Thanks to our friends at Amnesty International for flying out last
summer - Chuck Ryan wouldn't let them in to see the prisoners, but he
couldn't keep them away from the rest of us...
and thanks again to Bob Ortega, who refuses to let up shining the light in the darkness of our state prisons.
------------------
Arizona Republic
Apr. 3, 2012 12:01 AM
Arizona's state prisons overuse solitary confinement in
cruel,
inhumane and illegal ways, particularly for mentally ill prisoners and
juveniles as young as 14, the human-rights group Amnesty International
charges in a report to be released today.
According to the report, which is to be delivered to the governor and
state lawmakers, Arizona prisons use solitary confinement as a
punishment more than most other states or the federal government.
Report | ACLU lawsuit | Suit: Inmates denied adequate care
The group found that some inmates are held in isolation for months
and sometimes years, and it called on the state to use the practice only
as a last resort and only for a short duration.
In addition, it asked that the practice not be used against children
or people who are mentally ill or have behavioral disabilities. The
group also called on state officials to improve conditions for prisoners
in solitary confinement and to act to reduce the high number of
suicides in Arizona's prisons.
Arizona Department of Corrections officials said they had not read the report Monday and were unable to comment.
According to the DOC, 3,130 inmates, or 8 percent of the state prison
population, were being held in the highest-security, maximum-custody
units as of Friday, and most were confined alone.
Although maximum-security inmates include those who are violent and
may represent a threat to other inmates or staff, Amnesty noted that
Arizona's own figures show that 35 percent of inmates in maximum
security were committed for non-violent crimes.
Amnesty International's report cited sources who said prisoners are
regularly assigned to maximum security for relatively minor rule
violations or disruptive behavior, often because they have mental-health
or behavioral problems.
The report noted cases of Arizona inmates who have been in solitary
confinement continuously for 15 years. Amnesty said that various
international human-rights treaties and experts, including the United
Nations' Special Rapporteur on Torture, have called on states to limit
the use of solitary confinement to exceptional circumstances, for short
periods and to prohibit solitary confinement of children 17 and younger.
Amnesty's report found that 14 children 14 to 17 years old had been
held in maximum custody at the Rincon unit in the Tucson state prison,
under conditions similar to those of adults: 22 to 24 hours a day in
their cells, limited exercise alone in a small cage and with no
recreational activities.
Because children and adolescents are not fully developed physically
and emotionally, they are less equipped to tolerate the effects of
isolation, according to studies cited in the report.
Some charges in the Amnesty report echo those raised in a federal
lawsuit filed by the Americal Civil Liberties Union and the Prison Law
Office last month, alleging that Arizona's Department of Corrections
doesn't provide adequate mental-health and medical care.
The state has not responded to that suit, and the Corrections
spokesman said the department wouldn't respond to any parts of the
Amnesty report that related to that litigation.
Last July, Corrections officials declined to meet with Amnesty
representatives from London who were visiting Arizona, nor allow them to
visit the Eyman state prison, which houses about 1,950 maximum-security
inmates.
A spokesman said Corrections Director Charles Ryan had other
commitments. In a letter to Amnesty, Ryan cited security concerns in
declining their visit request. On that same tour, Texas and California
correctional officials met with Amnesty's representatives, and
California permitted them to visit maximum-custody units.
About 1 percent of federal inmates are held in conditions similar to
Arizona's, according to data from the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
The U.S. holds more prisoners in solitary confinement than any other country in the world, Amnesty said.
With more than 8 percent of Arizona's inmate population in maximum
security and a large portion of those inmates in solitary, the state's
rate puts it at the high end among U.S. states, most of which hold from 1
to 3 percent of their inmates in some form of solitary confinement.
Most Arizona maximum-security inmates are isolated in "special
management units," windowless cells that, contrary to the U.N. Standard
Minimum Rules for Treatment of Prisoners, have no direct access to
sunlight or fresh air, and have lighting that is dimmed at night but
left on 24 hours a day, the Amnesty report said.
Inmates in SMU units are not allowed to work. They typically receive
two daily meals in their cells, have no contact with other inmates and
are allowed out of their cell no more than three times a week for two
hours for exercise and showers, in many cases in a windowless room with
nothing except tall walls and a mesh over the roof.
Amnesty cited allegations that the cells are no longer steam-cleaned
between inmates, so that food, urine and feces are stuck on the walls
and food slots.
Both Amnesty International and inmates contacted by
The Arizona Republic
expressed concern that the conditions in solitary may contribute to
Arizona's high prison suicide rate, which was double the national
average last fiscal year. Seven of the 10 most recent suicides in state
prisons were by inmates being held in solitary in maximum-security
cells, according to Corrections death reports.
While many states, including California, New York, Massachusetts,
Vermont, Ohio, Mississippi and Wisconsin, bar placing seriously mentally
ill inmates in solitary because the social isolation and sensory
deprivation can lead to further psychological deterioration, Arizona
does not.
Amnesty cited reports that serious mental illnesses often go
undiagnosed in Arizona prisons because of a lack of mental-health staff
and inadequate screening and monitoring.
Amnesty reported that mental-health staff don't have weekly rounds,
visiting maximum-security inmates only when there's a crisis, and
consulting with them at their cell door.
It noted the ACLU lawsuit, which alleges that prisoners in solitary
wait an average of six to eight months to see a psychologist, with some
waiting more than a year. One prisoner diagnosed with serious mental
illness spent two years in solitary without seeing a psychiatrist
despite repeated requests and referrals by staff, according to the suit.
Amnesty noted 43 suicides listed by Corrections from October 2005 to
April 2011 and said that of the 37 cases in which it was able to collect
information, 22 -- or 60 percent -- took place in maximum-custody
solitary units. There have been at least eight more suicides since April
2011 and 16 other deaths that the department described only as "under
investigation."
In letters to
The Republic, inmates have raised concerns
similar to those in the Amnesty report. "While on suicide watch here at
SMU-1, the lights stay on all night and make it impossible to sleep --
all day, all night," wrote Dustin Brislan, an inmate with a serious
mental illness in solitary confinement at Eyman.
"Lack of contact, of seeing the outside, seeing any bit of sunlight,
smelling fresh air, all of that has increased my mental illness. I'm
only allowed recreation every other day, where I'm put in a windowless
cell off area."
The Eyman prison is the only one in Arizona not accredited by the
National Commission on Correctional Health Care, which requires that
prisoners being held in solitary confinement have at least weekly
contact with mental-health staff.
By contrast, North Dakota's prison system hasn't had a suicide in 12
years, and none in maximum security since the early 1990s, according to
that state's director of corrections and rehabilitation, Leann Bertsch.
"People with mental illness do very poorly in isolation," she said,
"so we work with them intensively because we don't want them staying in
isolation for long."
That means constant supervision, daily visits with behavioral
counselors, and other interventions by trained staff as part of a
comprehensive suicide-prevention policy.
The Amnesty report also questioned why Arizona's Corrections
Department requires all prisoners sentenced to life to spend at least
their first two years in solitary confinement, regardless of whether
they pose a threat to other inmates or guards.
"There appears to be no valid reason," the report said. American Bar
Association standards call for prisoners to be kept in solitary more
than a year only if the prisoner poses a "continuing, serious threat."
Many states have reduced solitary confinement in recent years, often
under court order, only to find that their costs drop and prisoners
behave better when they aren't in solitary.
Mississippi cut the use of solitary by 80 percent in 2007, and Maine by 60 percent last year.
Amnesty International said Arizona should:
Reduce the number of prisoners in isolation to only those who are a serious and continuing threat.
Improve overall conditions, provide more out-of-cell time, better
exercise facilities, meaningful education and rehabilitation programs.
Introduce measures to allow some group interactions and association to
benefit inmates' mental health and provide incentives for better
behavior.
Remove all serious mentally ill prisoners from solitary and prohibit them from being placed in solitary.
Improve mental-health monitoring; take steps to reduce suicide,
including more humane conditions in suicide watch cells; and prohibit
solitary confinement of prisoners under 18.
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