jailers piled on top of Sabbie and pepper sprayed him, according to video of the encounter included in court filings. Like DeBusk, Sabbie repeatedly yelled that he couldn’t breathe as the officers pushed down on his back. Federal prosecutors determined jailers did not violate civil rights laws, LaSalle’s court filings say.
LaSalle Corrections, the private company that operates the facility, requires officers record on video any time they use force against an inmate. DeBusk died minutes after this moment was recorded on this video, which was obtained through his family’s lawsuit.Erik Heipt, a Seattle lawyer, represents Sabbie’s wife in her civil lawsuit against LaSalle. Heipt, who specializes in cases involving deaths at jails and in police custody, called the use of pepper spray at the jail “shocking and extraordinary.”
Three nurses he deposed said they had seen at least 100 people sprayed in less than five years.
The warden is supposed to approve all uses of pepper spray, according to a company “use of force” policy included in court filings. Employees must know how to use the spray and how to treat people exposed to it. But in depositions Heipt took from officers, several said they had no training on how to spot medical distress.
In Parker County, prosecutors presented the DeBusk case to a grand jury in 2017; it declined to indict the jailers. DeBusk’s family sued LaSalle Corrections for negligence in September, alleging his death “was clearly caused by the actions of LaSalle personnel violating their own use of force policies.”
Through their lawsuit, the family got a copy of video which captures most of the encounter between DeBusk and the guards.
Jailers told investigators from the Texas Rangers that DeBusk became belligerent, taking off his clothing, throwing water around the cell and yelling insults. They decided to move him to a cell for violent offenders.
The video does not show the moment DeBusk allegedly swung his fist at a jailer. The state’s investigative report contains conflicting statements about whether DeBusk actually punched the guard or missed. An officer told investigators DeBusk kicked the camera out of his hand during the scuffle in the cell. Two jailers were inadvertently hit by the pepper spray, forcing one to leave to seek medical treatment.
LaSalle’s videotape resumes with DeBusk screaming as jailers pin him to the floor outside of the cell.
“They’re gonna kill me,” he yells. Seconds later, officers joke about the pepper spray. “Tastes good to me,” one jailer can be heard saying.
Four officers hoist DeBusk into the air. Pants around his knees and arms behind his back, he is carried to the cell for violent inmates by his elbows and the chains securing his feet. Officers place him face down on the floor of the cell, panting after carrying the nearly 200-pound man through the jail hallway. DeBusk yells “I can’t breathe!” as officers push knees and hands into his back.
DeBusk vomits. An officer tells a colleague “knee in,” prompting the jailer to drive a knee into DeBusk’s back. He groans, and the officer tells the other guard to “ease up.”
“I’m gonna die!” DeBusk yells. Vomit drips from his nose. He doesn’t speak. His face grows increasingly blue. One jailer tells her colleagues: “Hey guys, he’s turning a different color.” Seconds later, a jailer says DeBusk is “out.” “He’s fine, get the cuffs,” an officer responds. Although one jailer says DeBusk is breathing, another says medical staff should be ready to act. DeBusk’s arms remain behind his back. The cell door slams shut as he makes faint gasping sounds.
Records show at least seven minutes passed between the time guards closed the door and the time they called 911. Paramedics could not revive him.
A medical examiner said too many factors contributed to DeBusk’s death to choose a definitive cause, so she labeled his manner of death “undetermined.” But her report, which is a public document, states that the pepper spray and restraints played a role in his death. Food in his airway was a choking hazard, and the pepper spray used in the cell made it difficult for DeBusk to breathe, the autopsy states. “There were prolonged periods of prone restraint with compression of the torso and extremities, potentially contributing to a reduced respiratory capacity,” the report says.
When investigators questioned jailers involved in DeBusk’s death, several said they didn’t hear DeBusk say he couldn’t breathe. One said he ignored DeBusk, because he figured if he could scream, he could breathe. Another said he thought DeBusk was lying.
For several guards, this was their first job at a jail. Ty Ashley was 21 and had no formal training when he rushed into the cell for violent inmates and pushed his knee into DeBusk’s back. He was the officer told to “ease up” on the pressure.
State records show the jailer who filmed DeBusk’s death, James Duryea, never received his full license, despite working at the Parker County jail for 21 months. He could not be reached for comment. A LaSalle official said the company has records showing Duryea passed the licensing exam but never received his full license due to a paperwork error.
Of the 17 Parker County officers interviewed by Texas Rangers in connection to DeBusk’s death, 11 no longer work at the jail, according to state records.
Since DeBusk’s death, records show three people have died at the jail: two men died from heart conditions and a woman died of a drug overdose.
In his jail booking photo, his hair and eyes are wild. He had lost at least 30 pounds in the two prior months. When he was taken into custody, he said he hadn’t slept for more than 24 hours, according to state records.
DeBusk’s family members say they are haunted by their decision to not bail him out when he called on Christmas Eve. Normally, he would have been with them — playing Santa for the kids at his mother’s house.
His sister, Ashley Bourdelais, said she rushed to the hospital after receiving the call he was dead. Looking at her brother’s naked body, covered in bruises with vomit on his face, she wondered how things have could have gone so wrong so quickly.
“We were all together,” she said, “and he died alone.”
Prisoners Have the Answers to Our Prison Crisis, Say Hank Willis Thomas and Baz Dreisinger
My good friend and great lawyer, Steve Hampton, Esq., sent me this article. Steve specializes in suing DOC personnel and their “health care” contractors for gross mistreatment, abuse, and neglect of inmates. If you have a loved one being abused in prison, you can reach him at:
Stephen Hampton
sahampton@gradyhampton.com
Grady and Hampton LLC
6 North Bradford Street
Dover, DE 19904
302-678-1265
The compelling art exhibit discussed in this article from Newsweek, no doubt will open some people’s eyes to some of the problems facing our prisons. See related articles here to see that racism is rampant in our criminal justice system. We need only to look to Norway and other Scandinavian countries to see that the humanitarian treatment of prisoners reduces costs, reduces crime, and actually works to keep us safer!
Excerpts from the Article:
With roughly 2.3 million incarcerated people (a 500 percent increase over the past 40 years), the U.S. now leads the world in prison population—and African-Americans and Hispanics make up 56 percent of those behind bars. That disturbing reality inspired The Writing on the Wall, a collaboration between artist Hank Willis Thomas and Baz Dreisinger.
Dreisinger, an author who also teaches writing in prisons around the world, collected essays, poems, letters, stories, diagrams and notes to create the installation with Thomas, a conceptual artist and co-founder of the 50-state art collaboration project For Freedoms. The words of the incarcerated—handwritten and typed—are a moving testament to the often ignored humanity of those in prison.
The installation, which debuted at the Frost Art Museum at Florida International University in Miami in August, runs through December 9 and will be part of the international fair Art Basel Miami Beach, beginning December 6.
The two responded to Newsweek ’s questions about the need for systemic change within the justice system.
How does mass incarceration illustrate racism in America?
As Ava DuVernay masterfully laid out in her film 13th, there is a direct line from slavery to the new Jim Crow system, in which formerly incarcerated people—overwhelmingly black and brown—face the same ills that African-Americans faced under segregation, including second-class citizenship and disenfranchisement. It’s impossible to talk about mass incarceration in America (and in many other countries) without talking about racism.
Why Florida?
The installation was part of the For Freedoms 50 State Initiative, the largest creative collaboration in American history, which was timed to highlight critical political issues ahead of the midterm elections. The Frost Art Museum’s Amy Galpin saw the necessity of presenting this exhibition during the lead-up to the Voting Rights Restoration for Felons Initiative (Florida Amendment 4), which was approved on November 6. If even one person who saw our installation was prompted to vote in favor of voting rights for felons, we believe our project was a success.
What, realistically, can people do to help change the system?
What’s clear is that it’s not working for either the person committing the harm or the people being harmed. People living behind bars are people and should be treated as such. Consideration and education are simple tools that we can offer the imprisoned that will help them upon release. It is also important that we hire formerly incarcerated people and that we not use stigmatizing language like inmate or ex-con and correct others when they use it. Donate time and money to organizations doing the work all over the U.S.
Who are the thought leaders, beyond Bryan Stevenson and his Equal Justice Initiative, who are addressing the crisis of mass incarceration?
Our project is inspired by the realization that the greatest thought leaders on this issue are behind bars. But there are grass-roots organizations doing the work locally and nationally— advocacy organizations fueled by directly impacted individuals, like Just Leadership USA, Impact Justice and Common Justice, as well as educational programs like the Prison-to-College Pipeline and the ACLU’s 50-State Blueprint.
Lawyer: DOC negligence caused deaths of 2 inmates – And he is Right – kra
My good friend and great lawyer, Steve Hampton, is one of too few who know what really goes on in our prisons.
Here, because D O C personnel lie like hell and falsify reports and medical records, we cannot be sure that Gibbs was not murdered by other inmates. READ Culture of Cover Up – Prison Abuse
Whether it was murder or suicide, D O C screwed up again, causing the death of another mother’s son.
I never knew them, but Mr. Hampton must have had fine parents. The governor’s office, with their usual B S, blasted Steve in this article, but he is not afraid to ruffle some feathers in the interest of justice!
Excerpts from the Article:
Dover attorney Stephen Hampton on Wednesday accused the Delaware Department of Correction (DOC) of negligent behavior that he believes led to the deaths of two inmates this month. In October, Mr. Hampton had filed a lawsuit against the state on behalf of more than 100 inmates housed in C Building, the site of last year’s riot at James T. Vaughn Correctional Center.
The 80-page complaint describes “inhumane conditions” at the prison and claims that for many years prior to the riot that left Correctional Officer Lt. Steven Floyd dead, prison personnel “illegally abused, mistreated and tortured inmates with virtually nothing being done by their JTVCC (Vaughn prison) or DOC supervisors, to stop them.”
On Wednesday, claiming that inmate abuse is still ongoing, Mr. Hampton blamed DOC for the deaths of Luis Cabrera, 49, and Kelly Gibbs, 30.
The death of Gibbs was reported on Nov. 22 by DOC officials. It was noted that “no foul play was suspected.”
Gibbs was one of the 18 inmates accused of perpetrating last year’s riot. In its original news release, the DOC noted that Gibbs had just pleaded guilty to charges of riot, kidnapping and conspiracy in connection with the Feb. 1, 2017, incident.
Mr. Hampton claims Gibbs killed himself — something that could have been prevented if DOC had stuck to their own policies, he says.
“After the end of the first criminal trial, defendant Kelly Gibbs, who was awaiting trial on charges including murder, pleaded guilty to some lessor charges, and then was promptly moved to HRYCI (Howard R. Young Correctional Institution) and placed in the same tier with all of the inmate witnesses,” said Mr. Hampton in his statement Wednesday. “In doing so, DOC put him in a highly stressful and potentially dangerous situation, as the other inmates would have looked on Kelly with suspicion after he was allowed to plead to lesser charges.
“It is also known that inmates have a heightened risk of suicide in the days right after taking a plea to serious charges, especially so for Kelly who was most likely in a cell alone.
“Nevertheless, neither DOC or Connections (the DOC’s medical contractor) seems to have acted on this knowledge and took no extra precautions to prevent Kelly from committing suicide. It has been reported that he hung himself in his cell the night of November 21-22.”
Mr. Hampton alleges that his office heard of the suicide from inmates housed alongside Gibbs and from “attorney sources.” The DOC has not elaborated on Gibbs’s death, saying only that the Delaware State Police continue to investigate the incident and his body was turned over to the State Division of Forensic Science, as is standard procedure.
Cabrera, both a plaintiff in the civil lawsuit against the state and a potential witness in the ongoing criminal trial stemming from the riot, was found dead on Nov. 8, according to DOC officials. Mr. Hampton claims that his 49-year-old client died of a perforated ulcer after being “denied medical treatment for more than a month.”
Referencing claims from Cabrera’s cellmate, Mr. Hampton says the inmate had been ill since mid-October. “Luis’s cellmate, Cory Green remembers that Luis became sick on 10/17/18 with coughing, vomiting, and a fever,” said Mr. Hampton. “Luis put in a sick call slip and a grievance, but it took roughly 10 days before he was seen by the nurse. The nurse prescribed medication and told Luis he had fluid in his lungs. However, despite his repeated requests, Luis was not given the medication prescribed for him, nor seen again for his ongoing coughing with chest and abdominal pain.” Mr. Hampton also claims to have discussed the circumstances of Cabrera’s death with his wife.
“According to the coroner, Luis had a ‘perforated bulge in his intestine’ which appears to have been the cause of death,” said Mr. Hampton. “A perforation usually happens over time as the ulcer eats away at the intestinal lining. When the ulcer perforates through the lining, the contents of the intestinal track spill into the abdominal cavity causing peritonitis, which is an infection of the lining of the abdominal cavity.
“Untreated peritonitis results in sepsis which, untreated, is fatal, as it was for Mr. Cabrera. Ulcers can be treated before perforation occurs if discovered by medical treating the patient. Even after perforation occurs, prompt surgical treatment can usually save the patient. Mr. Cabrera was denied care again and again by Connections’ employees, and DOC employees did not intervene even after he was so ill he could no longer stand. Luis only weighed approximately 130 pounds when he originally was housed on the tier, but subsequently had lost about 20 pounds before his death due to his illness and to poor food.”
Mr. Hampton, who suggested the two recent deaths are a result of routine mistreatment of the inmates who were housed in C Building during the riot, said DOC commissioner Perry Phelps and Gov. John Carney have “not taken steps to curtail the violence or call for an unbiased investigation of the inmates’ charges of torture and ongoing abuse.
“Commissioner Phelps and Governor Carney also know or certainly should know that people are dying and suffering horribly in DOC prisons because of the lack of healthcare and the indifference of the correctional and medical staffs,” said Mr. Hampton.
“There are many inmates with serious medical conditions who are not receiving care for their conditions and DOC and Connections employees seem indifferent to their suffering and need for treatment.”
The Governor’s Office condemned Mr. Hampton’s public accusation late Wednesday afternoon. “Mr. Hampton has filed a lawsuit against the state and clearly has an interest in litigating that case in the newspaper. We don’t think that’s appropriate,” said Jonathan Starkey, a spokesman for the Governor’s Office. “As we’ve said all along, Gov. Carney takes any allegations of abuse seriously, and any suggestion otherwise is false. Because the matter is now in the courts there will be no further comment at this time.”
The Whole Story:
EXCLUSIVE: 50 New York state prisoners died due to inadequate medical care over the past five years, death reports reveal
ANOTHER horrific story of prison “health care”! What will it take for this to change? The death of the Governor’s son or daughter addict who died due to clear neglect?! WHAT??!
Here is what can end it! Why only PROSECUTION and IMPRISONMENT Will Stop Prison Abuse and Police Abuse! Demand It!! How to Avoid the Deaths of More Prison Guards!
In each and every case like this the victims’ survivors should relate the facts and “raise as much hell as legally possible” to the licenses of the medical personnel revoked – doctors and nurses.
Excerpts from the Article:
When Maureen Heatley last saw her son he was crying uncontrollably on the floor of his upstate New York prison. Todd Heatley was so distraught and confused he didn’t recognize his mother despite her weekly visits to the Wende Correctional Facility near Buffalo.
“He was totally disoriented,” Maureen, a social worker, recalled of the visit in November 2014.
She cut the visit short and begged correction staff to take him to a specialized medical unit where he could receive proper treatment. That never happened.
Three days later Heatley, 33, was found hanging from a torn sheet attached to his cell door. He died a few hours later.
A state medical review board charged with probing prisoner deaths concluded that Heatley may be still alive had he gotten proper medical care.
“Facility staff failed to recognize the escalation of symptoms and neglected to initiate appropriate interventions which may have prevented his death,” said the board’s report, which was obtained by the Daily News through a Freedom of Information Law request. The reports are not posted online and largely remain hidden from the public and affected family members.
After her son died, Maureen Heatley asked for a copy of the medical review, to no avail. “I never got any information,” she said.
His case is not an anomaly.
All told, the board concluded that the deaths of approximately 50 prisoners statewide over the past five years could have been prevented with simple medical treatment. Officials with the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision say that even one such case is unacceptable, but that only around 0.02% of the total prison population of nearly 50,000 are referenced in the reports.
“How many more avoidable deaths will occur before the state addresses these serious and persistent problems?” he added.
State Correction Commission review panels repeatedly found medical staff failed to conduct basic checkups and mental health screenings. Doctors and nurses regularly ignored serious ailments until it was too late, according to the reviews.
Multiple deaths involved mentally ill prisoners who committed suicide after they were continually tossed in solitary confinement. At least four prisoners died from asthma-related ailments that could have been prevented had they been given inhalers and other medications.
The scathing death review reports come as Gov. Cuomo pushes for a more robust plan to shut down the jails on the city-controlled Rikers Island. Mayor de Blasio’s 10-year closure plan is “tantamount to saying we have no real plan to close it,” Cuomo’s counsel, Alphonso David, said in April 2017.
But Cuomo has done little to improve medical care for the 48,132 prisoners his administration oversees, critics contend. “He really should be looking at his own system and seeing what those problems are,” Beck said.
The number of health care practitioners employed by the department has decreased by 3% over the past five years, according to DOCCS. The department currently employees 89 clinical physicians, 18 physician assistants, 849 nurses, and almost 28 nurse practitioners. DOCCS did not provide comparable raw figures for five years ago.
Beck says that state budget documents actually show that figure of full-time medical staff is actually down 17.6% over the past five years. By all accounts, a part of the staff reduction is tied to a 9% drop in the prison population over the past five years.
At Elmira Correctional Facility in Chemung County, a clinical physician position was open from August 2012 through October 2016, records show. In some prisons, there’s only one doctor overseeing the care of more than 500 prisoners, according to the Correctional Association.
Hiring delays are in part due to bureaucratic red tape and a starting salary that is often $10,000 or more below private sector pay.
Overall, the death reports reveal that some of the fatalities involved nurses and doctors ignoring repeated pleas for help. Prison insiders say staff frequently believe prisoners are lying about the severity of their condition in order to get moved to a preferred housing unit or to get drugs.
In approximately 50 of the close to 80 death review cases, the medical review board ordered prison and health officials to change or update procedures. But those orders seem to do little to improve matters,
…
After his death, prison officials shipped two cardboard boxes of his belongings to his mother. She has never opened them.
The Whole Story and see additional details of several awful cases of neglect!
Neuroscientists Make a Case against Solitary Confinement Prolonged social isolation can do severe, long-lasting damage to the brain
I SAW the damage done to many men. They talked to themselves, they answered themselves, some were quiet, others had fits of screaming, many were incoherent.
Most people do not realize the extent – widespread – to which solitary confinement is used to punish inmates who try to communicate about all of the abuse by COs. READ It’s not about What They Did to Me -Prison Abuse and Culture of Cover Up
As for me, “Thank you, God, for my strong spirit” … I said that to myself every morning in isolation. Am I sane? Maybe. I do still have thoughts that if I had terminal cancer, I might get a shotgun and blow the heads off the judge and/or the CO who so clearly illegally kept me in that 8′ by 13′ cage for 1,510 days. Yes I do. Then some people who know me, people who CAN reform our prisons, might say “Ken Abraham did that!!? It cannot be.” And they will learn why and raise hell about all of the abuse.
So far, reform is a joke. Delaware D O C enacted policy changes to limit the use of isolation cells years ago, but nothing has changed. Nothing. They ignore their own policies, and the law, daily.
This statement is patently false: “The most common reasons for being sent to solitary are for preventive measures, which can be indefinite, or for punishment, which is more likely to have a set end point.” The most common reason is unlawful – criminal – retaliation by COs! Too bad the authors either do not know it or ignore it. Might make me want to murder someone.
Excerpts from the Article:
Robert King spent 29 years living alone in a six by nine-foot prison cell. He was part of the “Angola Three”—a trio of men kept in solitary confinement for decades and named for the Louisiana state penitentiary where they were held. King was released in 2001 after a judge overturned his 1973 conviction for killing a fellow inmate. Since his exoneration he has dedicated his life to raising awareness about the psychological harms of solitary confinement.
“People want to know whether or not I have psychological problems, whether or not I’m crazy—‘How did you not go insane?’” King told a packed session at the annual Society for Neuroscience meeting here this week. “I look at them and I tell them, ‘I did not tell you I was not insane.’ I don’t mean I was psychotic or anything like that, but being placed in a six by nine by 12–foot cell for 23 hours a day, no matter how you appear on the outside, you are not sane.”
There are an estimated 80,000 people, mostly men, in solitary confinement in U.S. prisons. They are confined to windowless cells roughly the size of a king bed for 23 hours a day, with virtually no human contact except for brief interactions with prison guards. According to scientists speaking at the conference session, this type of social isolation and sensory deprivation can have traumatic effects on the brain, many of which may be irreversible. Neuroscientists, lawyers and activists such as King have teamed up with the goal of abolishing solitary confinement as cruel and unusual punishment.
Most prisoners sentenced to solitary confinement remain there for one to three months (pdf), although nearly a quarter spend over a year there; the minimum amount of time is usually 15 days. The most common reasons for being sent to solitary are for preventive measures, which can be indefinite, or for punishment, which is more likely to have a set end point. Several states have passed legislation limiting who can be in solitary confinement, including mentally ill and juvenile offenders, and for how long. The United Nations recommends banning solitary confinement for more than 15 days, saying any longer constitutes torture.
Even in less extreme cases than that of the Angola Three, prolonged social isolation—feeling lonely, not just being alone—can exact severe physical, emotional and cognitive consequences. It is associated with a 26 percent increased risk of premature death, largely stemming from an out of control stress response that results in higher cortisol levels, increased blood pressure and inflammation. Feeling socially isolated also increases the risk of suicide. “We see solitary confinement as nothing less than a death penalty by social deprivation,” said Stephanie Cacioppo, an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience at the University of Chicago, who was on the panel with King.
For good or bad, the brain is shaped by its environment—and the social isolation and sensory deprivation King experienced likely changed his. Chronic stress damages the hippocampus, a brain area important for memory, spatial orientation and emotion regulation. As a result, socially isolated people experience memory loss, cognitive decline and depression. Studies show depression results in additional cell death in the hippocampus as well as the loss of a growth factor that has antidepressant-like properties, creating a vicious cycle. When sensory deprivation and an absence of natural light are thrown into the mix, people can experience psychosis and disruptions in the genes that control the body’s natural circadian rhythms. “Social deprivation is bad for brain structure and function. Sensory deprivation is bad for brain structure and function. Circadian dysregulation is bad,” said Huda Akil, a professor of neuroscience at the University of Michigan who was also on the panel. “Loneliness in itself is extremely damaging.”
King has experienced lasting cognitive changes from his time in solitary confinement. His memory is impaired and he has lost his ability to navigate, both of which are signs of damage to the hippocampus. At one point he was unable to recognize faces, but that problem has passed. Cacioppo speculated that social areas of his brain that were not being used, like those involved in facial recognition, might have atrophied during his time in solitary. Supporting this idea, recent research conducted in mice by neuroscientist Richard Smeyne at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and presented at the conference revealed that after one month of social isolation, neurons in sensory and motor regions of the brain had shrunk by 20 percent.
The question remains as to whether these neuronal changes are permanent or can be reversed. Akil said, however, she doubts “you can live through that experience and come out with the same brain you went in with, and not in a good way.”
King said he survived the ordeal because he recognized that his case was “politicized,” and bigger than himself. He and many supporters believe the Angola Three were targeted and falsely convicted because they were members of the Black Panther party. Their cases were later taken up by the United Nations as an example of the inhumanity of solitary confinement. According to Cacioppo, King’s connection to a larger group and larger purpose likely gave him the resilience to survive the ordeal. “Collective identity is protective against individual loneliness,” she noted.
By pairing their research with King’s experience, the neuroscientists on the panel hope to move the needle on people’s perspectives and policy around the issue. Jules Lobel, a professor of law at the University of Pittsburgh and the sole lawyer on the panel, thinks they can: Neuroscience research played a role in a class action lawsuit he won against solitary confinement in California. “Neuroscience can not only be a powerful tool for understanding the human condition,” he said, “but can also play an important role in changing the conditions that humans live under.”
ICE agents arrest man who left sanctuary church – MORE waste of YOUR resources! – kra
You should learn the TRUTH about immigrants and the border, and pay no heed to our asinine president! As is clear from so many articles I have posted, ICE is mostly arresting hard-working, harmless people, NOT “rapists and murderers and gang members”!
We need comprehensive reform of immigration laws and FAIR enforcement of current ones.
Look at this! More than 20 people arrested, lives ruined, and YOUR tax money wasted here instead of being used to protect us from dangerous people!
Here I am seen discussing these very issues about 3 years ago:
Excerpts from the Article:
An immigrant who sought refuge from deportation in a North Carolina church for 11 months was detained Friday at a scheduled appointment with immigration officials, prompting more than a dozen supporters to block a law enforcement van and wind up under arrest themselves.
Mexican national Samuel Oliver-Bruno, 47, was detained at a Raleigh-area immigration office, according to a U.S. Immigration and Customs enforcement news release.
The advocacy group Alerta Migratoria NC said in a statement that Oliver-Bruno went to have fingerprints taken so he could apply to stay in North Carolina with his wife and son. He has been living in CityWell United Methodist Church in Durham since late 2017 to avoid the reach of immigration officers, who generally avoid making arrests at churches and other sensitive locations .
ICE said Oliver-Bruno, who has lived in North Carolina for two decades, had no legal basis to be in the U.S. and had exhausted his “extensive” appeals. Oliver-Bruno pleaded guilty in 2014 to using false documents to try to re-enter the U.S. in Texas after a trip outside the country, according to court documents.
Several dozen protesters came to the federal immigration office in Morrisville in hopes of dissuading authorities from arresting Oliver-Bruno. Alerta Migratoria said Oliver-Bruno was detained and put into a van after entering the office, and that supporters were arrested trying to block the van.
Online booking records show at least 20 demonstrators were arrested at the immigration office on charges including failure to disperse and resisting officers.
Alerta Migratoria said Oliver-Bruno had filed an application with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services seeking to avoid deportation. The group’s statement said he was asked to come in for a biometric screening as part of the application, and he was aware he had to “risk getting detained.”
Advocates say Oliver-Bruno’s family had “recently faced threats” in his home state of Veracruz, Mexico, where drug cartels are active. They said he fears for his safety if he is deported.
One inmate found guilty of murder in Vaughn prison trial
Pretty much to be expected, given that the State does not know what really happened, with conflicting testimony “out the wazoo”! Since the C O, Floyd, was killed, the jury probably felt they should convict someone of murder.
I have had hundreds of jury trials, and I assure you: we shall never know the truth about this incident. Read related posts.
NOTE: the defendant with a lawyer was acquitted of all charges, the other two each had several guilty verdicts. I have seen inmates make this mistake often – going to trial without a lawyer. That always is stupid! I bet that if those two defendants had an attorney, the state would not have gotten any murder conviction, and the convictions obtained would have been for lesser charges. But pro se defendants usually do not ask the Judge to instruct the jury on lesser charges. The law is complicated, going to trial is tricky (I have had at least 700 trials – lost two), and the law library in prison is a disaster. READ http://www.citizensforcriminaljustice.net/tragic-prison-law-libraries/ – Prison “law libraries”: They are a disaster!
We already know that one cannot believe anything said by Geoff Klopp, president of the Correctional Officers Association of Delaware. The guy is a lying jackass, interested ONLY in getting more money in D O C staff’s pockets.
Reviewing the breakdown of the charges and the verdicts at the end of the article, it seems to me the trial was a resounding loss for the State, and that many of the guilty charges were based on “accomplice liability” law, not always fair, which says if you were there, you are guilty, irrespective of whether you actually committed a crime.
After all, the “biggie” was the charge of murder. When Floyd was killed D O C personnel came out thumping their (inmate-abusing) chests, saying “We are charging 18 inmates with murder!” And they got only one. 15 more await future trials.
Defense counsel should have argued jury nullification to the jurors.
We will never know – kra
Excerpts from the Article:
One of three defendants was found guilty of murdering Lt. Steven Floyd during a deadly riot at James T. Vaughn Correctional Center last year. After a nearly four-week trial, a New Castle County jury found Dwayne Staats guilty of first-degree felony murder, first-degree murder of a law enforcement officer, kidnapping, assault and conspiracy.
Staats was found not guilty of intentional murder in the first degree. Jarreau Ayers was found not guilty of any of the three murder charges but guilty of kidnapping, assault and conspiracy. Deric Forney was found not guilty of all charges against him.
“If there is no other basis to hold Mr. Forney, he should be released,” Judge William C. Carpenter Jr. told the court.
The trial was the first of what will be a string of prosecutions against inmates who prosecutors claim were involved in the deadly February 2017 siege of Vaughn prison near Smyrna. Perry Phelps, the Delaware Department of Correction commissioner who was sworn in on the day the deadly riot began, said he felt justice had been served with Tuesday’s verdict.
State prosecutors had no comment on the verdict, other than that the jury worked very hard, and they will begin preparing for the upcoming cases.
Geoff Klopp, president of the Correctional Officers Association of Delaware, said the union is “dissatisfied with the results.” He hopes prosecutors “will dig in extra hard and turn over whatever stones they can to bring justice and comfort to the correctional officers of the state of Delaware.”
Staats admitted he planned the takeover to force Delaware Gov. John Carney to hear inmates’ protests about prison conditions. Ayers said he was there helping inmates with medical conditions during the nearly 18-hour standoff.
Forney denied any involvement. After the verdict, his attorney, Ben Gifford, reiterated that his client maintained his innocence throughout the trial, “and he is thankful that the jury came to the same conclusion.”
Asked what he thought was missing in the prosecutors’ case to convict Forney, Gifford said: “Evidence.” “I don’t think there was nearly enough evidence,” Gifford said. “I mean two witnesses out of over 100 to say that he did anything.”
For the jury, it came down to a question of which inmates to believe – those standing trial or those taking the witness stand against them.
Prosecutors relied on the accounts of 11 inmates who had been inside the prison to call Ayers and Staats the leaders of the prison takeover and Forney as their “soldier.” Those witnesses tied Ayers and Staats to planning the uprising and facilitating events through the 18-hour hostage standoff.
Ayers and Staats characterized the inmate witnesses as liars seeking a benefit in exchange for their testimony. Ayers’ and Staats’ cross-examination of their former prison inmates was at times personal. They knew each other and often referred to each other by nicknames, like Jay Bird, Poncho, Burner and Smoke.
“What happened to Sgt. Floyd is a tragedy and it shouldn’t have happened, but so was this investigation,” said Ben Gifford, who represents Forney. Gifford and the defendants characterized the investigation as “sloppy.”
There were no cameras in the building. Of the blood-stained clothes and shanks Delaware State Police tested, there were no forensic matches to any particular defendant currently on trial. Prosecutors argued additional testing would likely not have yielded useful information.
Staats and Ayers said they had no personal hand in the violence. Some inmate witnesses told a different story. Witnesses testified that Forney attacked a correctional officer in the initial moments of the uprising. Staats testified that he planned the uprising and violent overtaking of correctional officers. He argued that Floyd’s murder was not part of the plan and was carried out by men who splintered off what he said was a plot to draw attention to the conditions of Delaware’s prisons.
Ayers was characterized by prosecutors as a facilitator of Staats’ plan. Inmate witnesses said he played a role in gathering lockerboxes to block the doors, ordering inmates in from the yard after the building had been taken over and making decisions about who got to leave the jail during the hostage standoff.
The charges
Dwayne Staats:
Count 1 – riot: guilty
Count 2 – first-degree murder, intentional: not guilty
Count 3 – first-degree felony murder: guilty
Count 4 – first-degree murder of a law enforcement officer: guilty
Count 5 – first-degree assault: guilty
Count 6 – first-degree assault: guilty
Count 7 – kidnapping: guilty
Count 8 – kidnapping: guilty
Count 9 – kidnapping: S guilty
Count 10 – kidnapping: guilty
Count 11 – conspiracy: guilty
Jarreau Ayers:
Count 1 – riot: guilty
Count 2 – first-degree murder, intentional: not guilty
Count 3 – felony murder: not guilty
Count 4 – murder of a law enforcement officer: not guilty
Count 5 – assault: guilty
Count 6 – assault: guilty
Count 7 – kidnapping: guilty
Count 8 – kidnapping: guilty
Count 9 – kidnapping: guilty
Count 10 – kidnapping: guilty
Count 11 – conspiracy: guilty
Deric Forney:
Count 1 – riot: not guilty
Count 2 – first-degree murder, intentional: not guilty
Count 3 – felony murder: not guilty
Count 4 – murder of a law enforcement officer: not guilty
Count 5 – assault: not guilty
Count 6 – assault: not guilty
Count 7 – kidnapping: not guilty
Count 8 – kidnapping: not guilty
Count 9 – kidnapping: not guilty
Count 10 – kidnapping: not guilty
Count 11 – conspiracy: not guilty
Hazing, Humiliation, Terror: Working While Female in Federal Prison Inmates expose themselves and threaten rape. Male guards let them do it. Women who complain are ‘pretty much blackballed.’
Again, nothing here which is news to me, but the article does highlight problems female C Os encounter, just one aspect of the abuses so rampant in America’s prisons, state and federal.
The sex abuse is rampant, flat out outrageous, and WHO do you think pays for this sort of stuff?! YOU DO! A few hospitals or schools could be built with the money here wasted! … “In 2017, the Bureau of Prisons agreed to pay $20 million to female employees at the Coleman prison complex in Sumter County, Fla., more money to each plaintiff than any other Title VII gender discrimination settlement of the past decade. A judge found that, among other problems, managers had routinely ignored complaints about masturbation by inmates in front of female employees, known in prison slang as “gunning.” Women at Coleman had learned to avoid areas known as “gun ranges.” …
This is true in ANY of America’s prisons! – kra
Due to its length, I have edited out several reports of terrible abuse; just open The Whole Story to get the picture!
Excerpts from the Article;
Makeup, earrings and perfume are off limits. So are smiles. Even the swing of a ponytail can attract unwanted attention, so women slick their hair back into a style known as the “bureau bun” — as in the Federal Bureau of Prisons. They wear oversized uniforms to hide the faint outlines of their undergarments, or cover themselves from neck to thigh with baggy black windbreakers known as “trash bags,” even on hot summer days on the concrete yards.
For women who work in federal prisons, where they are vastly outnumbered by male colleagues and male inmates, concealing every trace of their femininity is both necessary and, ultimately, futile. “They never even see what you are wearing,” said Octavia Brown, a supervisor in Victorville, Calif., of the inmates she oversees. “They see straight through it.”
Some inmates do not stop at stares. They also grope, threaten and expose themselves. But what is worse, according to testimony, court documents, and interviews with female prison workers, male colleagues can and do encourage such behavior, undermining the authority of female officers and jeopardizing their safety. Other male employees join in the harassment themselves.
And while women who report harassment face retaliation, professional sabotage and even termination, a New York Times examination found, the careers of many harassers and those who protect them flourish.
When an inmate thrust his penis against Jessica Hodak, at the time a secretary in California, and threatened to rape her, she wanted to discipline him. But her manager pressured her to let it go, she said in a lawsuit. When an inmate groped a guard named Melinda Jenkins, she was ordered to play down the episode, according to a pending complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. When she refused, the complaint says, managers made her submit to an unwanted medical examination that involved exposing her breasts to a colleague.
In one extreme instance, Wynona Mixon, a case manager who reported being raped by an inmate in a Tucson prison, suddenly found herself facing incarceration: She was criminally charged with raping her attacker.
The bureau today has more than 10,000 female employees, but women say little has changed for those who dare to speak up. “Once you go through it, you’re pretty much blackballed from the government,” said Quantina Ponder, a correctional officer in Miami whose harassment complaint against a high-ranking officer was upheld in 2015. “I know if it’s any kind of promotion or anything that I work hard for, I’ll probably never get it because of my situation.”
In May 2017, the House Oversight Committee opened an investigation into the agency, writing that despite continuous allegations of sexual misconduct, “the BOP continued to award bonuses to top administrators.”
In 2017, the Bureau of Prisons agreed to pay $20 million to female employees at the Coleman prison complex in Sumter County, Fla., more money to each plaintiff than any other Title VII gender discrimination settlement of the past decade. A judge found that, among other problems, managers had routinely ignored complaints about masturbation by inmates in front of female employees, known in prison slang as “gunning.” Women at Coleman had learned to avoid areas known as “gun ranges.”
One of the more than 135 women who provided testimony said it happened in the hallway, the shower and the activity room. “I probably saw 25 to 30 inmates masturbating during this one shift,” she said. Another affidavit described two female officers left alone with 70 inmates, several of whom took out their penises. When the women called for backup, no one came.
The inmates had started to masturbate, she recalled the officer saying, and he wanted them to finish so they would behave during lunchtime. Inmates in solitary are known to protest by throwing feces and other bodily fluids through their meal delivery slots. “I was just like, ‘Oh my God,’” Ms. Carpenter said. “I didn’t even want to turn around because I knew they probably had their faces pressed up against the window, trying to see as much of me as they could.”
Many women say that their isolation begins on Day 1, when new hires are labeled “fresh meat.” Their cellphones and social media accounts fill up with unwanted advances from colleagues, who openly take bets on who will sleep with them first.
“Every single day something happened, whether it was an inmate jerking off to you, whether it was an inmate pushing you, whether it was a staff member harassing you through email, on a phone, following you to your car,” said Jessica Hodak, who started working at the prison in Victorville 11 years ago when she was 25.
The Bureau of Prisons oversees 122 prisons with more than 180,000 inmates. Few women worked there until the 1970s, when a series of legal decisions and social changes led the agency to allow them equal access to jobs. Over time, women have grown to make up a third of the agency’s work force, holding jobs from secretary to regional director, overseeing an inmate population that is 93 percent male. But there is a feeling that they have never fully been accepted as equals.
“It’s a male-dominated world. It’s a chauvinistic world,” said Joey Rojas, a prison union organizer who helped bring the Coleman lawsuit, adding that men who support female colleagues can be overshadowed by those who do not.
A lot of men think women “don’t belong in prison because they’re the weaker sex, so we’re going to have to come to their defense,” he said. Elvin Garcia, who served five years in federal prison on drug-related charges and now works as a re-entry advocate, said he often saw male officers undermine the authority of their female colleagues. “I think their mentality and ideology, they would always look down at them.” He added, “When there’s an emergency or riot, I don’t think they feel comfortable having a female as their backup.”
Over 21 years at the Bureau of Prisons, Wynona Mixon stood out. She wore makeup, styled her tight curls to frame her face and let her warm smile peek out in response to good news from the inmates she oversaw as a case manager, like an upcoming release or the birth of a child. “I portrayed positivity to the inmates, portrayed that they could do better,” she said. “I felt good about helping.” Her attitude made her suspect to some of her colleagues at the high security penitentiary in Tucson. While she thought of herself as a kind of den mother, they labeled her an “inmate lover,” a common insult used by prison workers to suggest that a colleague has been compromised, either by smuggling in contraband or having sex with inmates.
“I was different and they hated it,” Ms. Mixon, 54, said. In August 2011, she said, an inmate named Christopher Goins raped her at knife point inside a staff bathroom. Mr. Goins had been incarcerated for raping his cousin. Before that, he had served time for attempting to murder a female defense lawyer outside a courthouse by slitting her throat.
Ms. Mixon, like other victims of sexual assault in this article, agreed to be identified by name. She reported the episode immediately and was sent to the hospital. She went on disability leave because of post-traumatic stress disorder. Three years later, she was driving in her neighborhood when the police pulled her over and arrested her. She was charged with raping Mr. Goins.
Prosecutors were using a federal law that says that inmates cannot legally consent to sex while in custody. The law was written to protect inmates from rape by guards or fellow inmates who could later claim that the sex had been consensual. In Ms. Mixon’s case, the Justice Department used the law to blame her for her own assault.
Female correctional officers are found guilty of sexual misconduct with inmates at higher rates than their male counterparts, which according to some prison employees adds to the belief that women do not belong. But experts say the disparity is the result of an opportunity gap — nine in 10 federal inmates are male, and most reported incidents are heterosexual in nature — as well as a general lack of support for female employees that makes men more likely to report incidents in which women are at fault.
While Ms. Mixon’s experience was severe, many women who report harassment say they face blatant retaliation. One officer, Sheila Pugh, was offered a settlement after she reported that an internal affairs investigator, Steven Brown, had verbally abused her for months, once locking her inside an office with him while she banged on the door to be let out. Mr. Brown disputes her account and says her complaint was not sustained in an internal review.
Announcing the Solitary Confinement Resource Center A Comprehensive, Searchable Collection of Resources on Solitary Confinement in the United States
I have so many articles on solitary confinement, a tool so widely used by prison guards to attempt to silence those who dare speak out about all of the crimes and abuse committed by D O C personnel.
Expect more great information to emerge from Solitary Confinement Resource Center.
I have SEEN the devastating effects of isolation. READ this and realize why I say “Thank you, God, for my strong spirit”! It’s not about What They Did to Me -Prison Abuse
Excerpts from the Article:
The Solitary Confinement Resource Center is a curated, fully searchable database of media, research, firsthand accounts, court and policy documents, and advocacy tools on the use of solitary confinement in U.S. prisons, jails, and juvenile detention facilities.
Although some 80,000 people are held in isolation in the United States on any given day, solitary confinement units and supermax prisons long functioned as virtual black sites, hidden from the public, policymakers, and the press. Today, despite the best efforts of a system that resists transparency, the body of information on solitary confinement is growing, but it remained scattered and difficult to access.
Believing that information can be a powerful force for change, Solitary Watch joined with the Unlock the Box national campaign to create this central, comprehensive bank of resources for use by advocates, journalists, scholars, educators, attorneys, health care providers, corrections officials, solitary survivors and their loved ones, and other concerned citizens who seek to shine a light on one of the darkest corners of our criminal justice system.
We encourage Solitary Watch readers to explore the Solitary Confinement Resource Center, and use the form found on the site to suggest additional resources.
The Solitary Confinement Resource Center is made possible through a grant from the Jacob and Valeria Langeloth Foundation.
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