Tell the FBI: The Murder of Dana Haywood Seawright was a Hate Crime (ON HOLD)

UPDATE: FBI CALL-IN --ON HOLD---

Deaths in Custody: Hate, Justice and the FBI.

PHOENIX FBI: 623-466-1999

WARNING: 

Many of my anarchist friends must think I'm nuts for inviting 600 people to call the FBI out on Dana Haywood Seawright's killers. Their co-conspirators, though, I believe, include employees of the state - the guards who let a gang beat a man to death and clean up their mess before stepping in to see what was amiss. And the DOC investigators who ignored both testimony and evidence that identified who ordered the hit.

So if you really want to mess with the police, my friends, please do so here and now - you don't have to check yes on the invite (allowing the FBI to gather their newest shit list), but you can still call and demand they treat this as a hate crime and put those witnesses into protective custody immediately. We need your help today and every day for the next month if that's what it takes to say that queer prisoners don't deserve to be treated this way....come find me if you have problems with that.

And remember that they will trace whatever phone you use. Your masks will not protect you...

---from FACEBOOK----

FBI CALL-IN July 12 - August 10, 2012!!! SHARE WIDELY.

On July 3, 2010, Dana Haywood Seawright was beaten into a coma by the West Side City Crips at Lewis state prison in Buckeye, AZ. He died four days later, at the age of 26.

Dana was bi-sexual and anti-racist, and had a Mexican boyfriend in prison, for which he was murdered. The Arizona Department of Corrections collected evidence of this hate crime, obtained eyewitness statements, and identified likely suspects with defensive wounds on them.

Once they determined why Dana was killed and by whom, the DOC investigator then told Dana's mother: "if it's any consolation, they didn't mean to kill him - they just meant to teach him a lesson." They proceeded to close the case, unsolved, never filing charges - not even taking disciplinary action - against anyone.

Since there's question of DOC officer complicity in the beat down (his dorm was left unsupervised and unchecked for an hour while they assaulted him and cleaned up evidence), one must wonder if there isn't a concern about government agent corruption regarding this case as well.

Dana's mother, Kini Seawright, appealed last fall to the Phoenix FBI's lead agent, James Turgal, to open her son's homicide case as a hate crime or gang crime investigation. The FBI has thus far refused to do so. Now, six weeks after she went in person to press his office on the matter, the FBI agent she spoke to didn't even bother to get back to her to tell her they had no intention of following up. He told her that only when she called again to inquire about the status of the case.

When state and local law enforcement fail to investigate hate crimes - and when there's question of their complicity in the violence or in a cover-up, it's the duty of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to pursue it. Please call the Phoenix FBI and tell them that Dana's murder was a hate crime, and the people of this state expect them to investigate it fully.

Dana lost his life for his defiance of racism and hate - despite his criminal convictions, he was a good man who didn't deserve to die that way. Help his mother convince the FBI that Dana's was no less valuable because he was a poor, black, bi-sexual prisoner than if he'd been a wealthy white businessman with ties to the Governor. Call the Phoenix FBI office at 623-466-1999, then note here that you did so to help us track community response.

See our letter to the FBI earlier this year at http://azprisonsurvivors.blogspot.com/2012/03/hate-crimes-in-az-prisons-where-is-fbi.html. We have yet to receive an answer.

August 10 is recognized internationally as Prisoner's Justice Day. Please help us pressure the FBI to open Dana's case as a hate crime investigation before then.

For more information about this and other violence against Arizona state prisoners, go to http://azprisonsurvivors.blogspot.com/

 

Deaths in Custody: National Day of Remembrance For Murder Victims.

I spent some time this past week combing through resources for homicide survivors, trying to pull together something useful for survivors of prison violence today. I was pretty discouraged surfing murder victims' rights pages. It was the victims' rights movement that successfully helped pass a law in Arizona - and across the country - that even further marginalizes prisoners who are victims of violence - and their survivors.

More specifically, the Arizona Constitution explicitly precludes anyone who was victimized "while in custody for an offense" (or their survivor, if they died as a result) from being covered by any provisions of the Victims' Rights Amendment. How then, can they possibly hope to embrace, assist, or represent families of prisoners like Dana Haywood Seawright, Shannon Palmer, James Jennings, and Jeremy Pompeneo - all whom were murdered in state custody this past year. They have long since relegated prisoners to a status undeserving of having equal human rights when it comes to life and safety. The movement left these people behind without any apparent thought.

As a consequence, when Kini Seawright was on the verge of homelessness this year after her son Dana's homicide destroyed her life, the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission refused to provide her with access to any state-funded victims rights' services because she didn't qualify as a real victim. Dana was killed in prison by the West Side Crips for being friends with a Mexican - he was defying the racism and the gangs, not running with them. He was trying to take a class at Rio Salado and wanted to get some kind of counseling for his manic-depression and childhood abuse issues. He was beaten into a coma and stabbed repeatedly for refusing to carry out a gang-ordered hit to prove his racial loyalty. He died four days later.

Dana's homicide case was closed by the Department of Corrections' own Criminal Investigations Unit without any suspects being referred for prosecution - or even being given a ticket for the assault causing Dana's death. His mother has been working actively to get an outside law enforcement agency to re-open the case in light of evidence that guards were complicit in Dana's death. She's also suing the state of Arizona, as well as a number of individuals who appear to be liable for his murder. In the meantime, however, she suffered severe financial hardship and social isolation, for which she is not eligible to receive state assistance designated for helping victims of violent crime in such situations. An excerpt from the e-mail to that effect is here:

-------------------------------------

Sent: Tue, June 28, 2011 8:23:36 AM
Subject: RE: Kini Seawright

I have received a response to my follow up inquiry. After clarification it is ACJC’s position that the compensation program is only accountable to those statutes and rules that directly govern the Compensation Fund. Therefore, under program rules Ms. Seawright is not a victim pursuant to the definition of “victim” in A.A.C.R10-4-101(29). She is a “derivative victim” under ACJC’s rule, A.A.C.R10-4-101(10)(a), however, she is not entitled to a compensation award pursuant to A.A.C. R10-4-106(A)(3)(b) because the victim of the criminally injurious conduct was serving a sentence of imprisonment in a detention facility at the time of his death. Therefore, the prerequisites for a compensation award have not been met in this case...



Program Manager Crime Victim Services

Arizona Criminal Justice Commission

---------------------------

I can't believe that was the intentions of the victims' rights advocates in Arizona who helped get that initiative passed, but that was the consequence.

I've blogged about the Victim's Rights Amendment in the Arizona Constitution before - read my letter to the Arizona Department of Corrections on the matter here. I hope to spend more time getting organized behind a movement to change it. There are far too many families like Kini's being wrongfully punished and exiled under it. Failing to protect victims in custody gives license to law enforcement to use excessive force, and for prisons and jails to mete out cruel and unusual punishment as they see fit, not as the judges ordered. It suggests that toll of violence on one group of homicide victims and their survivors is less important than when it hits the rest of us. The state victims' rights amendment creates a sub-class of citizens whose victimization - usually at the hands of the state - we are willing to not only ignore but actively minimize. It serves to reduce the states liability profile when people are hurt in their custody - including pre-trial detention, when we're supposed to be presumed innocent.

I urge those of you concerned with the civil rights of prisoners and their loved ones to contact your state legislators and ask for help changing the definition of a victim to include those in custody for an offense. The legislature is empowered to extend victims rights to everyone - it doesn't have to go to referendum. Tell your legislator that victims of state crimes matter, too. He or she can be reached at:

Arizona State Legislature
1700 W. Washington St.
Phoenix, AZ 85007


cc your letter to the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Eddie Farnsworth, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Ron Gould, and someone there who might really care: Mesa Representative and Chair of the House Health and Human Services Committee, Cecil Ash.

Finally, if you are a survivor of prison violence or have lost a loved one to it - or simply want to make a difference - please feel free to contact me. My number is 480-580-6807. I'm organizing with families now who want to see an end to the neglect, abuse, and violence now.

Deaths in Custody: Hate, Justice and the FBI.

UPDATE: FBI CALL-IN --ON HOLD---

MONDAY JULY 16, 2012  5:45am

Hey All - We got their attention last week just by organizing. Let's give them this week to dig into the evidence we provided them with on Dana's case before slamming them with phone calls; it may not be necessary., and my intention wasn't just to call for the sake of harassment.

I'll post a new page (either a group or an event) if we need to still emphasize that a LOT of people are concerned about this case. I think they get that part already. I believe that once someone competent takes a close look at the case, they'll open it without complaining.

We still need you all to stand as witnesses to what happens from here. And we still need to plan an action for Prisoner Justice Day on August 10.

Please continue to share this link and Dana's story widely. ..

..

US Attorney's Office - District of Arizona

Phoenix (July 13, 2012)

FRIDAY July 13, 2:48PM

Just heard from the media relations person at the FBI, Jennifer Giannola (jennifer.giannola@ic.fbi.gov or 520-594-2020 for you journalists out there wanting the official comment). She said that the FBI is aware of Dana's murder, but they aren't able to confirm or deny that there's an investigation going on. That's it.

She suggested that Kini call the desk officer (who was clueless today) next week and ask to speak to the agent who ignored her after she went in person to beg them to help find Dana's killers and hold their accomplices responsible. Yeah - they wanted her to call the desk herself and just hope not to be disregarded again.

I suggested they have someone take a serious look at his file, open the case, and call her themselves next week - or have the decency to come out her in person and tell her why they don't think her son's homicide was a hate crime. How much more hateful could it have been?

Now, everyone here needs to know the FBI, the DOJ, the Phoenix Police, the AZ Attorney General's office, and several media outlets have a copy of the complete criminal investigations unit report on the homicide investigation (one section is over 575 pages and has photos of the evidence, including the weapon and eyewitness testimony). I think the only ones who haven't even looked at the ton of evidence we handed them, though, are the fellows in law enforcement. They have no clue what just hit them, it appears.

Perhaps this is just a matter of laziness and incompetence - I have no idea how far his file went before they said no the first time around. Did it silently disappear under a stack on some cop's or prosecutor's desk, or did the men in charge actually comprehend that Dana was killed for loving a Mexican and betraying his race as much as he was for the fact that his lover was a man and think "nope - that's not a hate crime."?

If Special Agent in Charge Turgal is the one who made that call and stands by it now, then he's at the top of Dana's mom's list of people to discuss this with, not the guy at the front desk, and he should be the one to explain himself.

So, that's where it all stands, for now. They won't confirm or deny anything. I think they hope this all just blows over before Monday. After all, he was just another black man in prison bludgeoned to death for loving a Mexican one...who in this state is going to care about that? And who in this world will back us?

here's the facebook site:

Tell the FBI: The Murder of Dana Seawright 

was a Hate Crime (623-466-1999)

Dana Seawright: Prisoners have families too...

Today is the one year anniversary of Dana Seawright's homicide at Lewis prison. Please contact Rep. Cecil Ash to ask him to convene hearings on health and mental health care, safety, and other conditions in the state prisons through his Health and Human Services Committee:

House of Representatives
1700 W. Washington
Room 313
Phoenix, AZ 85007

Phone Number: (602) 926-3160
Fax Number: (602) 417-3151

cash@azleg.gov

Dana's murder remains unsolved.

"Prisoners have families, too..."
Arizona Department of Corrections (Central office)
1601 West Washington Street / Phoenix (July 7, 2011)

Who Killed Dana Seawright? Ask the Phoenix FBI...

Federal Courthouse, Phoenix

April 20, 2012

Tomorrow will be the two year anniversary of the murder of Dana Seawright. The Phoenix FBI, to date, has refused to investigate his homicide as a hate crime, a gang crime, or a matter of public corruption; they didn't even have the decency to call his mother and follow-up after she went in person to beg them to open his case, nor will they provide her with a rationale for not doing so. So I am left to wonder: do they hate prisoners, blacks, Mexicans, or queers? Why does solving his murder not matter to them? All I can say at this point is that they haven't heard the last from us...

Deaths in Custody: Michael Tovar, 20. ASPC-Florence/Central

Edited from AZ Prison Watch:

UPDATE: Weds 4/20/2011 5:45pm


I heard from Michael's family this afternoon - my heart goes out to them. Michael's suicide is a mystery, baffling even his mom. I spent the day with Dana Seawright's and Tony Lester's loved ones - all of whom send their best to Michael's family.

To the best of his mom's and brother's knowledge, Michael didn't have a history of suicidal behavior, nor was he previously diagnosed with a mental illness. He wasn't in trouble with any gangs, and seemed to have adjusted to prison. Michael had trouble with the other guys when he first got there - everyone has to show their court papers to prove they aren't a snitch or a child molester right away, or they draw suspicion. But his bro cleared that up for him, and he was doing alright, as far as he knew.

So, as is so often the case, this totally blindsided his family. Perhaps it came as a surprise to the ADC as well. For now, though, they just need to grieve; an attorney will make sure to get to the bottom of what happened to Michael for them, once the ADC's criminal investigation is complete.

Whatever other folks out there can do to keep pressure on the Department of Justice to open a CRIPA investigation into these AZ prison suicides and homicides would still be greatly appreciated. Let them know you're a concerned citizen, or have family in AZ state prisons, or whatever your standpoint is, in relation to the prisons. Point out there appears to be "patterns and practices" at the ADC that have increased the suicide and homicide rates, beginning in January 2009, from previous years. Use examples - search Google "deaths in custody" with "Arizona Department of Corrections" - tell them what you're seeing going on here (they hit the same stuff when they look). The point is to make it clear that the word is already out in the community about these deaths, and we want to know when they're going to get on the ball and help the ADC fix whatever problems they're having right now.

I want more for my tax dollars out of the ADC, though frankly - I want these kids coming home safe, and to be better prepared to move on with their lives than they were the day they walked into prison - not more likely than ever to return. We must first keep them alive, though...for $20,000/year, we should be able to do at least that much.


Send your "CRIPA Arizona" requests to:

Johnathan M. Smith, Chief
US Department of Justice - Civil Rights Division
Special Litigation Section
950 Pennsylvania Ave, NW
Patrick Henry Building
Washington DC, 20530

Please also help us get the AZ House Health and Human Services Committee to open an investigation into the mental health and medical care - and the suicide and homicide rates - at the AZ Department of Corrections. We want testimony to be entered into the public record from prisoners and family members alike. We want transparency, and accounting of how all mental health resources are being distributed among the 25% of their prisoners with a diagnosed mental illness. We want oversight into both the public and private prisons.

You can add your own demands to that list, and write to the HHSC Chair, Cecil Ash (personal snail mail letters are best) at:

Rep. Cecil Ash
AZ House of Representatives
1700 W. Washington St.
Phoenix, AZ 85007
(602) 926-3160

If you are a prisoner or family member, all the better - you can give first-hand information.


Finally, here's the national suicide hotline, for folks who have a rough time with this kind of thing: everyone should be on the alert for another suicide in the coming days and weeks, too - keep a close eye on your friends, if they're troubled - suicide can be contagious...hopefully the prisoners most affected by this young man's act will be given the support they need coping with it, without having to fill out an HNR and come up with the medical co-pay. Unfortunately, I don't think state prisoners can dial out to toll-free hotlines - though it wouldn't be a bad idea to set something like that up for them.


If you're on the outside, though, need help getting through a crisis, and can't get it from a friend - or just need to bounce things off an objective third party - call these folks:

National Suicide Hotline:

1-800-273-TALK
(Veterans press 1)

----------now here's today's original post on Michael's suicide------------

The Department of Corrections announced today that this young prisoner from ASPC-Florence/Central killed himself yesterday morning, April 19. He was doing time for burglary - six years for a "non-repetitive, non-dangerous" property crime - why are we doing that to our troubled youth? He got more for that than for an attempted aggravated assault charge. I suspect I'll get more details on what happened to him in the next few days.

Michael Tovar
August 11, 1990 - April 19, 2011.
ASPC-Central/Florence

Our condolences go out to Michael's family. Please get in touch with me if there's anything I can do to help you though the process of dealing with this - you don't have to go through this alone. I can at least help you connect with other families surviving the same kind of trauma. They are the families of Susan Lopez, Dana Seawright, and Tony Lester - and they all know good attorneys, sad to say... They're also mad as hell and getting organized to take the state on in court. There's a resource page we just started here, with a memorial gallery of victims in custody linking to articles about prison deaths in the past two years:

http://azprisonsurvivors.blogspot.com


Click on Duron Cunningham and Tony Lester's portraits, at the bottom of that site.

What happened to Michael didn't happen in isolation.

Duron was at Florence/Central, waiting for a decision on protective segregation, when he killed himself in September - after being raped and beaten on separate occasions. He was terrified that what was coming next for him would be worse than death.

Tony Lester apparently killed himself, too - he was at ASPC-Tucson/Manzanita and cut his throat after being told he didn't belong on the yard by members of the Native American gang.

My name is Peggy: I'm just a human rights activist and blogger. My door is open to survivors any time. My office is at 1009 N. 1st St., Phoenix, AZ 85004. My email is prisonabolitionist@gmail.com. Call me at 480-580-6807. I don't charge any fees. I've been tracking and reporting civil rights violations the AZ state prisons for the past two years; your attorney needs to know what I know.

The suicide and homicide rates doubled after Brewer took over the budget and Chuck Ryan took over the prisons. There have been far too many of these kinds of prison deaths lately, so survivors have also been organizing to push for AZ Legislative hearings, to get testimony from both prisoners and their families about the conditions of confinement, medical neglect, and the increasing level of violence and victimization over the course of the past 2 years on the record, and hold our legislators responsible for taking some kind of corrective action.


On May 1st, at Margaret T. Hance Park in Phoenix, some of those survivors of AZ prisons will be gathering for the May Day Workers' Rights Rally, at about 1:30. That's by the Main Public Library, off of Central. The coalition of human rights groups organizing it agreed that we won't get far in the worker's liberation struggle if we don't deal with the prisons - the most urgent matter being to bring down the level of violence, neglect, and suicide. We'd love to have you join us. (Look for the blonde in the black hat and bandanna - I look like something of an outlaw...)


To all the other AZ prisoners:

I believe that when we survive hell with any kind of voice intact, we need to raise it so the others can find their way through, too. So please don't bail on us, or return to a life of crime - come join the Revolution, instead. Raise your voice in protest, or help someone in worse circumstances resist.

Fight the battles really worth taking a stand on through the grievance process -and write to me, if you're struggling to do so, or have exhausted all you administrative remedies already. We'll help you work through the process of defending your rights.

If you have family out here, have them contact me too - they're your best allies - we need their help.

MOST IMPORTANTLY OF ALL, THOUGH:

PLEASE LOOK OUT FOR EACH OTHER IN THERE.

DON'T LEAVE A DESPAIRING BROTHER OR SISTER ALONE,

OR WAIT FOR THE PRISON TO HELP THEM THROUGH IT.

SPREAD THE WORD: HELP IS ALREADY HERE.

IT'S NOT JUST ME - IT'S EACH ONE OF YOU, TOO.

YOU'RE REALLY THE ONLY FOLKS

WHO ARE GOING TO HEAR THEM, IT APPEARS.

TAKE CARE,

Peggy Plews
Arizona Prison Watch
PO Box 20494
Phoenix, AZ 85036

Sun setting on Chuck Ryan at AZ DOC Legislative Review

Above is the recording of public speakers;

*** Here is the link from the full report and committee meeting ***

I made it to the early part of this meeting yesterday, which was a joint session of the Senate Committee on Public Safety and the House Judiciary Committee. The purpose of the meeting was to receive the Auditor General's Sunset Review of the Arizona Department of Corrections - a process which poses the question as to whether the institution is serving the public and rehabilitating offenders as it is intended to, or whether it is an ineffective waste and should be abolished.

More precisely:

"Established by Laws 1978, Chapter 210, Arizona’s sunset review process requires the Legislature to periodically review the purpose and functions of state agencies to determine whether continuation, revision, consolidation or termination is warranted. Sunset reviews are based on audits conducted by either the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) or a Committee of Reference (COR). Following the audit, a public hearing is held by the COR to discuss the audit and receive testimony from agency officials and the public."

I didn't expect the department to be abolished, of course, but felt it was important to be there anyway. Unfortunately, I learned of this last minute so did a poor job getting folks out for the public hearing section. I was able to log in some of my written comments, for the record, but had to leave before the floor was open to the rest of us to speak. Several folks remained long enough to raise the matter of medical neglect, at least, according to this Cronkite news report below. I don't know if anyone mentioned the high suicide and assault rates, or the fact that the ACLU National Prison Project is about to file a class action lawsuit seeking an injunction to immediately improve the level of medical and mental health care in AZ prisons. It was the matter of security at the private prisons that dominated, though, due to the Kingman escape last summer.

Listening to ADC Director Chuck Ryan give his spiel about how great a job they're doing and how noble his employees are made me more angry with the legislature for failing to do oversight than with him - I expect to hear that kind of propaganda from him. Had I been able to speak, I would have recited the names and stories of the prisoners who died unnecessarily in his custody...perhaps I'll have to save that for another time. I certainly didn't expect that anything I or others might say would result in the abolition of the AZ Department of Corrections.

July 2011 Artwalk: Phoenix, AZ

What was covered by the AG's report, at least, were recommendations for alternatives to adding more prison beds, support for a sentencing commission to review prison alternatives and sentencing reform, and a reassertion of the expectation that a complete cost-analysis is done on the pros and cons of contracting with private prisons before the state proceeds to do more (which the Quakers are having to sue to get compliance on).

But those are just recommendations - I believe it is up to the discretion of the ADC director as to how to proceed, and I haven't seen either of these committees show much leadership in making performance demands of Director Ryan - who not only runs his own ship, but steps in the way of efforts made by our good Rep. Cecil Ash to assemble a sentencing review commission by promoting propaganda designed to frighten ignorant politicians and the public into favoring mass incarceration. If Chuck Ryan and his cronies on the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission threw their support behind Rep. Ash's sentencing commission bill (HB 2664) last session, it would have easily passed the house and senate and been signed into law. Instead the judiciary committee wouldn't even bother to hear it.

As things stand at present, it's entirely up to the ADC Director to study and implement report recommendations for alternatives to incarceration, such as early release for low-risk prisoners, community-based programs for drug and alcohol offenders, build more capacity to have prisoners on home-arrest, and so on. Ryan, unfortunately, has consistently articulated and demonstrated his contempt for prisoners and their families through his policy changes, and that his philosophy for corrections is simply punishment by incarcerating as many people as possible for as long as possible, during which time they have scant opportunities to participate in substance abuse treatment, vocational rehabilitation, mental health, or educational programs (many were abruptly dismantled when he took over).

Anticipating continuing criticisms about deaths in his custody this time, Director Ryan did proudly announce that in the course of two months the department has trained over 8,000 employees in suicide prevention...but that just leaves me wondering how good such mass training in such a short a period of time can possibly be. They train them all in first aid every year, but corrections officers have repeatedly failed to use those skills to prevent the loss of life - as in Tony Lester's and Dana Seawright's cases, when guards just stood passively around watching those young men choke on blood as they were dying. The closest they seem to come to touching a suicide or homicide victim is practicing their CPR on prisoners who are already dead or very near death.

Still grossly lacking from the AZ legislature is a commitment to provide meaningful, ongoing oversight of the Department of Corrections. They seem to be in denial of (or ignorant of) the impending class action suit against them, and of the real shortcomings of leadership that have resulted in arguably thew most horrendous prison conditions in Arizona in the past three decades. They are oblivious or indifferent, it appears, that by failing to keep on top of matters in their own house, they have forced prisoners, their families and advocates to seek help from outside entities - from the ACLU and Amnesty International to the media to the FBI - to investigate their poor conditions and high rates of violence and suicide.

If the state legislature had been conducting oversight all along, lives like Tony Lester's and Dana Seawright's may have been saved despite the incompetence of this administration. Unfortunately, nothing that comes out of this hearing yesterday is likely to stop the prisoner body count from continuing to grow. The rising tide of violence under Chuck Ryan's administration will similarly take a greater toll on ADC employees, who voices are also silenced here. At least two ADC employees have already taken their lives on prison grounds under his administration - one at Perryville, soon after the death of Marcia Powell, and one at Yuma this summer. God knows how many more have died more quietly that way, or have been seriously injured from assaults already as well.

The following are the legislators on the respective committees that heard the auditors' Sunset Review; though not all were present yesterday, all are nevertheless responsible. These are the legislators we should be addressing further concerns about the prisons to, and holding accountable for the consequences of failing to form a sub-committee which would take testimony from prisoners, families and advocates, recommend and empower the department to make reforms, and provide closer legislative oversight of the ADC. Instead of orchestrating meaningful prison reform from within, the state has now set up a situation where changes will have to be ordered by the federal court system - sadly, that is only likely to make a difference after more prisoners and staff lose their lives...

Judiciary House of Representatives Standing Committee
Members	Position
Cecil P. Ash	Member
Tom Chabin	Member
Eddie Farnsworth	Chairman
Doris Goodale	Member
Albert Hale	Member
Jack W. Harper	Member
David Burnell Smith	Vice-Chairman
Anna Tovar	Member
Ted Vogt	Member

Public Safety and Human Services Senate Standing Committee
Members	Position	Staff
Nancy Barto	Member
Rich Crandall	Member
Linda Gray	Chairman
Leah Landrum Taylor	Member
Linda Lopez	Member
Rick Murphy	Vice-Chairman

The Ghosts of Jan Brewer: crime victims in custody.

National Crime Victims' Rights Week, 2013:

PLEASE REMEMBER VICTIMS IN AZ STATE CUSTODY,

and DEMAND THAT BREWER BE ACCOUNTABLE...

The Ghosts of Jan Brewer: Victims of Crime and Neglect

 in AZ Department of Corrections' Custody

 (Firehouse Gallery, Phoenix: July 2012)

I wrote the following letter to the administrator for the Arizona Department of Corrections' Victims Services programs two years ago now, with no response to it whatsoever from anyone there - not ever. The violence and despair behind bars in that time has only worsened, too.

As I explained at the time, the questions I posed were not rhetorical - I really needed help for Dana Seawright's mom. Dana was killed in July 2010 by the West Side City Crips in Lewis Prison for having a Mexican boyfriend. His mother, Kini, was devastated by his homicide, lost her job and home and was being victimized by Brewercare and the AHCCCS cuts. She tried to access victims' rights resources for crisis intervention, trauma support, and concrete emergency assistance, but her request was denied by the AZ Attorney General's office. Since her son was in custody at the time he was murdered, she was denied the victims' rights and resources other mothers of murdered children have.
 

That happened thanks to all you victims' rights advocates who helped pass the beloved 1990 Victims' Bill of Rights amendment to the AZ Constitution. It explicitly excluded prisoners from the same rights the rest of us have when raped, beaten, or locked in a cage in the desert to die. Those of you who really care about all crime victims need to look at the consequences of that decision to sell out the voiceless, and help me change the constitution before the state prisoner homicide and suicide rates double again. 

The prosecutors and peace officer unions in this state no doubt played a big role in assuring that people in custody were constitutionally deprived of the rights of victims, as well as their survivors. Few people are liekly aware that the AZ Attorney General's office, which holds the checkbook for most victims rights funds in this state, is the same entity which defends the state against wrongful death suits when mentally ill men like Shannon Palmer are castrated and murdered in state custody, or women like Marcia Powell are left dying in the sun by her guards, or when five officers stand around and videotape a young man bleeding to death without trying to offer first aid. 

It seems to be a conflict of interest for the AZ Attorney General's office to be hailed as champions of victims' rights when the most disempowered, vulnerable populations in the state - the incarcerated mentally ill, elderly, cognitively impaired, physically disabled, and "delinquent" children - aren't protected by their office. The last place many crime victims and their survivors in this state can look to for justice, in fact, is the AZ Attorney General's office.

Start talking to your legislators about this, families. And I hope all you advocates for justice start talking to the crime victims and survivors who you long since excluded from your midst. It is their exile and your indifference to their fate which makes the worst horrors of prison life all the more likely to be perpetrated on them...

SOS from Arizona's Other Death Row: 

 Victims of Crime and Neglect  in AZ Department of Corrections' Custody

 (Firehouse Gallery, Phoenix: July 2012)

-----------------

April 19, 2011

Jan Upchurch, Administrator
Office of Victims' Services
Arizona Department of Corrections
1645 W. Jefferson - MC250
Phoenix, AZ 85007


Dear Ms. Upchurch;

I am a human rights activist, artist and blogger in Phoenix, and have been researching violence and suicide in AZ state prisons over the course of the past 2 years. This has opened my eyes and brought me into considerable more contact with victims of violent crime in ADC custody and their survivors than most members of the public. Do prisoners or the family members of prisoners qualify for victims' services through your office if they/their loved ones are crime victims while imprisoned at the ADC? If not, who advocates for them when prisoners are assaulted, raped, murdered, or neglected and abused (as in the case of Marcia Powell)? Additionally, who fights for policy changes that may prevent further victimization behind bars?

Many of those I see victimized at the ADC are evidently psychiatrically or developmentally disabled, and can't advocate for safer cellmates or protective segregation, or fight abusive COs or policies effectively through the grievance process or other formal systems - which arguably gives rise to more self-injurious behavior and violence out of frustration or sheer terror, a liability even if their inability to access legitimate processes keeps down the grievances and potential lawsuits. Mentally ill prisoners don't seem to be served by either DES' Protective Services Division or the AZ Center for Disability Law when victimized in custody, either. In fact, I believe all parties I just mentioned are in direct violation of the American with Disabilities Act and/or other federal mandates, as they pertain to disabled individuals victimized in custody, regardless of the AZ constitutional limits on their rights as crime victims, per se.

Furthermore, the perpetrators of prison violence and other institutionally-based crime - be they staff or inmate - are apparently seldom street-charged or prosecuted, suggesting that neither the Criminal Investigations Unit nor county attorneys hosting prisons take an aggressive role in promoting the rights of victims in custody, which seems to just tell criminals that it's who they victimize, not what they do to others, that really matters. How does the ADC plan to rectify that?

Given what we spend to keep people locked up, prison is the one place in society where crime should be under control and victims are promptly and professionally accommodated. I see no one who prisoners or families can go to out here when violent crime befalls them in prison, though - without being charged a fee for advocacy or counseling - which means these victims are easily victimized (and perhaps criminalized) again, if you don't serve them either. Even the Attorney General won't help them - he defends the ADC.

These are pointed questions, I know, but they are not rhetorical. I imagine there may be a conflict of interest with your office, but that shouldn't preclude a third party providing those services under contract with the state, just like they do for other crime victims and their families. I need this info ASAP in order to advise people who were victimized (or survived homicides of prisoners) in ADC custody of what resources are available to them; at least one grieving mother I've heard from is living on the verge of homelessness and I'm not sure where to refer her.

I see this as a serious problem underlying the continuation of prison violence, especially against vulnerable adults, made so by the symptoms of their disabilities. James Jennings is a tragic example of someone clearly killed because of their mental illness; both Shannon Palmer and his killer, Jasper Rushing, were reportedly pleading for protection - and both somewhat psychotic - when they were celled so fatefully together. Duron Cunningham reported that he was raped and assaulted before he killed himself. The list goes on.

I plan to begin a public education campaign in the coming weeks to address the issue of victims' rights (or lack thereof, under the state constitution) in custody, particularly as they apply (or don't) to surviving family members. The ADC can hinder that effort with propaganda obscuring the victimization of prisoners, help advance the field of victims' services by exploring and answering these questions thoughtfully, or do nothing but get out of the way. I invite your office into a dialogue about it, however, as I want to believe you serve for good reason. I don't know whether protecting the state or our citizens is your primary concern, though, as I don't know you. It should not have to be mutually exclusive, but seems to be given the litigation expected to follow incidents of violent crime against persons in custody.

Taking responsibility for the harm one causes or allows to be caused to another is part of the ethos of the criminal justice system. Making amends to victims - individuals, businesses, and communities, is seen as central to any kind of restorative justice, which the State of Arizona heartily endorses, as evidenced by the practice of ordering restitution when sentencing, and penalizing offenders further for failing to meet said orders. What does the ADC practice, when it comes to their own crime victims, though? Even if prisoners have no rights as victims, what about the principle of preventing future crime by making an example of perpetrators today? Why should violent criminals be provided with such blanket permission to practice on more victims before they leave prison, where they are supposedly being punished...

...None of this bodes well for how I see the prison privatization project going: the ADC is responsible for Kingman's lack of security, ultimately, and I saw nothing in the RFPs that were put out that indicates a particular concern for victims' rights. In fact, the objective set down by the ADC of making sure that no more than 1% of grievances are ultimately upheld troubles me. Correct me if I read that wrong: it just seems like an incentive to deprive prisoners of due process rights when they are harmed, not to protect them. There's no indication that private prisons would even issue press releases about prisoner deaths or abuse, or be accountable for their health and safety to the public in any transparent way. They're harder to see into than the state prisons are, giving rise to more risk of victimization.

I'm sure that given your position, you can understand my frustration and concern over the constitutionally-diminished value of prisoner's lives and the gravity of their suffering in custody, placing their very survival secondary to the state's interests in cutting costs. It manifests toxins at every level of society, such that ugliness flows from the community into the media whenever a prisoner kills themselves - look at the "comments" after every ADC press release on a suicide. It's tragic, what has become of us since the PLRA and the victims' rights amendments to state constitutions were made exempting prisoners from fundamental protections: our entire society has devolved, and I think I can make the connections.

I also think I can make the case that both these prisoners and their families are deserving of the same constitutional guarantees given all other citizens and non-citizens alike, when it comes to their welfare. Having fought most of my life to keep my own brother out of prison and harm's way - surviving the devastating suicide of a loved one myself, in the process - I'm free to tell that part of my own story, liberating others from the shame that may keep them from telling theirs. I have been a victim of violent crime, and cope now with a mood disorder and the remnants of PTSD; not much frightens me anymore. I've embraced the mothers of ADC's homicide victims, and helped my community bury our dead; I am intimately connected to this struggle. I will not relent until I know that AZ prisoners and their loved ones are getting their needs met, not brutalized, at my expense, in my name, for the sake of my own family's illusion of "safety".

Sorry to greet you so early with this level of frankness, but you seemed like an appropriate person to bring into the conversation. I appreciate your time and what thoughts you may have. I look forward to hearing back from you or the DOC's General Counsel on this matter soon.


Sincerely,


Peggy Plews

--

Margaret J. Plews, Editor
Arizona Prison Watch
P.O. Box 20494
Phoenix, AZ 85036
480-580-6807


"Our strategy should be not only to confront empire, but to lay siege to it. To deprive it of oxygen. To shame it. To mock it. With our art, our music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our sheer relentlessness, and our ability to tell our own stories..."

- Arundhati Roy

MI in CJ System follow-up; Alan Keesee charged with assault.

Thank you Mr. Montgomery.

I asked Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery about this tonight - looks like I fell behind on that one. He's already charged former detention officer Alan Keesee with assaulting William Franklin Hughes, III last fall, in the psychiatric wing of the Lower Buckeye Jail, in a tag team attack on the bound prisoner with officer Kevin Gerster.

In fact, as you can see from the calendar below, he did so over a month ago. Can't believe it's almost time for the May Day Rally already, and this is the first time I've checked up on that in so long.

Keesee just had a preliminary hearing today - check here for updated minutes. Be at his future dates if you can, and write about it for the rest of us. I'm just starting to discover I can't be everywhere at once anymore...

Thanking a prosecutor may seem like a funny thing for an abolitionist to do, I know. Remember that I'm just another traveler on this journey - not the guru. I don't know yet what restorative or transformative justice looks like for people in uniform who abuse the vulnerable like that - at this point, I'm reserving a few cells for them.

Those men betrayed all of us when they assaulted William - anyone's child or brother or mother could have been him, dragged off to jail instead of the hospital in a disorganized, confused mental state, be it due to a psychiatric or developmental disability, Alzheimer's, or a brain tumor. Such abuse of power is among the worst kinds of crimes, I believe; unfortunately, our state constitution assures that victims like William - and like Marcia Powell - are the least protected. We need to change that, folks...

Mr. Montgomery had some interesting remarks at last night's meeting, which I'll report more on soon. I was mainly grateful that he recognizes that too many folks with serious mental illness are ending up in the criminal justice system who could have been successfully treated in the community, if we put more of our resources at the front end - in mental health, rather than the back end - in the prisons. The police officers discussing the specially-trained crisis-intervention units that divert people with mental illness from the CJ system at their level (where it needs most to be happening) argued that the program demonstrated an increase in participant involvement in outpatient mental health services among high-risk homeless adults, and a decrease in criminal activity.

Unfortunately, while the police arm of the effort is still fully operational, the agencies providing the community support staff it depends on have been hit by cuts, so nighttime outreach isn't what it needs to be. The trick is how to redistribute all these resources when the AZ Department of Corrections maintains an investment in maintaining their own status, power, and funding. The whole CJ system as currently designed reinforces the perpetuation of the status quo, when "public safety" is positioned first and foremost in the dialogue as the state's primary responsibility to the people - and is put out there as a police matter.

In fact, the public welfare depends on education, health care, inpatient psychiatric treatment options, affordable housing, and a range of supports being available at the community level to meaningfully decrease the incidence of crime and victimization. Those are always the first to go in economic downturns, though - not because we don't have the resources, but because we're driven by fear and defer to the "experts" in power in our collective decision-making, instead of allowing our public policy to be crafted by both our values and non-partisan research, based on principles of evidence-based practice...

Anyway, thank you, Mr. Montgomery, for so graciously letting me know that you're already on top of prosecuting some of these abuses of power in the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office. If you drop his office a line this week, please let them know the community appreciates seeing things head in that direction. Their contact info is:

Maricopa County Attorney's Office
301 W. Jefferson St.
Phoenix, AZ 85003

The number for victims' services (the public seems to be a legitimate victim in this case) is (602) 506-8522.

Let your voices be heard on this, since William doesn't have the right to have his heard by the court, under the AZ Constitution...then give your legislators a piece of your mind about what changes need to be made in the Arizona Revised Statutes to keep us all safe from the likes of Gerster, Keesee, and Arpaio. Send hard copies to legislators - if you have a personal connection to this issue, hand write it - those kinds of letters have the most impact. Their address is:

AZ State Legislature
1700 W. Washington St.
Phoenix, AZ 85007

602) 926-3559 (Leg INFO LINE)

Make sure to cc your letters to Cecil Ash, Chair of the AZ House Health and Human Services Committee. Ask for him to convene legislative hearings on the AZ Department of Correction's deaths due to prison violence, suicide, and medical neglect, while you're at it.

Mr. Montgomery said he'd explain after the meeting why these officers aren't being charged with higher level felonies under the vulnerable adult statute for the assault on William while he was in the psychiatric wing in handcuffs and shackles (how much more vulnerable can a person be?).

I had to leave early, though, with the mother of prison homicide victim, Dana Seawright, so will follow-up on that issue in a separate post. Dana's mom, Kini Seawright, had the chance to confront ADC Director Chuck Ryan with her grief during the Roundtable - he was in the audience when she stood and told her story.


We thought he was going to flee the scene at first, because he saw us chalking the walk out front and headed back to the parking lot, but he returned and toughed it out: he's either more brave or more heartless than I thought. More on that in a later post, too.


Kini will be speaking about her experience as both an ex-felon and the mother of a prison homicide victim at the May Day Rally this weekend at Margaret T. Hance Park, PHX (by the Central St. Library) somewhere around 1:30pm.

AZ DOC: Nobly, heroically, protecting us from the dying...

I find this kind of thing particularly disturbing because the AZ DOC blames the tripling of the assault rate and the doubling of the homicide and suicide rates on staff shortages. No one watched Dana Seawright's back - or Shannon Palmer's, or Duron Cunningham's, or Tony Lester's, or Susan Lopez', or Marcia Powell's - when they were alive in their care, but the state always has plenty guards and chains at the bedsides of the helpless and dying...

Immigrant Mother Asks Arizona to Let Her Son Die in Peace

Published April 03, 2012  | EFE

An immigrant mother is asking Arizona authorities to let her son die in peace since he is in the terminal phase of brain cancer and is kept cuffed to his hospital bed with two guards beside him.

"My son is dying, he cannot move and yet they're still keeping him handcuffed," Martha Elena Palomares, originally from the Mexican state of Sonora, told Efe on Tuesday.

Her son, Juan M. Corrales Palomares, 20, is hospitalized at Tucson's University Medical Center.

Corrales, a U.S. citizen, was serving a five-year sentence for possession of drugs and a firearm in Safford state prison when he began to experience severe headaches.

Palomares said she received letters in which her son complained of bad headaches, but she was still surprised when he called her last week from UMC to say he had undergone surgery on Feb. 29.

"He called me to tell me with his own mouth that he didn't know what was happening, that his head hurt him a lot. It was a nurse who told me that they had found some tumors and that it could be cancer," the mother said.

The doctors told her that her son, who is now unconscious, had terminal brain cancer, and they recommended that she disconnect him from life support when the time came, something that she refuses to do.

"What mortifies me is to see that they still have one of his legs cuffed to the bed and two guards are always with him. They don't allow more than one (visitor) in the room and they ask for identification to enter," she said.

"In the situation my son is in, I don't think he can escape, or that I can take him anywhere," she added.
Upon being contacted by Efe, spokesmen with the Arizona Department of Corrections explained that agency policy is to use handcuffs as a way to guarantee the safety of their personnel and of the prisoners.

Palomares also questioned the medical care her son received while he was in prison.

"I don't know what happened with him, someone told me that he had fallen inside there," she said.

Last month the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona filed a lawsuit against the state corrections department arguing that prisoners are not receiving the medical and mental care they need.

The documents presented to the court by the ACLU indicate that sick prisoners who asked for medical attention were told things such as "be patient" and "it's all in your head," or urged to pray for a cure.

"We're asking for several things, among them an order prohibiting the Department of Corrections, for example, from putting people with mental problems in isolated cells," Alessandra Soler, the executive director of the ACLU in Arizona, told Efe on Tuesday.