Prisoner abuse: Why haven't we evolved?

Phoenix New Times' candidate for best MCSO Mug Shot.

April 22, 2011

This doesn't help, folks...

Often when atrocious conduct by Department of Corrections employees is reported, there's a tendency to focus on the cruelty or indifference of individual guards. When under fire, in fact, the ADC will exploit that perception to create distance from their institutional responsibility for their employee's common practices and patterns of misconduct - the seven referred for prosecution over Marcia Powell's death, for example, were arguably scapegoated...

Which isn't to say that those individuals don't also have something to be accountable for; those people violated us all. The problem is that they were the norm for the day - sixteen people were disciplined over ignoring a woman in a cage for four hours in the 108 degree sun who was supposed to be on a suicide watch. The previous day they had left another woman in the cage for around 20 hours. That's indicative of a much bigger problem than a few inattentive officers.

And so, it is in this context in which the women of San Carlos, out at Perryville Prison, are being coerced into working at Martori farms under hazardous conditions, with poor access to emergency medical attention in case of an illness or accident - really, they're 1 1/2 hours away from the hospital the prison transports to, by ground ambulance, anyway, and they're too cheap to call for air evac from the fields, even in the case of a heart attack. There doesn't appear to be a portable defibrillator out there; I don't know if anyone is even CPR/First Aid trained on the prison or Martori staff.

Even if they're certified, there's no assurance they'd know what to do: one guard from Tuscon claimed that in 13 years he never learned how to stop bleeding in first aid class; along with four others, he just watched Tony Lester's life slip away...

Anyway, the harsh, punitive, and cynical institutional culture is responsible for shaping the conduct of employees, especially that which becomes routine, subverting official policies with unethical practices that are tacitly accepted - even encouraged - by upper level administration..at least, those are among the things that one of the employees' unions alleged last fall, in their call to Governor Brewer to sack ADC Director Chuck Ryan. The Perryville employees who got their jobs back successfully argued to the State Personnel Board that the prison system, not them, was at fault for Marcia's death.

The Arizona Department of Corrections and the state's prosecuting attorneys are engaged in a deliberate, explicit campaign to characterize our prisoners as predominately violent (by clumping them with all "repeat offenders," including chronic mentally ill people self-medicating with street drugs) in the infamous Fischer Report. They're responding to the larger community's thirst for blood sacrifice, though, for in truth, the moral fiber of the Arizona public has a sadistic thread running through it.

Until we confront our own voyeuristic fascination with the humiliation and suffering of those we deem un-deserving of the most basic human rights (as best demonstrated by the popularity of Sheriff Joe's latest foray into the entertainment industry), we will never dismantle this beast. We'll instead remain a society which is deeply invested in the continuation of victimization, and thus the perpetuation of crime and imprisonment. Until we stop mocking, dehumanizing, and ignoring those whose lives are being chewed up by the criminal justice system - as both victims and the accused - the young will keep dying hard in our prisons, killing the rest of us softly when their songs go unheard...

Phoenix New Times dissed by Sheriff Joe.

In my book, that means they're doing something right, and everyone else is colluding.

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‘Section 1070′ tent city expansion to unveil July 21

Capitol Times
July 20th, 2010

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio announced July 20 that he will be opening a new section of his tent city jail, just for those convicted under Arizona’s new immigration law. The new section of the outdoor jail will be called “section 1070,” according to a Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman.

The new section will be arranged inside the existing tent city area in south Phoenix, since expanding the boundaries of tent city would require approval from the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, with which the sheriff has had high-profile public fights involving budget issues.

But the board of supervisors told the Arizona Capitol Times before Arpaio’s announcement that any changes to tent city would need to meet safety and liability requirements, and that despite his assertion that he gets the final say on what happens at his jail, the board needs to provide the proper checks on his practices.

Arpaio will hold a press conference to formally announce and display his tent city addition at 3 p.m. July 21. The announcement coincides with the 17-year anniversary of the opening of tent city. The sheriff’s office will be giving “hot chocolate cake” to all the inmates to celebrate the anniversary. A spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office said all media except the Phoenix New Times is welcome.

No Human Involved? Look Again.

Today is the International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers - what's so hard about that to get on board with? I was hoping our progressive media, at least, would be more on top of it. No sign yet that they are, so we protested. We hope they decide to look further into the story soon. They did a good job telling part of the story about what happened to Marcia - we really hope they decide to help tell the rest.

Tomorrow (December 18, 12 Noon) the women of the Sex Workers Outreach Project are rallying at the AZ Department of Corrections. A lot of people here did a lot of hand-wringing about Marcia Powell when she died, and again when that horrible report detailing her torment came out - but that was it. At least these women are trying to hold the state accountable for how women and prisoners can be so routinely and thoroughly dehumanized - treated by some guards as sources of entertainment when they suffer. Those folks in the community who really care about what's happening to both the men and women in prison should come to the rally and connect with us. There are many different ways to be activists - not everyone has to behave like an anarchist.

As for the New Times, we hope they at least read the stuff we sent them, and call if they have questions. It would be swell if they could slip in an honorable mention of the significance of this day, and give info for the planned protest for tomorrow. We're asking allies to bring red umbrellas and/or red carnations, and/or wear red, to show solidarity.

Hope to see New Times at the ADC actually covering the event - it seems to be what you do best, and we didn't think anyone but you would care, much less get it. If you get it, then you owe it to the rest of us to fill us in. A lot of lives are on the line.

Look Out for the Nuts With Guns

From the Phoenix New Times' Feathered Bastard, Stephen Lemons
August 10, 2009

Joe Arpaio-Supporting, Gun-Toting Nativists Menace Children's March for Family Unity

Save for the implied threat of the nativists, today's children's march from Sheriff Joe's Fourth Avenue Jail in Downtown Phoenix to the Wells Fargo Building, where the MCSO keeps two floors of pricey executive offices, was an inspiring spectacle. About 150 persons, more than half of whom were kids, participated in the protest against Sheriff Joe's immigration sweeps and raids, which often separate families and tear children away from their mothers.

​Many of the children wore or carried hand-made butterfly wings, offering a parallel to Monarch butterflies, which migrate regularly from Mexico to the United States. They carried painted signs that read, "Stop Taking Our Parents," "No More Joe," and "Find a New Way, Joe, to Get on the News." And they chanted slogans such as, "No more raids," "Obama, listen, we want our parents back," and, "We don't like your attitude, Arpaio mean and rude."

​The temperature hovered around 100 degrees Fahrenheit, slightly cooler than the anticipated high of 106. The kids seemed to take it in stride, beginning the seven-block march near Fourth and Madison Avenues, and continuing on to and around the Wells Fargo tower, ending at its entrance near Central Avenue and Washington Street.

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As they circled that corner, the children walked past about a half-dozen nativists, most of them members of United for a Sovereign America, the racist hate group known for regularly harassing Sal Reza's Macehualli Day Labor Center, near Bell Road and 25th Street in North Phoenix.

​Nativist videographer Lynne Stevens (aka, "Jackie 40D") and the white-haired nativist known as Kevin were each wearing guns on their hips. When I asked them repeatedly why they were wearing firearms to a demonstration involving children, Kevin refused to answer. Stevens said something about how she wouldn't save me with her gun if I was being attacked. (Huh?) A middle-aged woman I was unfamiliar with, and who declined to give me her name, defended the wearing of pistols by the nativists. Looking suspiciously at the assembled children and adults, she muttered, "There could be killers in that crowd."

Mmm, O-kay...

Of course, convicted public urinator and die-hard xenophobe Buffalo Rick Galeener was there. I questioned him about the racist image of President Obama posted to the United for a Sovereign America Web site yesterday, which appears to be his handiwork. I asked him if he indeed made the bigoted lampoon calling Obama "President Sambo," but he refused to answer.

​The children and the adults with them held a rally outside the Washington Street entrance to the Wells Fargo building. One little girl, Maria, 8, spoke through the bullhorn, telling the crowd, "I want everyone to hear this. [Our parents] are not robbing. They're just feeding us."

(The girl happens to be the child of a woman who was injured during an MCSO raid this year at the Phoenix landscaping firm HMI. The mom was jailed for weeks, and her four children were without her during that time.)

A young boy also took the bullhorn, and admonished Joe.

"You only care about the immigrants," he said. "You don't care about the murderers or the rapists."

Phoenix police officers kept the peace and escorted the march to Wells Fargo. However, I also spotted some plainclothes MCSO shaking hands with the nativists nearby. U.S.A member and MCSO-contact Barb Heller was also present, as well as the nativist known as Angry Jim, carrying a sign warning about the perils of swine flu.

​Though the event was scheduled to last from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., it was all over by noon, with the kids and everyone else adjourning for a pizza party at the Tonatierra Community Development Institute on 7th Street.

"They were very good," Reza said of his pint-sized army. "I think Arpaio got the message. I hope the media covers it the right way. We didn't bring make-believe. We brought reality."

Though talk-radio twits, like on-air drool kings Mac and Gaydos on KTAR 92.3 FM, have had a field day lambasting the walk, claiming the children didn't know what they were marching for, such on-air goofballs should try telling that to some Hispanic kid whose 'rents have been ripped from them by Arpaio's mean-spirited, anti-immigrant raids. What's the greater crime, these kids' parents being the country sans papers, or depriving a child of his or her mom and dad? I think you know the answer.

(the photos above are also from the Phoenix New Times; note the holstered gun on the woman in the upper right photo)

Latest from the Phoenix New Times

Thank you, Stephen Lemons, for staying on top of the latest news about Marcia Powell - and for trying to get to the bottom of it. I've learned to check out the Phoenix New Times first for my news on the issues involved in Marcia's death.

In this column Lemons explains the significance of the county serving as fiduciary and guardian for Marcia. An interview with a cell mate also reveals the vibrant side of Marcia we didn't know.

Perhaps no one better exposes the many manifestations of the prison industrial complex than homeless mentally ill drug-addicted prostitutes, particularly those with developmental disabilities and HIV who are also pregnant. From inadequate access to prenatal care, income supports, intensive community-based treatment and case management, and affordable housing to frequent institutionalization in jails, psychiatric hospitals, and homeless shelters, they do the route, stopping in at emergency rooms and free clinics from time to time. They are adjudicated as abusive parents before they even give birth. Explicit agreements are reached between outpatient service providers and criminal justice officials - social workers, probation agents and judges - that such women might be better off in jail for awhile if no appropriate treatment settings existed that would help them "stay safe". I know, because I have been party to such discussions, not always coming down on the side of individual liberties.

I suspect that a map of Marcia Powell's life could likewise tell a lot about where our foster care, mental health, and criminal justice realities fall short of their promises. We pour just enough money into community mental health here to provide contract agencies like Magellan (and Value Options before them) with considerable profits, but never enough to filter down to keeping people like Marcia from ending up in prison for minor offenses.

Or perhaps its simply that our contracts with major mental health service providers don't prioritize reducing legal system involvement quite so much as they prioritize reducing psychiatric hospital days - a near-universal practice which simply pushes more people with serious mental illness out of treatment settings and into criminal courts where they don't eat up all the corporate profits - the cost of warehousing them comes out of someone else's budget instead. As a society we'll allocate billions to militarize our police and refine ways of legally torturing and punishing people, but we don't see public health care and programs addressing economic inequality as both economically sustainable and politically desirable.

I don't know how much longer we can afford to ignore the truth - that fighting poverty and hunger will do far more to bring down crime than will fighting the poor and the hungry. In the end it is not our public programs that are unsustainable, it is our banking system and the "free market" - and war on several fronts - that has been consuming public resources.

If we took those funds and invested them with a goal of building communities without cages, we'd see very different things prioritized. Education. Universal health care. Affordable, supported housing. Treatment programs for people who are dually diagnosed. Minimum income guarantees for the disabled, the unemployed, and the unemployable. Strong unions for workers so they can bring home a living wage. Adequate food for growing children and impoverished seniors. An emphasis on doing outreach to assure that people in the community are getting their needs met, rather than opening up an office and waiting for people to come in.

Deconstructing the prison industrial complex and interpreting its implications for the voting public isn't easy. Being "tough on crime" is a simple jingle which still sells (crime is still code for people of color - increasingly so for latino immigrants). Yet the evidence is overwhelming that the prison industrial complex sucks the life out of communities that feed it bodies as well as those that feed it guards and public resources. Just how this happens and what it has to do with globalization is explained most thoroughly by Dr. Ruth Wilson Gilmore in "Golden Gulag", and most concisely in editor Lois Ahrens' "The Real Cost of Prisons Comix".

Prison abolition, then, is central, not peripheral to the larger dialogue on global justice because it involves not just tearing down prison walls, but also building up the kinds of communities that can respond more directly and immediately to the needs of its citizens than can the state, seeking to prevent trauma where possible, rather than simply bracing for it as if this institutionalized cycle of violence will never be broken.

Pulling the Plug

Another one from the Phoenix New Times: Medical Examiner Holds Remains as Fiduciary Seeks Next of Kin.