ADC threatened with class action suit for gross medical and psychiatric neglect.

This article about the Prison Law Office and ACLU taking the ADC to court has been a long time in coming for survivors of prison suicides and gross neglect, and for those prisoners still inside - thank you Bob Ortega and AZ Republic. Here's the actual letter that was sent to Chuck Ryan listing all the allegations against his department.

In the first 2 1/2 years of his tenure, Chuck Ryan presided over 28 suicides. That's almost one per month. During that time the prison population remained relatively stable - even dropping a bit last year. In the 2 1/2 years that preceded Ryan, under Dora Schriro, there were only 12 suicides - less than 1 every two months.

Additionally, both Shannon Palmer and James Jennings were murdered by their cellies because Shannon and James were psychotic and isolated with intolerant cellies (in Shannon's case, his cellie was also psychotic).

Then there are the cases of outrageous neglect: Marcia Powell was left to die in her feces with burns on her body in an outdoor cage while on a 10-minute suicide watch; Huberta Parlee died after two days of begging for treatment for a perforated ulcer; Brenda Todd sought medical attention repeatedly before being found dead in her cell one morning last winter. The list goes on.

These are not just isolated incidents or the consequences of budget cuts made years ago. Chuck Ryan decides how to distribute resources, and sets the tone for how prisoners are to be treated through his policies, practices in disciplining staff, and promotions of bullies like himself. His administration has reduced rehabilitative programs to negligible levels, has increased medical co-pays while decreasing prisoner earnings, has eliminated things like a suicide prevention program that trained prisoners as aides, has compromised positive community and family support to prisoners by implementing fees for visitors, and has allowed rates of violence to skyrocket unchecked...

It is no wonder that so many prisoners have grown so demoralized that they've killed themselves in his custody in record numbers. One of many questions is why there's such a racial disparity in those suicides.

AZ Department of Corrections

November 22, 2011

These are the victims of our collective indifference, by gender, race and age:

Jan - June 2009 (5 suicides in 6mos): Angela Soto (MexAmer, 28) Harvey Rymer (W, 33), Angel Torres (MexAmer, 32) Dung Ung (AsnAmer, 32), Caesar Bojorquez (MexNatl, 37)

July - June 2010 (9 suicides in 12 months): Erick Cervantes (MexAmer, 30) Douglas Nunn (W, 33), Hernan Cuevas (MexAmer, 18) Monte McCarty (W, 46), Patricia Velez (MexAmer, 24), Jerry Kulp (AfAmer, 17), Jessie Cota, (MexAm, 28) James Adams (W, 46),Eric Bybee (W, 32)

July - June 2011 (14 suicides in 12 months): Tony Lester (NA, 26), Robert Medina (MexAm, 29), Geshell Fernandez (NA, 28) Patrick Lee Ross, (AfAmer, 28), Lasasha Cherry (AfAmer, 23) Rosario Bojorquez-Rodriguez (MexNat, 29), Duron Cunningham (AfAmer, 40) James Galloway (W, 54), Ronald Richie (W, 42) Susan Lopez (MexAmer, 35), Michael Tovar, (MexAmer, 20) Carey Wheatley (AfAmer, 49), Michael Pellicer (AfAmer, 35) Luis Moscoso-Hernandez (MexNat, 28)

Condolences to all the loved one's of AZ state prison violence, neglect, and suicide...

-----------------from the AZ Republic-------------------

Prison inmates in Arizona crying foul over medical care

State to investigate medical allegations

Bob Ortega

Dec. 5, 2011 11:06 PM

The Arizona Republic

To stave off a lawsuit, Arizona's Department of Corrections has agreed to investigate scores of complaints by inmates that they are routinely denied medical care for weeks or months even for severe, life-threatening conditions. Inmates who have lost sight, had body parts amputated or been severely disfigured, among other gruesome examples, say proper medical care could have prevented needless suffering.

Based on those allegations, a legal coalition has accused the state of chronically and systemically denying medical and mental-health care to inmates, violating state and federal laws and the U.S. Constitution.

The Prison Law Office, a legal-advocacy group for prisoners nationwide, also charges that lack of care may contribute to a prison suicide rate in Arizona that is more than double the national average, with 14 reported suicides in the fiscal year that ended last June.

Interviews with current and former prisoners and dozens of inmate letters of complaint obtained by The Arizona Republic raise similar concerns.

Corrections officials say they have found no evidence of systemic problems, although they say that pending plans to privatize prison health care have made it harder to fill medical-staff vacancies and that rule changes two years ago that cut payment levels to outside contractors also crimped access to care.

But prisoner advocates say the problems are longer-standing.

Allegations made by inmates, prisoner advocates and attorneys include:

A diabetic prisoner, while waiting months for insulin, lost sight completely in one eye and partially in the other.

An epileptic who wasn't given his medications suffered repeated seizures for weeks.

A man with a growth on his penis was denied medical treatment for two years. Doctors ultimately diagnosed a cancerous tumor on his penis; the organ had to be amputated, and doctors told him the cancer had spread to his stomach.

An inmate with a cancerous growth on his lip waited seven months for treatment. Most of his lip and mouth were removed, leaving him permanently disfigured.

Prison medical staff members have repeatedly denied treatment to Tucson inmate Horace Sublett for Kaposi's sarcoma, a cancer, despite documentation, including from the VA hospital in Phoenix and other outside doctors confirming that the Navy veteran, 82, has the disease.

Prisoners with emphysema, end-state renal disease and other illnesses reported being denied treatment or medication, leading to complications and permanent side effects.

Corrections officials maintain that they provided appropriate care in these cases. Karyn Klausner, the department's general counsel, said inmates' loss of sight, amputation of the penis and disfiguring facial surgery were not related to any delays in treatment.

Donald Specter, executive director of the San Quentin, Calif.-based Prison Law Office, described his group's concerns in an Oct. 12 letter to state Corrections Director Charles Ryan.

"State prison officials are deliberately indifferent to the serious health-care needs of prisoners and to the prisoners' unnecessary and significant pain, suffering and even deaths," Specter wrote.

That letter, which lists dozens of specific allegations without naming the inmates affected and which has been obtained by The Republic, asked Ryan to agree to a court injunction to address problems as a way of avoiding a lawsuit in federal court.

In May, Specter and the Prison Law Office won landmark litigation against the California Department of Corrections. In a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court required California to release about 30,000 prisoners to alleviate unconstitutional prison overcrowding.

On Nov. 17, Arizona's Department of Corrections signed an agreement to investigate the medical claims, and the California group agreed to delay any lawsuit for three months.

But, so far, Ryan said, "We don't see any systemic indication of problems or evidence of deliberate indifference."

Ryan added that the department demanded the group provide inmates' names so it could verify or disprove the claims.

Specter said his group is asking inmates whether they are willing to be identified. Many prisoners fear retaliation for speaking out.

The department doesn't deny there are problems.

"Are there instances where an inmate didn't receive medications or treatment in a timely fashion? Yes," Klausner said. "But is it systemic? No."

The Prison Law Office noted that in 2009, the Arizona State Prison Complex-Eyman in Florence had only one half-time psychiatrist for more than 1,000 patients who were on mental-health medications. As of last month, that position was vacant.

Earlier this year, inmates at the Arizona State Prison Complex-Perryville often weren't seen by mental-health staff for six months or more, according to staff quoted in the group's letter.

"We're out of compliance with our own policies," Michael Breslow, then- deputy medical director for psychiatry, warned Ryan in a Sept. 13, 2009, e-mail obtained by the law group through an Information Act request. "The lack of treatment represents an escalating danger to the community, the staff and the inmates," Breslow said.

Staff shortages also affect medical care. Both the Arizona State Prison Complex-Tucson and the Eyman unit, which house more than 5,100 prisoners each, are supposed to have five doctors on staff. In April, Eyman had two doctors and a third working half-time; Tucson had two, according to department staffing reports.

Ryan and Klausner said Corrections has improved mental-health and medical care in recent months. Ryan said Corrections provided six hours of training in suicide prevention, crisis intervention and emergency response to 8,806 staff members who have direct contact with inmates.

That training follows, among other incidents, the July 2010 suicide of Tony Lester, a mentally ill inmate at the Tucson prison. An internal investigation found that officers stood by for 23 minutes without intervening after Lester slit his throat, wrists and groin with razor blades that he wasn't supposed to have.

Ryan also said Corrections has filled 172 health-care and mental-health positions since June 23 -- including vacancies for doctors at the Eyman and Tucson prisons.

However, the overall medical-staff vacancy rate has barely budged. In April, 23 percent of positions were unfilled. As of the end of November, 22 percent were unfilled, according to staffing reports.

Ryan said the department also has reduced the waiting time for inmates who require medical treatment outside the prisons -- from an average of 77 days early last year to an average of 49 days as of this month.

But inmates say months-long waits for care and denials of prescribed medicine and medical supplies continue to be routine.

"It's a real big problem, and they're keeping it hush-hush," former inmate Eric Wright said in an interview. Wright was released from the state prison in Tucson last month after serving more than four years on drug charges. Wright said a doctor prescribed back surgery in 2008 for an injury he suffered in prison.

"Nothing in my sentence called for the death penalty," said former inmate Martin Feldman, 67, who also had difficulties receiving timely prison medical care for osteomyelitis (a chronic bone infection) and obstructed coronary arteries. Feldman recently was released after serving nearly two years for a drug violation.

Corrections spokesman Barrett Marson declined to comment on Wright's and Feldman's cases, saying Corrections had to retrieve their medical records from archives.

Some of the shortfall in medical care stemmed from legislation lawmakers advocated as cutting costs.

In mid-2009, the Republican-led Arizona Legislature passed laws requiring Corrections to privatize prison medical care and to pay providers at a rate no higher than that paid by the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, the state's Medicare provider.

According to Corrections officials, within months of that law's passage, there were negative repercussions:

Health-care employees, figuring their jobs were on the chopping block, started leaving in droves. Corrections spent $5.3 million less on full-time health-care staff salaries this past fiscal year than two years earlier, a 13.5 percent drop. The department has used temporary, part-time workers to partially close that gap. And many contract providers such as Carondelet Health Network stopped doing business with Corrections, saying the reimbursement rates were too low. Ryan said the department eventually found other providers.

These issues are not new. In January 2009, well before lawmakers acted, more than one in four health-care positions was vacant, and the waiting time for outside medical care averaged 11 weeks, according to the department.

In the fiscal year ending last June, Corrections spent $111.3 million, or an average of $3,258 per inmate, on health care, down 27 percent from $140.5 million, or an average of $4,482 per inmate, two years earlier.

In recent years, inmates have reported scores of incidents to prisoner advocates such as the Arizona Justice Project, which helps inmates with wrongful convictions; Middle Ground Prison Reform, a prisoner-rights group; Lynn Nau, who runs a prison ministry for Faith Lutheran Church in Phoenix; Margaret Plews, a Phoenix activist who monitors treatment of prisoners; and Rep. Cecil Ash, a Republican lawmaker from Mesa who is involved in sentencing and correctional issues.

Ash said some of the letters he has received "really give me cause for worry ... that the state could have some serious lawsuits on its hands."

Many alleged incidents also suggest that often, denying basic care not only causes prolonged pain and suffering but makes it far more expensive once doctors treat the patients.

Carlos Archuleta, a Tucson inmate, said he begged repeatedly for help after being bitten in the groin by a spider last June. After four days, he was transported to a hospital for an emergency operation to remove infected fluid and tissue. Doctors had to resuscitate him after his heart stopped during the operation, and Archuleta was kept in the hospital six days.

"The doctor said if they'd left it one more day, he'd be dead. Just because they're inmates doesn't mean you should treat them this way," said his mother, Guadalupe Lopez. She added, "If he'd gotten proper medical care on day one, taxpayers wouldn't have had to pay for an emergency surgery and the hospital stay."

Corrections' spokesman Marson said "appropriate care was provided" to Archuleta.

The bottom line isn't just that prisoners, like anyone else, should have access to adequate medical care, said Caroline Isaacs, director of the American Friends Service Committee's Tucson office, which monitors state prisons. "Ninety percent of them will get out of prison, so treating HIV or hepatitis C or whatever they have prevents a public- health risk, or they'll get out and get on AHCCCS and we're paying for it anyway."

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

AZ Department of Corrections' Auditor General Sunset Review

Some of the women prisoners who have died from suicide and/or gross neglect
under the current administration, since January 2009.

Memorial at appx. 1017 N. 1st Street, Phoenix AZ
(November 18, 2011)

On Tuesday, November 22, in Senate Hearing Room 1 there will be a hearing on the Sunset Review conducted by the Arizona Auditor General on the Arizona Department of Corrections (ADC). This is the third in a three part series of reports on the ADC. The links to the reports are below:

Department of Corrections—Sunset Factors (September 2011, Report No. 11-08)

Department of Corrections—Oversight of Security Operations (September 2011, Report No. 11-07)

Department of Corrections—Prison Population Growth (September 2010, Report No. 10-08)

The most recent report covering sunset factors addresses whether or not the ADC is meeting the needs of the public or should be dissolved. Of course, the department is not about to be dissolved. The report contains some fascinating information about how different departments are staffed and what mandates the ADC is expected to follow on everything from assuring fair pricing schedules for prisoners purchasing from prison stores/concessions to the recommendation that the ADC assures that the privatization of services yields a cost-benefit to the state without compromising on public safety, as noted here on page 21:


"Going forward, potential privatization areas should be carefully evaluated to ensure the benefits of contracting outweigh the costs. Information from the other states auditors interviewed point to the importance of evaluating the costeffectiveness of privatizing a service or function versus performing the service or function in house. For example, a North Carolina official indicated that the state no longer contracts for prison maintenance or private prison beds largely because it cost more to contract for these services than for its corrections department to perform them. Security issues were also a factor in eliminating North Carolina’s contract for private prison beds. Similarly, the September 2010 Office of the Auditor General report on prison population growth recommended that the Legislature consider directing the Department to further study and analyze the costs for the State to build and operate prisons compared to contracting with private prisons to determine which option would be more cost-effective while still ensuring public safety (see Report No 10-08)."


Presently, the ADC is being sued (see statement from the ASPC-Tucson on this matter) to assure it completes an investigation and report demonstrating that the proposals to privatize 5,000 new prison beds would in fact save the state money before awarding those contracts - though they have delayed the decision to award private prison contracts until at least December 22, 2011.


Prior ADC studies comparing the cost of state-run vs privately run prisons show that private prisons actually cost more to operate - and that's not even considering the cost of the security lapses that allowed three prisoners to escape from ASP-Kingman in August 2010. The cost of that private prison failure included an extensive, nationwide manhunt and the lives of an elderly couple. Unbelievably, despite the escape, Arizona was expected to pay MTC, the prison operator, for it's empty beds in the aftermath.


Also of interest in the report is the re-assertion of the mission of the AZ Department of Corrections:

"The Department’s statutory purpose is to serve as the correctional program for the State and to provide staff and administration relating to the institutionalization, rehabilitation, and community supervision functions of all adult offenders. Consistent with its statutory purpose, the Department’s mission is “to serve and protect the people of Arizona by securely incarcerating convicted felons, by providing structured programming designed to support inmate accountability and successful community reintegration, and by providing effective supervision for those offenders conditionally released from prison.”"


The Department has five goals in carrying out this mission:


•" To maintain effective custody and control over inmates in an environment that is safe, secure, and humane.
• To require inmate participation in self-improvement programming opportunities and services, including work, education, substance abuse treatment, sex offender treatment, and spiritual access designed to prepare inmates to be responsible citizens upon release.
• To provide cost-effective constitutionally mandated correctional healthcare.
• To maintain effective community supervision of offenders, facilitate their successful transition from prison to the community, and return offenders when necessary to prison to protect the public.
• To provide leadership direction, resource management, and support for department employees to enable the Department to serve and protect the people of the State of Arizona and to provide comprehensive victim services and victim–focused restorative justice programs that hold offenders accountable."



I do not see that the Auditor General has evaluated how "safe" or "humane" the environment is in which prisoners are kept, or how well the department's medical care meets constitutional guidelines. In fact, the suicide rate under the current administration has doubled, and assaults and homicides have skyrocketed - suggesting that the most fortified and well-funded law enforcement agency in this state can't keep their own prisoners safe. The ACLU National Prison Project and the Prison Law Office have been investigating the ADC and are also poised to sue the state over serious deficiencies in the ADC's medical and mental health care, which fails to meet constitutional standards of care.

Furthermore, when Ryan took over, many of the prisoner's rehabilitative programs were eliminated - including one that trained prisoners to be suicide prevention aides. A number of those that were eliminated were prisoner-run and low-cost. Nothing suggests that the ADC's remaining programs and policies are currently modeled to be consistent with evidence-based practice in the field of corrections - which would yield far better outcomes in re: both staff and prisoner safety, the culture of the prisons, and actual rehabilitation and recidivism rates.

Rather, major decisions appear to be made based on the director's personal biases (which are hostile to prisoners, their families, and prisoner-run programs as evidenced by new fees for medical care and visitation approval, gouging of families for phone calls, resistance to early-release programs or sentencing reform, and elimination of effective and empowering rehabilitative programming). Director Ryan justifies his actions by perpetuating propaganda and public myths such as privatization saves money, that early release would compromise public safety because the vast majority of AZ prisoners are repeat and violent offenders (even though over 15,000 prisoners are so "safe" that they're rated as minimum security), that the ADC provides meaningful rehabilitation programs, and that lower crime rates depend on maintaining high incarceration rates (which they do not).

The AZ Auditor General's office appears to give the ADC a passing grade, nonetheless, and - not surprisingly - doesn't call for the department's dissolution. In light of the horrendous lack of medical and psychiatric care for prisoners, and in the wake of highly preventable suicides, grisly homicides, and escalating overall violence under his watch, however, there remains a huge call in the community for Director Chuck Ryan to be removed from his post or step down... and those particular calls are coming from people who have worked for him.


Anyone wishing to echo a demand for Ryan's resignation or to submit complaints about the way our billion dollars are being spent by the AZ Department of Corrections should contact Governor Brewer's office here or by snail mail here:

The Honorable Janice K. Brewer, Arizona Governor / Executive Tower / 1700 West Washington Street / Phoenix, AZ 85007

Please cc all copies of correspondence on the matter to myself , Peggy Plews (arizonaprisonwatch@gmail.com), or to AZ Republic reporter Bob Ortega by email at: bob.ortega@arizonarepublic.com. He can also be reached via snail mail at:

The Arizona Republic Newsroom/ 200 E. Van Buren St. / Mail Code NM19/ Phoenix, AZ 85004.

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

Citizens may order full printed copies of the 2011 Auditor General's Reports on the Department of Corrections from:

Report Orders
Arizona Auditor General
2910 N. 44th Street, Ste. 410
Phoenix, AZ 85018

Please include your complete return address as well as the report name and number you are requesting.

You may also fax this information to 602-553-0051.

All reports are also available from the Arizona Department of Library, Archives and Public Records.

If you need help, please call 602-553-0333 or e-mail the Webmaster.

ASPC-LEWIS Deaths in Custody: Anthony Braun, 29.

UPDATE FEBRUARY 22, 2012:  

Anthony Braun reportedly died of a drug overdose, having mixed something like spice with heroin. I don't know why so many young men are dying of heroin overdoses under this administration. Our condolences go out to Tony's loved ones, of which there were many. Go visit this young man's memorial tribute page: there is always more to a person than just their criminal record - that's the only part the state wants us to see.

Watching Tony die: The Halloran Investigation and feedback.

Resistance Alley, Phoenix

June 4, 2011

Most of my readers have no doubt by now seen the Channel 12 investigation of Tony Lester's suicide. For those who haven't, the links to the first installment and the follow-up are here:

Arizona inmate suicide: Did correction officers fail to administer aid?

Tony Lester's suicide triggers 12 News investigation to find out who's accountable:

PART 1: http://www.azcentral.com/video/1259212342001

PART 2: http://www.azcentral.com/12news/news/articles/2011/11/11/20111111arizona-prison-suicide-failure-to-aid-part-2.html


Viewers sound off on Lester suicide investigation:

http://www.azcentral.com/video/bcplayer/1263645105001&pop=1

Below is a post from the AZCentral/Channel 12 website by retired Az Department of Corrections Deputy Warden, Carl Toersbijns. Carl has been a staunch advocate for the rights of mentally ill prisoners, and has an insider's perspective on the treatment they receive (and the lack thereof, as in Tony's case)...

Anthony Lester Suicide, Preventable Death - Channel 12 investigation video

Carl Toersbijns

AZCentral.com Blogs

http://www.azcentral.com/vi...

Watching the Channel 12 video on this suicide, it reminded me of the many suicides we have endured in the several years while employed as a prison employee. I know that we can’t save every life nor do we feel compelled to go above and beyond reasonable measures that are both legal and morally acceptable. There are no answers for everything that happens under the heavens but for sure there is a reason for everything that does.

There are many questions still unanswered but there were no administrators disciplined for the death of inmate Anthony Lester, a mentally ill person, incarcerated and sentenced to die at his own hands. Diagnosed with a severe mental illness, his judgment and sentence report contained a recommendation by a judge to be admitted for psychiatric care while in prison. In addition, his medical and mental health files were covered with his treatment needs and were ignored by the Arizona Department of Corrections as he was admitted, classified and sent to a non-mental health unit in Tucson, Arizona.

Several months after his incarceration, Anthony Lester was put on a mental health watch for suicide risks and self-harm statements made to staff and mental health providers. His watch didn’t last long and he was released back to general population but instead of going to the yard, he was placed in isolation via a stay in a detention cell. His needs of the “voices” he was hearing was not addressed nor was he on any medication that was part of his treatment. Soon after, Lester, with the help of a cellmate, took a razor erroneously given to him by an officer and removed the blade. He then cut his body in many places and finally, he wrote the words “voices” in his own blood before he cut his jugular vein and died.

The investigation was personally handled by the director of the agency as he hurriedly appointed an investigator via telephone and gave specific instructions on his expectations and time frames to conduct this investigation. This would be revealed by the audio tapes of this case. I also know this because I have been involved in many of these deaths where the phone (sometimes the red phone) rings and it is one of the chiefs in Phoenix barking orders how to handle it. As a former deputy warden, I have been taught two things by mentors and not so mentor like people. Control the environment – first you control the internal environment (your own house and make sure the bed is made and the carpet is swept clean for company and looks) make sure the post action report is intact and not filled with red flags or inflammatory works that seek clarification or needless curiously – second control the external environment and make it quick neat and easy to understand when delivered to the press, the governor or those in the legislature curious enough to ask. This control means that the time frame of the incident must be controlled and seamless.

This is done by keeping the package tight and mum until all drafts received have been laundered and ready for inspection. This is the case in every major incident and prepared carefully to avoid any other sources under the Freedom Information Act discovery bases. Evidence is not tagged and often disregarded deemed not relevant. This also includes statements received that are in conflict with other data received. Everything is sanitized for public inspection.

The investigator was given a week to put the case together. Such cases usually take anywhere from two to three months and have a 53 day window for action but the director insisted on limiting this case to one week. Under pressure, the investigator did what he could under the circumstances. It was not a very thorough job but it revealed the staple of the case, unauthorized razor issued to the inmate that facilitated the death. It did not thoroughly glean enough facts of the culture, the practices and the decision making of the unit’s administration and custodial responsibilities. As a result, disciplinary action was limited to those present at the time of the suicide and for not performing first aid on the inmate as they took no action what so ever to preserve life and remained there in the cell until the paramedics arrived thus admitting they stood around for almost 23 minutes doing nothing.

Admittingly, the DOC admitted to it is a “preventable suicide” but did nothing to correct the problem and disciplined staffs by taking two weeks’ pay from their paycheck. They should have fired them and let the personnel board decide whether or not the act(s) were dischargable offenses. I believe it’s a Class 7. Regardless an appeal would have justified a better review than the first time around when they went head hunting and found those closest as the easiest to punish. The entire process was tainted with missed data, clues, evidence and interviews. Had an independent investigator done the job, it would have revealed a deeper cultural chasm than actually reported. That is why nobody in the top administration was admonished or punished. The DOC protects those who protect them. Politics as usual. Not just in the DOC but in many public service areas.

The director said they retrained all staff on the suicide prevention training course. I am sure they did on paper. Most staff wont engage in CPR -only the good ones do - others are told you better not start or you will be blamed for doing it wrong - otherwise they are left for medical to treat them with few exceptions as I have personally seen great correctional staff at the Eyman SMU’s do great things. In this case medical was never called nor did they arrive. They waited for the outside fire department paramedics to treat a bleeding person and did nothing else but stand around. It’s the culture that is toxic and harsh. - for those who families in prison, you should be concerned for their wellness - for those who don't you are paying for lawsuits and payouts that are not necessary but when negligence is so easily proven the cost is high.

They initiated training for 8,000 plus people on paper and will show they did the remedial training as expected by the outlines of the post o action report. But as the videos and interviews of this case reveals, these officers don’t even pay attention to the basic first aid classes and just sign in to get credit for the course. Ask any of them what they think of the training and they will laugh out loud and walk away to avoid answering you.

Wendy Halloran did a great job!! She knew the investigative process was tainted the moment the director got involved personally and directed courses of action that negated those the assigned investigator would have taken without being under duress of such administrative pressure. Meeting with the chief executive officer of the facility before any active case work is done, they develop a dialogue with them creating a compromising prejudice in the handling and direction of every investigation as the warden’s input is capricious and often tainted to reflect personal interests thus adhered to as law by these investigators. In some cases, investigators lie to others about the cases and the results of evidence. Thus this practice called “false dichotomy” that includes eliminating conflicting or contradictory information skews the reports and sends an altered message as a final result that has been deliberately botched to protect those politically sensitive in such cases. Basically, this results a finding of information versus meaning and is very confusing. The origins of such problems include unqualified or politically compromised investigators or their supervisors that cause false reports on their test results. This problem could be fixed by hiring qualified personnel, training them properly and providing adequate oversight and separating their authority and supervision from direct administration by executive personnel.

Is it fixed… not hardly under this administration but when the right person takes charge and makes human lives valuable again, it might be done right. Until then, status quo demands no changes.

Just keep paying the lawsuits, it's business as usual in the DOC.

Source:

http://www.azcentral.com/vi...