BEGGING FOR WATER MARCIA POWELL WAS MOCKED AND IGNORED BY PRISON GUARDS

The wrongful Death institute has this posted on their website:

Incarcerated patients incur both permanent medical disabilities or die. Medical records compromised and misrepresented in pursuit of cost-reduction. Documented? Yes. Pervasive? Yes. A function of prison healthcare policy and procedures nationwide? Yes. Are your State Departments of Correction and healthcare provider(s) motivated to impose change? No. Reflective of budget considerations, a "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" mentality. Inappropriately treated or non-treatment of Diabetes, untreated Hepatitis C, Stage IV wounds not treated, broken bones inappropriately treated or not treated at all, diagnoses withheld, cancer treated as bronchitis, suicidal behavior not adequately addressed, suicides ruled homicides and vice versa, unnecessary amputations, staph infections ignored leading to death, withheld doctor consultations, withheld medications, administration of incorrect medications, thrown in solitary for aggressively attempting to obtain needed healthcare. The list is endless. Many die due to inadequate healthcare or no healthcare. When an inmate dies as a result of this neglect a second problem raises its head.

 This all goes on here in Alaska, all the time. My story is nothing compared to Marcia's I will just be discussing it due to the similar behavior of the corrections officers in both cases.

When wrongfully incarcerated August of 2007 I constantly wrote grievances about not getting my medication(8th amendment violations and DOC policy violations) and not being allowed to see a medical professional. I never got a response to any of them, I believe they were just thrown away. What did happen is a parole officer showed up and told me I was going to have a hearing to see if I should be put in administrative segregation. I did not know what that was so she had to explain it was a segregated area away from open population. I asked why and she said it had been reported I was a trouble maker. I was suppose to have a representative assist me at the hearing which was a corrections officer. He did not show and why I would want a CO for a rep I do not know. She went ahead with the hearing as I am perfectly capable of representing myself. When I told her what had been going on she had tears in her eyes . She made me a level one or least dangerous prisoner and said she recommended open population so I could have more opportunity to try and get the public defender agency to do their job(a useless endeavor). They never let me go to open population. I was sent to an orientation unit where a CO told me I would stay for 83 days when I complained about being prevented from going to the law library.

Arizona the state Marcia Powell died a horrible death in the hands of the neglectful and sadistic department of corrections has a Republican Governor Jan Brewer. Brewer got the job when Napolitano left to run the Department of Homeland security for President Obama. She has eliminated state benefits for domestic partners and is a pro-life, just to give you an idea of who she is.

In a press statement on 9/18/09 Governor Jan Brewer communicated this message:

$50 million awarded to Department of Corrections for salary expenses of 1,305 officers

PHOENIX – Governor Jan Brewer today announced the first distribution of the State Fiscal Stabilization Funds (SFSF) Government Services Fund (GSF) monies to the Arizona Department of Corrections through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). A total of $50 million will be given to the Department to pay officer’s salary expenses incurred during the first five (5) pay periods of FY2010 in order to support officers needed to staff required security posts throughout the state’s prison system to ensure the safety of the public, staff and inmates.

“The $50 million will go to ensure our Department operates with a full complement of officers to protect Arizonans," said ADC Director Charles L. Ryan. "The money released by Governor Brewer pays the salaries of our brave and hard-working correctional officers in this difficult economic time."

“I am extremely pleased, and so will my officers be, to know that Governor Brewer and the Arizona Office of Economic Recovery care enough about our safety and well being to fund such an important public safety agency,” said Michael Duran, State Executive President of the Arizona Correctional Peace Officers Association. “This stretches further than just safety for my officers - this helps us do our first and foremost job of protecting the public everyday.”

The only concern is for the corrections officers and that public safety statement of a politician with future ambitions. No money to assure the safety of the inmates. No money to give the inmates proper medical treatment. How the hell are you protecting the public from someone like Marcia Powell? When I was incarcerated in Alaska I was not afraid of the inmates. I was afraid of the corrections officers. Some of them are sociopaths. Quite a few had personality disorders. Well, at least she is concerned about the officers. In Alaska Sarah Palin didn't care about the inmates or the officers.

After I posted on my blog yesterday I checked and there had been a 3000 page report released from the investigation done into Marcia Powell’s death. I was stunned at how accurately I had known how she was treated. Why did I know this? I was treated similarly in Alaska and witnessed others treated the same way. I have also worked in prisons and saw the culture and behavior of corrections officers. There has been a lot of research done on the behavior of prison guards and it is well known they have to be closely supervised to prevent abuse and neglect. This is not being done in most of America.



By Stephen Lemons in the Phoenix News Times Blog wrote this which I did not see before I wrote my post yesterday:

Charles Ryan may have pulled the plug on Marcia Powell too soon. He may have overseen an ADC staff that denied her water for hours in a shadeless wire cage, a staff that allowed the severely mentally ill Powell to defecate on herself in captivity, that allowed her to perish in 107-plus degree heat while under the influence of psychiatric drugs, making her even more vulnerable to the heat. But he still has the support of Arizona's Governor-for-the-moment Jan Brewer.

According to Brewer's top flack, Ryan -- who is currently ADC's Interim Director, despite describing himself as ADC's official "Director" on ADC's Web site -- remains Brewer's pick to be ADC's top administrator. Never mind him stepping over a dead inmate to grab the brass ring.

"He was not submitted or confirmed in the last session," wrote Brewer flack Paul Senseman in e-mail Wednesday. "It is expected that he will be submitted to the legislature and likely confirmed in the next legislative session."(How Ryan's current bureaucratic supremacy will play with the possible sale/leaseback of the state's prisons is unknown.)

Asked whether Ryan should resign his interim position because of the way he's mishandled Powell's grotesque demise in state custody, Senseman was positively blithe. "I'm not aware of any independent person or organization who is suggesting otherwise," tut-tutted Senseman.

Senseman did not reply to follow up questions inquiring if the Governor was in any way remorseful over Powell's death, why she remained confident in Ryan's abilities in spite of his obvious bungling, and if she supported Ryan ending Powell's life support without consulting with Powell's court-appointed guardian, Maricopa County's Public Fiduciary.

Here's a novel idea for the former Bush administration flunky, used to overseeing Iraqi prisons for the U.S. State Department: Do the honorable thing and resign.

Otherwise, may the ghost of Marcia Powell forever haunt you...

I guess that explains the use of the cages and the blind eye to torture.

One of the first things I thought when I read this was, “Did governor Brewer go to high school with Charles Ryan? He has her full support in the face of a corrupt prison system. We know here in Alaska our former Governor Sarah Quitter Palin used the criteria of being a classmate to select people for many key positions including Joe Schmidt our commissioner of the department of corrections. In Alaska we have had several deaths in the prisons due to abuse and neglect, almost non-existent health care and horrible treatment of the mentally ill. They also block people from using the law library and keep women in horrible conditions in a gymnasium in Kenai. The medical care is pretty much non-existent. Almost all medications are withheld and complaints of illness ignored. The corrections officers can be very abusive (But there were some who were professional and humane). We have had inmates put in cells with violent inmates on purpose(myself included, but I was not harmed) and many raped while prison staff looked the other way. They block inmates from being able to use the legal system by “loosing” mail and not letting them have access to the outside through the phone system. The corrections officers claim dangerous conditions due to short staffing(they seemed to have enough time to psychologically torture me). MRSA (resistant staph) was another concern they had. Well I have a suggestion for them, providing soap to the inmates would have helped the situation. It is supplied in some areas and not in others and showers are also withheld for some. They had a no confidence vote of about 480 to only 20 in support of Schmidt.

In response to the complaints of the corrections officers Sarah Palin said “Commissioner Schmidt has my full support as he and his team continue to bring remarkable reforms to the Department of Corrections…. Joe has my unconditional support.” I have seen some of those remarkable reforms and they belong in a third world country. I also know that one of his special reform techniques is to lie about the conditions in the prisons, which they apparently also do in Arizona.

Another article was posted yesterday which I saw after I posted to my blog:

Casey Newton of the Arizona Republic wrote about a 3000 page report on the investigation of Marcia Powell's death. It is sickening, but I already knew exactly what had happened as soon as I read the story a couple days ago.

The Arizona Department of Corrections' internal investigation of Powell's death on May 20 runs about 3,000 pages. The department announced this week that it has disciplined 16 people in connection with the incident, with five employees fired or forced to resign. A criminal investigation is ongoing.

• Powell passed out in her cell on the morning of May 19. A few minutes before, she had announced she was suicidal. She was taken to an outdoor cage to await transfer to a psychiatric unit. But the sergeant who saw Powell lose consciousness never reported the incident to supervisors, despite the fact that Powell said she was having trouble breathing.

Two medications she was taking Haldol and Valproic Acid are both known to cause patients to become suicidal and hypotensive(low blood pressure). The staff taking care of a patient taking them should be aware of the symptoms to look for and have regular conversations with the patient to see what state of mind they are in.

My blog posts have discussed the corrections officers here in Alaska ignoring symptoms the inmates have and telling inmates they will call for help if they think they might die. They can not be the judges of a patient's state of health. If she passed out and was having trouble breathing before the cage this could be an indication of Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome(Need lab results and medication administration history to evaluate). It is a neurological adverse reaction to Haldol which can result in death if not treated. I don't know if they had started the meds recently or not. It also could mean she was already sick from heat before she went outside or she had some kind of illness. Clearly with breathing problems and passing out she should have been seen by someone immediately.

In Alaska they would have treated her complaints and symptoms exactly the same way by ignoring them. I observed a young woman who was a Heroin addict very ill from withdrawl. She had been complaining she thought she would pass out, yet they made her walk around with everyone else. Heroin addicts have low blood pressure and with diarrhea and vomiting of withdrawl they get dehydrated. In the dining hall she stood up and got in line with the rest of us. She then simply passed out. Being a critical care nurse I immediately knew what had happened and why, so I held up her legs to help perfuse her brain and bring her back to consciousness. The CO screamed at me to let go of her and then screamed at the girl, she was about eighteen, to stop faking seizures. There was no seizure activity at all, she simply passed out. He is an idiot. A lot of young skinny girls pass out easily anyway, I would expect one in her condition who is not helped with hydration to definitely loose consciousness with sudden position changes. There are non-narcotic medications which help withdrawl, but they enjoyed watching her and other addicts suffer.

Here are some old posts on this blog about my experience in the prisons in Alaska, the first one has an excerp from a fifty page letter I wrote to Sarah Palin before I knew she just ignored all the non-dominionists, native Alaskans, civil rights, and really does not care about people. I also did not know she was nuts. It was written the spring of 2008

http://frozenjustice.blogspot.com/2009/08/its-strange-strange-world-we-live-in_26.html
 http://frozenjustice.blogspot.com/2009/08/injustice-in-alaska-is-so-pervasive.html

• At least 20 inmates told investigators that Powell was denied water for most or all of the time she was in the cage, despite regular requests. Corrections officers said Powell was given water.

The most bitterly disputed aspect of the case concerns whether Powell was denied water.

Nearly all of the inmates interviewed by investigators reported that Powell screamed out for water regularly but was repeatedly denied. Others said she was granted water only once or twice in nearly four hours.

"I need some water - just a drop," one inmate overheard Powell tell a corrections officer, who reportedly ignored her.

Another inmate reported that a corrections officer mockingly repeated Powell's requests for water back to her, without giving her any.

Both inmates and staff members said Powell's history of mental illness and frequent erratic behavior meant that some of her requests were not taken seriously. She did not get the staff's undivided attention until she collapsed at 2:40 p.m.

Lies and the lying liars who tell them. The staff is not psychologically capable of dealing with mentally ill inmates, so they abuse them. That mocking is one of the types of psychological abuse I have talked about receiving on my blog before. Remember I said they are very immature. In my post on this story on Thursday I said this: Here is the problem in these situations, inmates may say to the staff they are too hot and the staff will just tell them it is too bad and keep walking. Unsafe conditions do not register with them. They think an inmate who complains or asks for something is a pain. They think inmates who complain of being sick are faking it or are manipulating. Sometimes inmates are. They do not have the medical expertise to know. The lack of medical and nursing staff in the prisons is almost as bad as the low quality of the corrections staff.

• Powell was taking psychotropic medications that made her particularly sensitive to the heat, but medical personnel did not convey that fact to corrections officers.

All medical and nursing staff who did not convey this information should loose their licenses.

When I complained about a mentally ill "patient" not getting treatment in a prison in Alaska the nurse looked at me like I was an idiot and said, "remember these aren't patients, they are inmates." Translated into prison employee language that means not human.

• After more than two hours in the sun, Powell requested to be taken back to her indoor cell. Her request was denied.

SADISTIC BASTARDS.

• Powell was apparently denied a request to use the restroom and defecated in the cage. A corrections officer discovered that Powell had soiled herself but left her where she was. Medical personnel would later discover feces underneath her fingernails and all over her back.

I have been with countless numbers of people when they died, people often defecate all over themselves just before they die.

I myself was denied the use of a bathroom more than once. When I did get to one there was no soap and I was forced to beg for toilet paper and belittled for asking for it here in Alaska's gulags. I am discussing my experiences to indicate this is common practice in the prison systems.

• The psychiatric unit to which Powell was awaiting transport should have accepted her hours before she died, the report found, but a series of miscommunications prevented her from being taken in.

This is by no definition a miscommunication. It is malpractice, abuse, neglect, barbarism, and plain old not giving a shit what happens to the inmates, especially the mentally ill ones who are difficult to deal with.

Officers did not properly log Powell's time in the outdoor cell or when they checked on her. When she collapsed, no one could say for certain how long she had been there.

Oh, I doubt that very much, they just don’t want us to know.

Reminds me of the patient at Wildwood in Alaska who respiratory arrested in an observation cell with a camera in it next to my cell. Then they all ran around like the keystone cops not knowing what to do. The corrections officers were too busy psychologically torturing me and laughing at me to pay attention to their jobs.

Doctors on the scene said Powell's body temperature was at least 108 degrees but may have been higher, since their thermometers topped out at 108.

Did they even have enough sense to cool her body down before the rescue team got there?

There are no prison reform organizations in Alaska that I can find. The ACLU in Alaska is researching a paper on the conditions in the prisons. They told me they probably will not be filing a lawsuit as people in Alaska do not care about the inmates and don't donate money to the cause. The ACLU has recently faught for the rights of homeless people who live in camps and I know a lot of those people are on probation or parole. They have a prison rights guide on their website. The problem is the prison system does not allow rights, hell they don't even follow their own policies(Except for the Homer Jail). I knew what my rights were and they disapeared all of my grieveances. I called the ACLU about what was going on from a prison and got no response. Unless someone helps prevent the DOC from blocking grievances and files lawsuits the knowledge of what rights prisoners have doesn't really get them anything. I can tell you 75% of the rights the ACLU list I have personally had violated in the prison system. The ACLU attorney working on prison rights did not know who I was when I called even though I have sent several letters and made several phone calls. They do not seem at all interested in my story and he was very abrupt with me when I called him in July.  Check the national prison page of the ACLU, they have done a lot of work in some parts of the country for prisoners.



For more information on Marcia Powell and the efforts to help the prisoners in Arizona check out the Middle Ground Prison Reform website. For the time being Alaska still has some prisoners in Arizona.


Contact information for the AZ Governor:

Janice K. Brewer office of the Governor

Main Phone: 602-542-4331
Facsimile: 602-542-7601
1700 West Washington Street, Phoenix, AZ 85007
Governor’s spokesperson: Tasya Peterson

(602) 542-3464

For more information on the prisons I Alaska check out the blog Palingates.

MARCIA POWELL AUTOPSY: GIVEN DRUGS KNOWN TO CAUSE HEATSTROKE +BAKED IN CAGE=DEATH

Someome posted Marcia Powel's autopsy which revealed the medication she had in her body. I lost it when I saw what medications she was on:

Cogentin for side effects of neuroleptics. It is an old medication which comes with a huge warning not to get overheated as it causes decreased sweating. Cogentin is a very dangerous drug to give in the desert. Where the hell are the doctors and nurses?

Haldol which is usually not a first choice for a psychotic or manic patient it is also used to sedate agitated patients and is another bad choice for the desert as people die from heatstroke if precautions are not taken. It should only be used for the patients in which alternative, equally effective, but potentially less harmful treatments are not available or appropriate. Caution should be used in bipolar disorder as it can cause depression and suicide. It is know as a chemical restraint. It's the drug the government illegally uses on people they are deporting who have no mental illnesses. It should not be used like handcuffs, it is a last resort drug. It is also very old and has a side effect called tardive dyskinesia, a syndrome consisting of potentially irreversible, involuntary, dyskinetic movements which can be permanent. They can give injections for "non-compliant" patients. The question is if she was given the Haldol because she was agitated that day or is it a regular med. It is most likely a regular med because the Cogentin would be given for side effects of Haldol generally for long term use.

This medication is used in prisons all over the country because it sedates inmates to the point of being in a stupor and saves them money. It is often given as a monthly injection in prisons because it cuts down on work and cost. So, this would make them more likely to choose it. Of course we do not know what her behavior is like or what medications have been tried in the past or even if she had a psychosis. The only mental illness I found mentioned was bipolar disorder. In a prison they go for the cheapest and easiest. It is more important to them for the medication to be convenient for the staff rather than appropriate for the patient. Someone screwed up big time putting a woman on these medications out in the sun like that. They should all be prosecuted including what ever medical or nursing staff was responsible to make sure the sadistic guards did what they were suppose to do to keep her from getting heat stroke. I would imagine  the main problem is the idiots running the prison system, just like here in Alaska. Then there are the legislators who pass laws because they get paid off by prison corporations who know more prisoners mean more money. Then the legislators don't fund enough money to run the prisons. There also are not enough competent doctors and nurses. Then there are the citizens of this country who do nothing about it. They tell stories about how unfair it is prisoners get healthcare when it is so bad it kills people and medical concerns are ignored.


Precautions for Haldol:

This medicine will often make you sweat less, causing your body temperature to increase. Use extra care not to become overheated during exercise or hot weather while you are taking this medicine, since overheating may result in heat stroke . Also, hot baths or saunas may make you feel dizzy or faint while you are taking this medicine.

Haloperidol may cause your skin to be more sensitive to sunlight than it is normally. Exposure to sunlight, even for brief periods of time, may cause a skin rash, itching, redness or other discoloration of the skin, or a severe sunburn. When you begin taking this medicine:


Stay out of direct sunlight, especially between the hours of 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m., if possible.

Wear protective clothing, including a hat. Also, wear sunglasses.


Apply a sun block product that has a skin protection factor (SPF) of at least 15.

Some patients may require a product with a higher SPF number, especially if they have a fair complexion. If you have any questions about this, check with your health care professional(unless you are in a US prison.

Apply a sun block lipstick that has an SPF of at least 15 to protect your lips.

Do not use a sunlamp or tanning bed or booth.

As far as medicine and nursing goes this is pretty basic stuff. No inmate on the meds she was on should ever go out in the sun, especially in a state like Arizona without sun block, long sleeves, sun glasses and a hat. For a nurse or doctor to not know that they would have to be pretty incompetent, because even if they don’t know it they should look it up. A medication is never given unless the nurse, doctor or mid-level is familiar with it. The question is whose responsibility is it to make sure these precautions were taken? When working with psychiatric patients you never take them outside without checking to see everyone has what they need to protect them from the sun and if the outing is more than a few minutes water needs to be brought along. It is common knowledge if it is hot outside be very cautious and you might want to keep certain people inside in cooler conditions.

Valproic Acid is a seizure medication also used as a mood stabilizer. It is probably given for her bipolar disorder. It can cause liver or pancreatic damage and requires close monitoring and lab work must be checked.

She also had Lidocaine on board that would be from resusitation efforts. Haldol also causes heart arrhythmias, but this cardiac arrest was from the heatstroke.

They also did a toxicology screen for drugs. This may be routine, but since amphetamines or cocaine could have contributed they may have hoped to find a positive result.



RESULTS OF AUTOPSY

http://vvoice.vo.llnwd.net/e14/3804678.0.pdf


Cause of Death: Complications of hyperthermia due to environmental heat exposure
Manner: Accident
Coroner Dr. Mark Fischione

A. dehydration, electrolyte pattern

B. Core body temperature 108 degree Fahrenheit (That was as high as the thermometer would go)

C. Metabolic acidosis with coagulopathy

D. Rhabdomyolysis and acute renal failure

E. Numerous first and second degree thermal burns of face, trunk, and extremities

He reported no evidence of trauma. She had about six areas of first and second degree burns with blistering. Rhabdomyolysis is the destruction of skeletal muscle resulting in leakage into the urine of the protein myoglobin from the breakdown of the muscle tissue due to heat. It is a major cause of renal failure. Coagulopathy is a very simple way of stating the multiple problems heatstroke can cause with blood clotting. She had pulmonary edema which is another sign of heatstroke.


Some of the Signs and Symptoms of Heatstroke:


Physical manifestations of heatstroke include hot and dry skin. Signs of central nervous system dysfunction such as irritability, ataxia(uncoordinated walking), and confusion are essential to the diagnosis of heatstroke. Coma and seizures may develop. Coagulopathies may manifest in bleeding from intravenous sites or in epistaxis (nose bleed), and endothelial(skin) damage may present as peripheral or pulmonary edema(extra fluid in the lungs). The heart muscle damage can cause cardiac arrest. Heatstroke is multisystem failure. But, that didnot happen until she begged for help and a drink of water for a long period of time. I wasn't there and have no information, but I can tell you they ignored her  made fun of her, and laughed at her, no doubt.

The coroner says her death is due to “complications of hyperthermia.” Gee, I guess she just got a little too warm. Really what is going on here is classic heatstroke aka nonexertional heatstroke. I guess that is the “complication” he is referring to. It is neuroleptic potentiated heatstroke. Why does the coroner not say this? Because the prison doctor may be his buddy. Marcia died from both the sadistic treatment of the prison guards and malpractice.

The mentally ill are not given adequate or minimal treatment in prisons. Well, why would they, no one in prison gets proper treatment. The doctors and mid-levels (nurse practitioners and physician’s assistants) are often not the best in their fields, although there are some altruistic individuals who dedicate their lives to helping inmates who are excellent. A great deal of medical and nursing decisions are made by corrections officers who generally have a few weeks of training. Even if they had more training they are not qualified to make the decisions about the health of inmates. To put mentally ill inmates who are on powerfully sedating medications which have severe side effects that require not only monitoring, but the knowledge level to interpret any symptoms they have in the hands of those with no medical or nursing degrees is unconscionable.

Here in Alaska there is not much danger of problems from medications because they rarely give them in any form and even if they are ordered there is a nurse at Wildwood who withholds them just to be cruel. They don't have that problem at Hiland Mountain because they just abruptly stop everyone's medication when they arrive. If they give the mentally ill psychotropic medications I would not trust the nurses I came in contact with in the prison system to have the skill to evaluate an inmate’s status under any circumstance(except one). Most of them also could care less about the inmates. Outside of the mental health unit the corrections officers did most of the decision making about the inmates. Their responses were usually very inappropriate and abusive.

I am willing to bet that the only treatment she got was to sedate her with Haldol, without any knowledge of her history. She had a mental illness and did not have the ability to make good decisions in her life. She needed help early on and not knowing her history I do not know if she got any. What I do know is many get little or no help at all. Our mentally ill often end up in prisons where they are abused and neglected. If they do get out of the prison they are worse than when they went in. They are then back on the streets in a high number of cases with little or no support. Many of them drink or use drugs to medicate their symptoms which causes many in our society to look down on them all the more. Marcia went in and out of prison and lived on the streets in between.

She is labeled as a prostitute.A prostitute is a woman who only harms herself.  She was in prison for it when she was killed. I don't judge any woman who is a prostitute because I have not lived their lives and have not gone through what they have. Marcia was apparently severely mentally ill and had difficulty making good judgments. She needed help not prison. The mentally ill should be in hospitals or some other appropriate setting. In this country the industrial-prison complex is being allowed to use the mentally ill for profit while treating their lives as worthless. The legislators who were bought off to pass all the harsh laws we have so the prisons would fill up for the profit of companies like Corrections Corporation of America and Wackenhut Corporation should all be given Haldol and put in that same cage Marcia was in for four hours with no water. We have some in Alaska I guess we'll send them down to Arizona for that because we don't have enough heat here.

I worked for a short time in two prisons in Washington through a nursing agency. They treat inmates better than most states even with some of the juvenile corrections officers they have. I did physicals and drew lab work on the women as they came into one prison. This is something Alaska does not do, but if you ask the higher ups they say all the inmates are seen by a medical professional within a short time of arriving at the prison. This consist of a nurse asking a few questions and that is it. I guess the DOC doesn't know the difference between medical personnel and nursing personnel. I had several of the inmates tell me they came back to the prison on purpose because it was the nicest place they had ever lived. At the time I thought that was the saddest thing I would ever hear. After my experiences with the prison system in Alaska which caused my research to begin about the American system of gulags I have found not just sadder stories, but horror stories.

"If one considers the observation that the worth and dignity of a civilization is judged by the way it treats its weakest members, we cannot help but look back in shame at our past." - Social Justice Yesterday - Today - Tomorrow, A Critical Reflection, By Rudolf Rickes

DEATH BY HEAT FOR A MENTALLY ILL LEGAL OFFENDER

The story below is in the county where Joe Arpaio treats prisoners like garbage, but he is not responsible for this attrosity. I knew this sort of thing was going on and I have been screaming about it. People are angry about the torture of foreign nationals, but in our country we are also torturing our own citizens in prisons, where is the outrage over that? I already knew about it in Alaska because I experienced it and observed it myself while wrongfully imprisoned. I am very outraged. It does not matter that this happened in Arizona because they all do the same sadistic type of things to inmates all over the country.  After my friend bailed me out because she knew I was innocent I did some research and learned about the prison-industrial complex and how our legislators have been lobbied(paid off) to increase the number of people in prisons for profit. The story is very similar to the insurance company and drug company controls on our services in this country. A huge number of the prisoners are people of color. One in seven is innocent and a large portion are mentally ill. Keep in mind the mentally ill in this country have been just turned out on their own years ago with Reagan’s policies and we have not found ourselves civilized enough to turn those policies around. They end up homeless or in the prison systems. They often get no mental health care which is the usual situation in Alaska including in the prisons. When it comes to prisoners in this country the constitution has been thrown in the garbage completely. Keep in mind some of Alaska’s prisoners are in Arizona.


Marcia Powell Cage Death: Charles Ryan Fires Three, Disciplines Others, but When Will He Resign?
By Stephen Lemons in Feathered Bastard
Tuesday, Sep. 22 2009 

The picture below on the left was the picture of the subject of this story on her online page. Her page went down after she died and then reappeared later with the picture on the right.  It appears the bad picture was taken when she first arrived at Perryville Prison in Goodyear AZ as she has street clothes on(unless they wear denim which some prisons do)  and drugs could certainly cause her appearance. The records say she weighed #125 but inmates said she looked like she weighed about #100 at the time of her death. Her autopsy said she weighed #152.

ADC honcho Charles Ryan (I found the nickname Lyin’ Ryan on a few blogs) has fired three employees, forced the resignations of two others, and disciplined 11 more. This according to an ADC news release issued today. Less than a month after the Maricopa County Medical Examiner's Office ruled Arizona Department of Corrections inmate Marcia Powell's May 20 human cage death an "accident,"

An accident? I would say it is more like an execution. She was put in an outside cage with no shade in 107-108’ weather.(Being placed in this kind of situation for punishment is a violation of the 8th amendment). But, they will say she was there waiting for a psychiatric observation room. It is common practice in prisons to put people in these situations for punishment and lie about the reason.  I certainly call the police if I find a dog locked in a car during hot weather. The prison officials said she had water, but some inmates have gotten information out of the prison that she either was not given water or very little. They say their normal practice is to only leave people in these cages for two hours. That is barbaric. People go to jail for doing this to dogs(unless you live in Alaska). They actually have done it to a dog at this prison, he was named Rik and the outcry for the dog was larger than for this woman. I can’t imagine someone tolerating such conditions for more than a few minutes. Surely it would cause severe sunburns, especially in a person on psychotropic medications. It would certainly cause a heat stroke very soon in a person on those kinds of medications and it did. She was taken to the hospital in a coma.

Corrections officers get only a few weeks of training. They are not licensed medical or nursing professionals, they do not have a clue about healthy conditions. They are making medical decisions on inmates and they certainly do this in Alaska as well. In Alaska I saw a woman whose seizure medication was withheld from her and she had several seizures. The CO told those concerned that if he thought she was going to die he would call for help. I heard him and others say that about several inmates, including me.(Below is one of the cages after they covered it)

This is at least manslaughter, it is certainly not an accident as the coroner has ruled. This is a blatant violation of the eighth and fourteenth amendments. The supreme court has ruled that if a lay person would know if conditions or a medical condition are dangerous and medical intervention is needed it is a violation of the eighth amendment. The numbers and layers of hierarchy involved in the disciplinary action proves what they did was common practice. If it was unusual they would have just fired the Corrections Officers who were on at the time. This was a common practice of torture that has been used for years and I might ad just one of the many forms of torture used in the prison systems of this country. She was being transferred to detention and they were holding her in the dog run type cage. It probably had something to do with her mental illness and behavior issues. This was clearly punitive and some of the inmates and human rights organizations had complained about it being done in the past(eighth amendment).

To think of this being done to the mentally ill population that is being housed in this country’s prisons disturbed me to the point that I could not stop crying while I was researching this story. These people knew exactly what they were doing. By the way, the County Attorney, Mr. Thomas was former chief legal counsel for Arizona Department of Corrections. I guess we know where this is going.

Specifically, the release states that Ryan "dismissed five employees, two of whom resigned in lieu of dismissal, demoted a captain to an officer and suspended another 10 employees" because of Powell's death from being left in a shadeless, waterless outdoor cage at Goodyear's Perryville Prison. Powell collapsed May 19 after at least four hours in the blazing Arizona sun. Ryan later made the decision to suspend her life support, even though Powell, 48, had been assigned a guardian by the court -- Maricopa County's Public Fiduciary.

A lot of people wish they could get fired from their job and just go on with their lives when they kill someone. Why is the Arizona Department of Corrections allowed to suspend the life support of a woman they basicly tortured until she was close to death, especially when she had a court appointed guardian? It was done in the ER right after she was taken to the hospital. Also, why is one man making the decision? Where is the ethics committee? Oh, I forgot it's a prison ethics aren't allowed.

None of the names of those fired and disciplined have been released. In addition to news of the firings, ADC also announced that it had "completed a criminal investigation into the matter," which had been reviewed by the Department of Public Safety(Arizona's Department of Law), then submitted to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office on August 20.

The people who killed the woman have investigated themselves and their names have not been revealed. I guess they suddenly believe that the accused are innocent until proven guilty a right many prisoners are not afforded. That is even worse than Sarah Palin’s personnel board investigating her. Yea,(sarcastic) I bet it was a complete criminal investigation. They called it an “accident“. They “accidently” cooked a woman to death. Where was the medical and nursing staff?

Ryan's quoted in the release as saying of those disciplined, "These supervisors and officers to varying degrees failed to properly perform their duties." Left unsaid is any mention of the fact that Ryan ordered Powell's plug pulled before consultation with her guardian. Ryan has stated that he did not know Powell had a guardian at the time.

Should Ryan fall on his sword in this matter? YES. After all, couldn't it be argued that Ryan failed to do his duty by not ensuring that Marcia Powell was treated safely and humanely during her 27-month stint in prison for prostitution? YES.

(The picture below was taken by a photographer who just saw Marcia and found her interesting. He paid her $5 for the photo. He said she was high on Meth. I hope he doesn't mind my using it. I think it is a perfect picture of a tortured soul.)

They pulled the plug knowing full well she had a guardian, they are probably the agency that got the guardian assignment. They would know it is common practice for the mentally ill to have a guardian. Ryan tries to make it sound like putting this woman in the cage in the hot sun was unusual when a couple days previously a woman had been put in one for twenty hours. She must not have been on psychotropics and perhaps was healthier or got more water. They get these lost souls in the prisons who have no one and they know if something happens questions will not be asked. This time the Middle Ground Prison Reform was there to ask questions. How many have died and no one noticed?

Donna Hamm of the advocacy group Middle Ground Prison Reform said she wasn't ready to demand Ryan's resignation. Hamm said she first wanted to see the results of ADC's internal investigation, which is not yet public.

I am ready because he was in charge and these practices were going on without regard for the lives of the inmates. Kind of like Joe Schmidt in Alaska knowing full well what goes on in the prison system here. If they are anything like the Corrections Officers in Alaska they probably laughed at her when she begged for help.

"The critical thing for us is whether there are going to be criminal charges brought," Hamm told me this evening. "Everything we know about this incident seems to point to the elements for negligent homicide. It's very hard to imagine how Michael Jackson's death is ruled a homicide and this one is ruled an accident. I don't really understand the difference, except in politics and coroners."

This is unbelievable, they are trying to cover up the crime. 

Powell's cremains were eventually turned over to Middle Ground after an investigation by the fiduciary’s office could not locate next-of-kin willing to take custody of them. (Powell's adoptive mother is alive, but she told the fiduciary's office she did not wish to get involved.) Powell's cremains were committed June 28 at Shadow Rock United Church of Christ in Phoenix.

http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/bastard/2009/09/marcia_powell_cage_death_charl.php

One reason this story is so disturbing is it is not a new problem. There was a famous case in California about nineteen years ago when they were testing a new antipsychotic on some mentally ill inmates and paid little attention to their safety. The problems of psychotropic medications and heat stroke are well documented, well known and precedents have been set long ago in the prison systems that precautions need to be taken with them.

During the July 4, 1991, weekend three mentally ill prisoners at the California Medical Facility at Vacaville died within one 24-hour period. The cause of death was the same for all three prisoners - heatstroke. The heatstroke was caused by a combination of extreme temperatures in the cell blocks (the thermometer stopped working at 108 degrees) and psychotropic medication that inhibited the body from dissipating heat. The risk of heatstroke from these particular medications was well documented in the scientific literature and known to prison officials. A few years earlier another prisoner on the same medications suffered extensive brain damage at Vacaville during a heat wave.

Here is the problem in these situations. Inmates may say to the staff they are too hot. The staff will just tell them it is too bad and keep walking. Unsafe conditions do not register with them. They think an inmate who complains or asks for something is a pain. They think inmates who complain of being sick are faking it or are manipulating. Sometimes inmates are. They do not have the medical expertise to know. The lack of medical and nursing staff in the prisons is almost as bad as the low quality of the staff.

The triple tragedy at Vacaville was an inevitable outcome of almost a decade of deliberate official neglect of the mental health care system. During the unprecedented rise in the California prison population during the 1980s,(1) prison officials conceded that they were more concerned about building prisons quickly than about providing basic medical and mental health services. The result has been a catastrophic amount of suffering by thousands of prisoners.

This has not changed.

Some prisoners languish in their cells, quietly slipping in and out of psychosis for weeks, months, and, in some cases, years. Others who because of their illness cannot control their behavior are perceived by prison officials strictly as management problems and are punished for their misbehavior through longer prison terms and are often put in the "hole" for months, where psychiatric services are even more scarce.

The hole makes people mentally ill and makes the mentally ill deteriorate. It is another barbaric practice.

http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst;jsessionid=K7JL3zY5GR3xGsJRLQTxTvDCyt4qNZQnvrTpf8Ch5zhyvmqJ6PQv!-1166003761!-1951582640?docId=5000301626

Powell was a troubled, mentally ill woman who lived on the streets of Phoenix from the age of fifteen when she left home. She was homeless and had a history of legal convictions for prostitution, drugs, and assault. She only managed to get a ninth grade education. This was probably due to being bipolar and more, she was also on an antipsychotic medication. Imagine being mentally ill and unable to get a job. She ended up on drugs (one source I found said methamphetamines) probably in part as self medication and then ended up prostituting to pay for it.

The director of the National Prison Project at the American Civil Liberties Union, Elizabeth Alexander has reported there have been other inmate deaths related to heat in this country recently. Funny I have not heard about them. There have been cases of prison guards contacting authorities in the past about inmates being put in these cages for up to ten days. They knew about it at the top levels.

The only reason this does not happen in Alaska is we don’t have the heat. Instead they withhold medical care while telling the public they are giving it. They charge inmates $20 to see a health practitioner which is a lot of money when the inmates get paid .30 to .80 an hour. They do everything they can to deter inmates from medical care including making paperwork disappear. They stop almost all medications upon arrival. They put me in a cell with a combative psychotic woman hoping she would hurt me. They disappeared all of the grievances I wrote(a rather copious amount). I observed mentally ill women chained to the floor and a wooden cover they would put over cell doors to isolate inmates. They make mentally ill people beg for toilet paper. There is also prejudice against people of color. When I was in the orientation unit the room I was in was sweltering hot and they would not give us the proper device to open the window. Both myself and my room mate got sick from the heat, fortunately we were in Alaska and not Arizona.

The psychological abuse from the prison guards is the worst part. The maturity level of a lot of them is about junior high level. The worst thing I saw was a woman in a cell next to me who coded. This was an observation cell with a camera. The guards ran around yelling that she was not breathing. I yelled for them to let me out because I was a critical care nurse and they did not. They did not start CPR either and when the nurse arrived she just yelled, breathe, breathe over and over. Finally the paramedics showed up and intubated her. I have no idea what kind of condition she ended up in. If the staff had not been busy psychologically torturing me and were doing their job she would have been found right away. The next day I heard one guard joking with another by accusing him of trying to kill the woman. At least he did not think it was funny. There are some corrections officers who are professional and care about the prisoners, they need to weed out the bad ones. Some of them are worse than the inmates and a superintendant in a prison I worked at for a short time in Washington told me it is the corrections officers who bring most of the drugs into the prisons and the unions prevent them from searching them before work.

When I was wrongfully imprisoned in August of 2007 they withheld a high dose of an antidepressant and a seizure medication I was on. This is very unsafe with just one, let alone two. I went through hell, especially since I was taking them for chronic pain and the PTSD I had from some other events in Alaska. I can assure you there are cover ups that go on in the prisons here. I worry everyday about the inmates in Alaska and all over the country because I know what is really going on. The ACLU is writing a report about the conditions of the Alaska prisons. They tell me they probably will not sue because the people here do not care about inmates and do not donate money to the ACLU. I have been told by legislators the reason for the poor conditions in the prisons and the lack of rehabilitation is people don’t care about inmates here so not much money is spent on prisons. What kind of society treats the mentally ill this way? I use to work with prostitutes through a human rights project. They are almost all from horrible backgrounds and usually victims of sexual abuse as children. When the home is so bad a child would rather live on the street there should be a place for them to go.

This is what was said by someone  about this story on a Deutsche message board, translated from German:
(They have a different sentence structure)

 These cages are used in Arizona since the 60s, it certainly has much earlier. But what it does badly, no less - is reprehensible to me only that Guantanamo is constantly mentioned and condemned (and rightly so), but these would have for decades imposed cage stays for inmates not a word of mention in the media - to only one woman had die (and no one knows how many have come before in these cages to harm or death to be).
It is terrible to see what people can do to people. What makes us the reality of today offers a conspiracy against democracy, is sufficient.

Just to give you an idea of how this looks to countries who consider our prisons a system of barbaric gulags and what they think of our system of government.



Link to her Eulogy:

http://www.middlegroundprisonreform.org/main/documents/Powell.Marcia.eulogy.final.pdf

http://www.middlegroundprisonreform.org/main/default.asp