ASPC-Yuma Deaths in Custody: Eddie Martinez.

Eddie Martinez was beaten unconscious at APSC-Yuma on December 11, and placed on life support. The death announcement below was posted by the Arizona Department of Corrections late today. Condolences to Eddie's family. Please feel free to contact me if you wish to organize with other families to prevent this kind of thing from happening again, or if you need support fighting the state in court. Do what you need to do to grieve, but know that you don't have to go through it alone.



Peggy Plews
480-580-6807
arizonaprisonwatch@gmail.com

At the Mercy of the Court: Deaths in Custody.

This is an SOS to the justices of the Maricopa County Superior Court, which is filling the prisons with vulnerable people. Please contact the Department of Justice about a CRIPA investigation, or initiate an independent judicial inquiry into the doubling of the suicide and homicide rates over the past 2 1/2 years among prisoners of the Arizona Department of Corrections, and the neglect and abuse in particular of women prisoners. These folks should get you started; the list of the dead still grows...

Prisoner Names Project: Appeal to Justice
Maricopa County Superior Court /Cesar Chavez Plaza

Phoenix, AZ (August 21, 2011)

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Arizona Department of Corrections' Deaths in Custody
January 2009-June 2011
(suicide & homicide rates have doubled)

HOMICIDES:

Pete Calleros, Mando Lugo, Dana Seawright, Shannon Palmer, Alex Usurelu, William Gray, Ulises Rodriguez, Albert Tsosie, Sean Pierce, Michael Pompeneo


SUICIDES:

Susan Lopez, Tony Lester, Duron Cunningham, Lasasha Cherry, Geshell Fernandez, Patricia Velez, Angela Soto, Hernan Cuevas, Jerry Kulp, Robert Medina, Eric Bybee, Erick Cervantes, Rosario Bojorquez-Rodriguez, Douglas Nunn, Monte McCarty, James Adams, Patrick Lee Ross, James Jennings, Caesar Bojorquez, Angel Torres, Harvey Rymer, Dung Ung, Ronald Richie, Michael Tovar, Carey Wheatley, Michael Pellicer


Institutional INDIFFERENCE:

Brenda Todd, Marcia Powell, Tom Reed, Edgar Vega, Huberta Parlee


ACCIDENTAL DRUG OVERDOSES:

Pete Childs, William Engelbert, Santana Aqualais, Carl Cresong, Christopher Francis


STILL INVESTIGATING, at last word:

David Moreno, Gilberto Lopez, Luis Moscoso Hernandez

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To contact the DOJ:

Jonathan M. Smith, Chief
U.S. DOJ Civil Rights Division, Special Litigation Section
Patrick Henry Building / 950 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, D.C. 20530

(202) 514-6255
toll-free at (877) 218-5228
Special.Litigation@usdoj.gov

Eyman Homicide: Jeremy Pompeneo.

This young man's death is under investigation as a homicide, according to the Phoenix New Times.

Our condolences to any loved ones he left behind.


Please feel free to contact me at prisonabolitionist@gmail.com or 480-580-6807 if I can be of any assistance as you recover from this. I'm just a blogger and activist - not an attorney or grief counselor - but I'm willing to help connect you with support if I can. That goes for all survivors of jail and prison violence, suicide, and neglect.


To report Arizona homicides, suicides, and medical neglect to the US Department of Justice, ask for a CRIPA (Civil Rights for Institutionalized Persons) Investigation of harmful patterns and practices causing the homicide and suicide rates to double under Jan Brewer's administration as the state won't protect the interests of Arizona prisoners, whose basic human rights are being violated.

Address your concerns to:

Jonathan Smith, Chief
Special Litigation Section - Civil Rights Division
US Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Ave, NW
PATRICK HENRY BUILDING
Washington, DC 20530


Please email me a copy as well.

Surviving Susan Lopez: Mother's Day Grief.

One of the hardest, yet most profoundly meaningful, aspects of the work I do is to bear witness to the suffering of others and help them amplify their voices in any number of ways, in hopes that the rest of us are moved enough by them to change the trajectory we're on.


This is the grief of the parents of Susan Lopez, going into this past family-oriented weekend. Soon it will be their first Father's Day without her, each of her kid's birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the anniversaries of her birth, and of her death...

"When Jesus was a prisoner"
Matthew ch 25: v 35
Christmas, 2010
Phoenix, AZ

Rick Lopez and the Flores families have a difficult, deeply painful road ahead yet - all of the survivors of prison violence and neglect do. May we never again need to hear the grief of a mother who has buried her child in order to bring about a fundamental change in how we view and treat each other here, whatever our respective status or class...


Thank you, Sammy and Gina, for sharing this with us. Our condolences to the entire family.



-----------------left with broken hearts #2------------


A few years ago, my husband and I, together with Susan and her husband Rick, built a beautiful horse corral. I bought a mare, and someone gave us this big black gelding. Susan loved him. One day I went outside our 2 1/2 acre home, and I saw Susan on top of Moose, Rick leading the horse with a rope. I couldn`t believe what I saw, Susan riding Moose! She looked like a giant, but she was so happy, it seemed like nothing in the world mattered. Rick looked nervous, and would tell her "come on get down, get down!"

She loved horses like her mom. She loved cats, they were her life. She hated when anyone messed with them. She loved to look at the stars, and loved Jesus with all her heart. Our hobby was taking care of the horses; me and Susan would feed them and bathe them. I will always miss that...

From my horse corrals, about 4 miles from my back yard, you can see a hill with two giant water tanks. My daughter is buried on the other side of that hill. I am torn apart in my heart, its so hard to go feed the horses. Everytime I do, I see that hill, and I think of her. I break down crying; I'm torn apart. I then go to my front yard to sit on my deck. I look to the right and again I see the hill. I drive to town and I see the hill. It hurts, we loved her so much.

If you, the people working in Perryville prison, have any children then you know the love a parent has for their children, if you truly love them. I know me and my husband do; we loved Susan. And if you, the people working at Perryville prison, would have just listened to the cry of a wonderful woman, she may have touched your heart. And you might have change your ways, and done your job right. My daughter Susan would probably still be alive, that's what she was about. A beautiful woman full of love and kindness.

Again, whoever is responsible for the wrongful death of our daughter: God knows the truth. and may he find it in his heart to forgive you.

sammy & gina flores

(dad, mom)